Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography

Chandler, Charlotte; Billy Wilder

ISBN 10: 1557836329 / ISBN 13: 9781557836328

Published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, New York, 2004

About this Item

1st Edition Thus. softcover. 352 pages. Attached to dedication page is a index card SIGNED by Billy Wilder: "Some Like It Hot! Billy Wilder, 1959".

Seller Inventory # 039590

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography
• Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, New York
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557836329
• ISBN 13: 9781557836328
• Binding: Soft Cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by the Subject

About this title

Synopsis

Billy Wilder (1906-2002) was one of the legendary figures in 20th-century film. When he died recently, he left behind an incredible celluloid legacy. Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, The Lost Weekend, Sabrina and other Wilder films have become a part of our shared experience and collective memory. In Nobody's Perfect, Billy Wilder speaks for himself, in what is as close to an autobiography as there ever will be. Charlotte Chandler, author of authorized bios on Groucho Marx and Federico Fellini, met Wilder in the mid-1970s and began a friendship that continued until his death. Over the course of more than 20 years, she interviewed not only Wilder, but many of the actors and other creative people who worked with him. The result is this remarkable book, a very personal look at one of filmdom's true creative geniuses. In a life as dramatic as his films, Wilder survived World War I and escaped the Holocaust. His great gift as a screenwriter soon became apparent, as did his easy rapport with actors. As a writer-director, he worked with such stars as Greta Garbo, William Holden, Tony Curtis, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Marilyn Monroe - most of whom were interviewed for this book. This revealing and vastly entertaining book is a wonderful, timely tribute to this great writer-director, a legacy of Wilder's wit, insight and remarkable wisdom.

About the Author

Charlotte Chandler's first book, Hello, I Must Be Going, was a national bestseller about Groucho Marx. Her second book, The Ultimate Seduction, included conversations with Mae West, Tennessee Williams, Henry Moore, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, and others. The Tennessee Williams section became the basis of the successful stage play, Confessions of a Nightingale, and The Penguin Book of Interviews selected her section on Mae West as one of the best interviews of all time. Her next book, I, Fellini, was selected as a New York Times notable book and has been published in more than twenty-five foreign editions. Chandler was a writer and producer of the Aaron Spelling/ABC movie-of-the-week, A Stranger in the Mirror, based on the Sidney Sheldon novel. She is a member of the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and is active in film preservation. She lives in New York City and is at work on a book about Alfred Hitchcock.