Andrea - Here's Robert Wise's history thanks to Google. Karen
Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 - September 14, 2005) was an American
sound effects editor, film editor, film producer and director. He won
Academy Awards as Best Director for The Sound of Music (1965) and West Side
Story (1961) as well as nominations as Best Film Editing for Citizen Kane
(1941) and Best Picture for The Sand Pebbles (1966).
Among his other films are Born to Kill; The Hindenburg; Star Trek: The
Motion Picture; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Run Silent, Run Deep; The
Andromeda Strain; The Set-Up; The Haunting; and The Body Snatcher. Wise's
working period spanned the 1930s to the 1990s.
Often contrasted with contemporary "auteur" directors such as Stanley
Kubrick who tended to bring a distinctive directorial "look" to a particular
genre, Wise is famously viewed to have allowed his (sometimes studio
assigned) story dictate style. Later critics such as Martin Scorsese would
go on to expand that characterization, insisting that despite Wise's
notorious workaday concentration on stylistic perfection within the confines
of genre and budget, his choice of subject matter and approach still
functioned to identify Wise as an artist and not merely an artisan. Through
whatever means, Wise's approach would bring him critical success as a
director in many different traditional film genres: from horror to noir to
Western to war films to science fiction, to musical and drama, with many
repeat hits within each genre. Wise's tendency towards professionalism led
to a degree of preparedness which, though nominally motivated by studio
budget constraints, nevertheless advanced the moviemaking art, with many
Academy Award-winning films the result. Robert Wise received the AFI Life
Achievement Award in 1998.
Contents
[hide]
a.. 1 Early years
b.. 2 Wise becomes a director
c.. 3 Later years
d.. 4 Academy Awards
e.. 5 Filmography
a.. 5.1 Director
b.. 5.2 Editing
f.. 6 References
g.. 7 External links
[edit] Early years
Wise was born in Winchester, Indiana, the son of Olive R. (née Longenecker)
and Earl W. Wise, a meat packer.[1] Wise attended Connersville High School
in Connersville, Indiana, and its auditorium, the Robert E. Wise Center for
Performing Arts, is named in his honor. Wise began his movie career at RKO
as a sound and music editor, but he soon grew to being nominated for the
Academy Award for Film Editing for Citizen Kane in 1941: Wise was that
film's last living crew member.
Though Wise worked only as editor on Citizen Kane, it is likely that while
working on the film he would become familiar with the optical printer
techniques employed by Linwood Dunn, inventor of the practical optical
printer, to produce effects for Citizen Kane such as the image projected in
the broken snowglobe which falls from Kane's hand as he dies. Though Wise
was never known as a special-effects-driven director, echoes of this 1940s
high-tech special effects technology were to emerge in several of his
important later films, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side
Story, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Wise could also make a movie
special in the use of technique borrowed from one genre but applied to
another genre: in his hands, a science fiction movie might acquire mood from
a "haunted house" film, and vice versa. Wise sought never to waste the time
(or salary) of the talented people who produced his features: the result was
an impressively prolific series of films which showcase the talents of
director, cast, and crew.
In March 1987, Wise accepted the Academy Award for Best Actor, on behalf of
his absent friend, Paul Newman, who won for his performance in The Color of
Money.
[edit] Wise becomes a director
First called as assistant director to shoot additional scenes for Welles's
The Magnificent Ambersons, Wise took his first directing job with the
stylish horror film The Curse of the Cat People in 1944, teaming with
Hollywood horror producer/director Val Lewton. Lewton promoted Wise to his
superiors at RKO, beginning a collaboration which would produce several
notable horror films, among them The Body Snatcher starring Bela Lugosi and
Boris Karloff, a film which in its acting direction deliberately evoked the
groundbreaking horror films of the 1930s, while presenting a psychological
horror film more in tune with the uncertainty of the 1940s.
In 1947, Wise directed the Lawrence Tierney noir classic Born to Kill and
two years later directed the boxing movie The Set-Up, where his direction of
the real-time setting got him noticed. Wise's use and mention of time in
this film would find echos in later noir films such as Stanley Kubrick's The
Killing and Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
In the 1950s, Wise proved adept in several genres, from the science fiction
of The Day the Earth Stood Still to the melodramatic So Big, to the 1954
boardroom drama Executive Suite, to the epic Helen of Troy based on Homer,
to Susan Hayward's Oscar winner in I Want to Live!, for which he was
nominated for Best Director.
In 1961, teamed with Jerome Robbins, he won the Academy Award for Best
Director for West Side Story, which he also produced. In 1963 he directed
the horror film The Haunting, with Julie Harris. He won the Academy Award
for Best Director in 1965 with The Sound of Music.
The Sound of Music was an interim film for Wise, produced to mollify the
studio while he developed the difficult film The Sand Pebbles, starring
Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Candice Bergen. Set in the late
1920s in China, this was Wise's entry in a spate of Vietnam war era films
(Catch-22, M*A*S*H), which, though set in other periods of wartime,
nevertheless sounded with its depictions of gunboat diplomacy what would
come to be recognized as timeless themes. Wise would later speak of The Sand
Pebbles as the film he most wanted to direct, though he had earlier explored
such anti-war themes in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
In the 1970s, he directed such films as The Andromeda Strain, The
Hindenburg, the horror film Audrey Rose, and the first Star Trek film, Star
Trek: The Motion Picture. In 1989, he directed Rooftops, his last theatrical
feature film.
