Motion Picture Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Actor. Tough, carousing Hollywood director-writer-producer whose classic silent film "Wings" (1927) won the first Academy Award presented for Best Picture in 1929. Bored with homework at his Brookline, Massachusetts high school, he devoted his afternoons to hockey. He turned to flying, later became a member of The Lafayette Flying Corps credited with shooting down two enemy aircraft in World War I (WWI). His wartime exploits so impressed Douglas Fairbanks Sr. that after the war, the swashbuckling star extended Wellman an invitation to play a part in the film "Knickerbocker Kangaroo." He decided he was "frightful" as an actor and switched to directing. In 1920, he made his first film, "The Twins of Suffering Creek." Seven years later, directing "Wings," he got so involved in the production that he "all but gave up my principal occupations of the time... wenching, boozing and brawling." Nicknamed "Wild Bill", other film classics he directed included "The Public Enemy" (1931), "A Star Is Born" (1937), "Beau Geste" (1939), and perhaps his finest film, "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943). Some other notable films Wellman helmed are: "So Big" (1932), "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933), "Nothing Sacred" (1937), "The Light That Failed" (1939), "Lady of Burlesque" (1943), "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945), "Gallant Journey" (1946), "Battleground" (1949), "Across the Wide Missouri" (1951), "Island in the Sky" (1953) & "The High and the Mighty" (1954). Wellman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6125 Hollywood Blvd. Father of actor-author, William A. Wellman Jr.
Motion Picture Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Actor. Tough, carousing Hollywood director-writer-producer whose classic silent film "Wings" (1927) won the first Academy Award presented for Best Picture in 1929. Bored with homework at his Brookline, Massachusetts high school, he devoted his afternoons to hockey. He turned to flying, later became a member of The Lafayette Flying Corps credited with shooting down two enemy aircraft in World War I (WWI). His wartime exploits so impressed Douglas Fairbanks Sr. that after the war, the swashbuckling star extended Wellman an invitation to play a part in the film "Knickerbocker Kangaroo." He decided he was "frightful" as an actor and switched to directing. In 1920, he made his first film, "The Twins of Suffering Creek." Seven years later, directing "Wings," he got so involved in the production that he "all but gave up my principal occupations of the time... wenching, boozing and brawling." Nicknamed "Wild Bill", other film classics he directed included "The Public Enemy" (1931), "A Star Is Born" (1937), "Beau Geste" (1939), and perhaps his finest film, "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943). Some other notable films Wellman helmed are: "So Big" (1932), "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933), "Nothing Sacred" (1937), "The Light That Failed" (1939), "Lady of Burlesque" (1943), "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945), "Gallant Journey" (1946), "Battleground" (1949), "Across the Wide Missouri" (1951), "Island in the Sky" (1953) & "The High and the Mighty" (1954). Wellman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6125 Hollywood Blvd. Father of actor-author, William A. Wellman Jr.
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