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    Billy Wilder

    Jew Score:
    14

    I5

    O4

    K5
    June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002

    We often have trouble categorizing our profiles. The one category that gives us most trouble? No, not Sociopaths. It's Writers.

    How does one define a writer? For example, Bill Clinton wrote a best-selling autobiography. Does that make him a writer? And what about Paris Hilton, whose not only "wrote" a book, but whose maxim "dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in" was added to the The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations? Does that make her a writer? (Quick answer: No. But we really should consider her for the Sociopaths category.)

    And what about screenwriters? Wouldn't that make the Directors category completely unnecessary? For what quality director has not written a script at some point of their career?

    But in the case of Oscar-winning director Billy Wilder, we have no such trouble. Born in Austria-Hungary as Samuel Wilder (Billy was his mother's nickname for him), he eventually made his way to America, where he directed such classics as "Double Indemnity", "The Lost Weekend", "Sunset Boulevard", and "Some Like It Hot". So he's obviously listed under Directors, but also under Writers, for three of his seven Oscars came for screenwriting. In fact, with "The Apartment", he pulled a rare treble, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing for the same film.

    And who can argue with his epitaph? "I am a writer, but then nobody is perfect".

    We wish we had written that.

    Verdict: Jew.

    September 8, 2010

    See Also

    Tony Curtis

    Stanley Donen

    Marilyn Monroe

    William Wyler

    Fred Zinnemann
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