Great Directors: Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder started as a screen writer for Ernst Lubisch and others, then began directing with The Front Page, later re-filmed as His Girl Friday. He made his stylistic breakthrough in his third film with the crime classic, Double Indemnity in 1944, which "invented" film noir and garnered 7 Oscar nominations. Wilder then began to direct a plethora of film classics, including:

Dramas:

• The Apartment (bw, Best Picture winner, 5/10 Oscars)
  
• Ace in the Hole (bw, 1 nom)
  
• Lost Weekend (bw, Best Picture, 4/7 Oscars)
  
• The Spirit of St. Louis (bw, 1 nom)
  
• Stalag 17 (bw, 1/3 Oscars, Willam Holden, best actor)
  
• Sunset Boulevard (bw, Pic nominee, 3 Oscars, 11 noms)
  
• Witness for the Prosecution (bw, BPic nominee, 6 noms)
  
  Comedies:
  
• The Fortune Cookie (bw, 1/4 Oscars)
  
• The Front Page (bw, 3 Oscar noms)
  
• Irma la Douce
  
• One Two Three (bw)
  
• Sabrina
  
• The Seven Year Itch
  
• Some Like It Hot (bw, 6 Oscar noms)
  

Wilder was nominated for 21 Oscars, 12 in writing, 8 in directing, and won six. He won for directing Lost Weekend and The Apartment (and got another for Apt for Best Picture), and won for writing Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, and The Apartment. He personally picked up three for The Apartment.

It could easily be argued that Billy Wilder is the greatest American film director.