[edit] Later years
Even in his twilight years, Wise continued to be active in productions of
DVD versions of his films, even making public appearances promoting those
films. His last contributions were to the DVD commentaries of "The
Haunting," and "The Set-Up," but he oversaw the DVD commentaries of
"The
Sand Pebbles," "Executive Suite," (which featured Oliver Stone hailing it
as
an inspiration for his "Wall Street ), and "The Set-Up" (which featured
Martin Scorsese and Wise talking about the film that was Wise's own personal
favorite and was the direct inspiration for Scorsese's "Raging Bull"). He
also oversaw and provided DVD commentary for the director's edition of Star
Trek: The Motion Picture, which included re-edited scenes, new optical
effects, and a new sound mix.
Wise's last few years were marked by controversy. His second wife, Millicent
(his first wife, Pat, had died of cancer in the mid-70s) was a zealous
gatekeeper and he became cut off from his family and many former friends. He
was ensnared in a PR fiasco when he lent his name to Scorsese's Gangs of New
York Oscar campaign[clarification needed] and suffered chastisement at the
DGA Awards in 2001 when he praised screenwriters' contributions in a speech
that took place during a credit struggle between the DGA and the WGA. After
suffering a heart attack at home, Wise was rushed to UCLA Medical Center,
where he died from heart failure. He died on September 14, 2005, four days
after his 91st birthday.
[edit] Academy Awards
a.. 1962 Best Director West Side Story with Jerome Robbins
b.. 1962 Best Picture West Side Story
c.. 1966 Best Director The Sound of Music
d.. 1966 Best Picture The Sound of Music
e.. 1967 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
Nominations
a.. 1942 Best Film Editing Citizen Kane
b.. 1959 Best Director I Want to Live!
c.. 1967 Nominated for Best Picture The Sand Pebbles
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Director
a.. Action in Arabia (1944; second unit director, uncredited)
b.. Mademoiselle Fifi (1944)
c.. The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
d.. The Body Snatcher (1945)
e.. A Game of Death (1945)
f.. Criminal Court (1946)
g.. Born to Kill (1947)
h.. Blood on the Moon (1948)
i.. Mystery in Mexico (1948)
j.. The Set-Up (1949)
k.. Three Secrets (1950)
l.. Two Flags West (1950)
m.. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
n.. The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)
o.. Something for the Birds (1952)
p.. The Captive City (1952)
q.. Return to Paradise (1953) (producer)
r.. So Big (1953)
s.. Destination Gobi (1953)
t.. The Desert Rats (1953)
u.. Executive Suite (1954)
v.. Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
w.. Tribute to a Bad Man (1956)
x.. Helen of Troy (1956)
y.. Until They Sail (1957)
z.. This Could Be the Night (1957)
aa.. Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
ab.. I Want to Live! (1958)
ac.. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
ad.. West Side Story (1961; co-director and producer)
ae.. Two for the Seesaw (1962)
af.. The Haunting (1963; director and producer)
ag.. The Sound of Music (1965; director and producer)
ah.. The Sand Pebbles (1966; director and producer)
ai.. Star! (1968)
aj.. The Baby Maker (1970; executive producer)
ak.. The Andromeda Strain (1971; director and producer)
al.. Two People (1973) (producer)
am.. The Hindenburg (1975)
an.. Audrey Rose (1977)
ao.. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
ap.. Wisdom (1986; executive producer)
aq.. Rooftops (1989)
ar.. The Stupids (1996; actor)
as.. A Storm in Summer (TV Movie) (2000)
[edit] Editing
a.. Top Hat (1935; sound effects editor, uncredited)
b.. The Informer (1935; sound effects editor, uncredited)
c.. The Gay Divorcee (1934; sound effects editor, uncredited)
d.. Of Human Bondage (1934; apprentice sound effects editor, uncredited)
e.. The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939; assistant editor,
uncredited)
f.. Bachelor Mother (1939; editor)
g.. 5th Ave Girl (1939; editor)
h.. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939; editor)
i.. My Favorite Wife (1940; editor)
j.. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940; editor)
k.. Citizen Kane (1941; editor)
l.. The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941; editor)
m.. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942; editor)
n.. Seven Days' Leave (1942; editor)
o.. Bombardier (1943; editor)
p.. The Fallen Sparrow (1943; editor)
q.. The Iron Major (1943; editor)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrea - Genealogy" <andrea.genealogy(a)pceaze.com>
To: <INRANDOL-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 7:03 PM
Subject: [INRANDOL] Sound of Music
The movie Sound of Music is currently on TV. Who can tell me the
Randolph
County, Indiana connection to the movie? Andrea
********************************
Please Visit The Randolph County INGenWeb Project
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inrandol/
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