William Wyler got into Hollywood through his mother's cousin, then outdid everyone
In 1921 a young Alsatian shirt salesman named Willi Wyler was hired by his mother's distant cousin Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures. He crossed to New York in first class, then discovered the fare would be docked from his 25-dollar weekly messenger's wage. Decades later no one had more Best Director nominations: he collected twelve.
Born in 1902 in Mulhouse, then in the German Empire and now in France, Wyler was meant to take over the family haberdashery. He had been expelled from more than one school, and a grim year selling shirts and ties in Paris convinced his mother he had no future in the trade. America, he later said, felt as distant as the moon.
His start was hardly glamorous. At Universal's Los Angeles lot he swept stages and shifted sets, then became an assistant editor who kept slipping out to shoot pool across the street. After being fired at least once, he threw himself into directing, and by 1925 he was the youngest director on the lot, cranking out westerns and sometimes riding with the posse himself. In 1929 he made Hell's Heroes in the Mojave Desert, Universal's first sound film shot entirely on location.
He became famous for demanding take after take, a perfectionism that tested performers but won them awards. Bette Davis, who took her second Oscar for his Jezebel, said he made her a far better actress, and Laurence Olivier, who clashed with him on Wuthering Heights, credited him with teaching him screen acting. With cinematographer Gregg Toland he developed long takes in deep focus, keeping a whole room sharp so drama could unfold within one shot. In The Best Years of Our Lives, about three servicemen returning from the Second World War, the camera holds on a crowded wedding until only two lovers remain.
Three of his films, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur, won both Best Picture and Best Director. He also brought John Huston, then broke, into screenwriting and nudged him toward directing, earning Huston's lasting friendship. He did turn down Olivier's Henry V, explaining that he was no Shakespearean.
Source: William Wyler
