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Robert Wise
Life Time
10 September 1914 - 14 September 2005
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Robert Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, USA. He was the youngest of three brothers. He was prevented from graduating from college by the Great Depression, and so he got a job at the RKO studio as a film cutter, then worked as an editor and sound technician. As an editor, Robert Wise contributed to such films as The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). He became the director thanks to producer Val Luton, who instructed
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Robert Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, USA. He was the youngest of three brothers. He was prevented from graduating from college by the Great Depression, and so he got a job at the RKO studio as a film cutter, then worked as an editor and sound technician. As an editor, Robert Wise contributed to such films as The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). He became the director thanks to producer Val Luton, who instructed him to finish the production of the film “The Curse of the Cat Tribe” (1944) – the former director, Gunther von Fritsch, did not meet the deadlines. Robert Wise made the film Body Snatcher (1945). His film about professional boxing “Preserved” (1949) received the FIPRESCI award at the Cannes Film Festival. In his work, the director turned to various genres: he shot sci-fi films - "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), "The Andromeda Stamp" (1970), "Star Trek" (1979); sports, social and psychological dramas - "Someone Up There Loves Me" (1956), "Blood on the Moon" (1948), "The Captive City" (1952), "I Want to Live!" (1958); horror films - "The Enchanted House" (1963). In 1961, Robert Wise was on the crest of fame after the unexpected success of the musical "West Side Story" staged by him (together with choreographer J. Robbins) - the picture made huge box office fees and was awarded an Oscar as the best film of the year. The second Oscar was awarded for the musical melodrama The Sound of Music (1965). It is noteworthy that this film was to shoot William Wyler, who refused at the last minute, and Wise agreed to take up the production only if the studio funded his other film - "The Sand Pebbles". Films created by the director in the 1970s-1980s enjoyed much less success, except for the famous adaptation of the novel by Michael Crichton “The Stamp of Andromeda”. In 1988, the American Film Academy recognized Robert Wise’s outstanding contribution to film with the Irving J. Thalberg Award of Honor.