Talk:William Wyler

Acting Oscars

Has Wyler directed the most acting Oscar wins? I mean, just off the top of my head

1. Walter Brennan for Come and Get It
2. Bette Davis for Jezebel
3. Fay Bainter for Jezebel
4. Walter Brennan for The Westerner
5. Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver
6. Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver
7. Fredric March for The Best Years of Our Lives
8. Harold Russell for The Best Years of Our Lives
9. Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress
10. Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday
11. Burl Ives for The Big Country
12. Charlton Heston for Ben-Hur
13. Hugh Griffith for Ben-Hur
14. Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl

That's no small feat. And I'm sure I missed some.

Nominations

Even more amazing is the nominations:

1. Walter Huston for Dodsworth
2. Maria Ouspenskaya for Dodsworth
3. Laurence Olivier for Wuthering Heights
4. Geraldine Fitzgerald for Wuthering Heights
5. Bette Davis for The Letter
6. James Stephenson for The Letter
7. Walter Pidgeon for Mrs. Miniver
8. Henry Travers for Mrs. Miniver
9. Dame May Whitty for Mrs. Miniver
10. Ralph Richardson for The Heiress
11. Eleanor Parker for Detective Story
12. Lee Grant for Detective Story
13. Eddie Albert for Roman Holiday
14. Anthony Perkins for Friendly Persuasion
15. Samantha Eggar for The Collector
16. Kay Medford for Funny Girl

Greer Garson for "Mrs. Miniver"

Now THAT'S notable. Why is there any question as to who is the greatest director ever? ...._(Complain)^{(Let us to it pell-mell)} 00:52, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Font Size

is the smaller font size for the movie list really necessary? very hard to read. how 'bout two columns w/ normal sized font instead? J. Van Meter 15:55, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 08:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

WP:WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers priority assessment

Per debate and discussion re: assessment of the approximate 100 top priority articles of the project, this article has been included as a top priority article. Wildhartlivie (talk) 00:45, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:William Wyler/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Needs expansion, refs. ....(Complain)(Let us to it pell-mell) 06:14, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Last edited at 06:14, 7 August 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 10:44, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Birth name

I'm copying this from the Editor Assistance requests:

My name is David William Wyler, I am the son of William Wyler. My three sisters and I have been trying for several years to change the wrong information on our father's page (he was a well known film director) about his birth name. William Wyler's birth name was Willy Wyler.

The automatic bots of Wikipedia say that his birth name was Wilhelm Weiller - THAT IS WRONG!! Whenever I change his page and this information, Wikipedia bots automatically change it back.

Please help. David Wyler

As of now, the assertion that his birth name was Wilhelm Weiller is completely unsupported by any reference to a reliable source. As it is disputed, it seems reasonable to require such a source before either "Willy" or "Wilhelm" or "Weiller" is included in the article. - Nunh-huh 19:24, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

@Nunh-huh: Hmm, there are several sources that may or may not be independent, but a relevant source that I assume has some level of independence, is the Dictionary of Pseudonyms (2010) which also mentions Wilhelm Weiller as birth name. I guess it is not uncommon to have a name like 'Wilhelm' as your official name, even though everyone calls you 'Willy', especially as a child. This is probably why the authorized biography uses Willy. Seems at least enough confusion around the name to mention it as disputed alternative name? effeietsanders 01:40, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

I don't think "Dictionary of Pseudonyms" is quite a "reliable source", as it gives no citation or source for its assertion (for this name, while it does give sources for others). "Willy" could be used for Wilhelm, William, Willie, or Willy. I think we need to find a reliable source that actually discusses what his birth name is and how they concluded that that was true. If one is found, I think it probably deserves a footnote. -Nunh-huh 07:38, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

Thinking about it, I think I'll get ahold of a Wyler biography. If there's a birth name in there, it's worth including; otherwise it's trivial and not worth including if there's a chance we are getting it wrong. (It occurs to me that since he was born in Alsace, the alternate names might be a result of translating names from French to German and vice versa rather than a reflection of what he was actually named.) - Nunh-huh 20:58, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

I've had a look at Jan Herman's biography of William Wyler, A Talent for Trouble. There's no support there for the idea that Wyler ever bore the name "Wilhelm Weiller". It refers to his parents and paternal uncles as Wylers, and his grandparents as Wylers. And it tells an anecdote about his parents anticipating a girl, and when the new arrival turned out to be a boy, changing their name choice from "Camilla" to "Willy". - Nunh-huh 08:02, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

And now I've had a look at Axel Madsen's biography, William Wyler. Throughout he is always Willy Wyler. There is no suggestion of a Wilhelm or a Weiller, nor of his parents having been Weillers rather than Wylers. - Nunh-huh 21:31, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

Jan Herman's biography clearly states that his birth name was Willi (with two "i"s) Wyler, based on the birth Certificate No. 1298/1902 from the Mulhouse Archive (interestingly, the birth name had to be changed from "Camill Wyler" to "Willi Wyler": "Melanie and Leopold Wyler were so eager to have a girl, after the birth of a son not quite two years before, that the name "Camill" had already been written on their second son's birth certificate in bold calligraphic letters. Leopold went the following Thursday to the birth registry at City Hall and had the name crossed out. He inserted a clause to read: "Instead of 'Camill,' the name should be Willi."). (source : Herman, Jan. A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. Chapter 1 and bibliography section).