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William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and military pilot. He was known for his work in crime , adventure , and action genre films, often focusing on aviation themes, a particular passion.
Learn about the life and career of William A. Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of A Star Is Born and a World War I flying ace. Explore his filmography, awards, trivia, and personal details on IMDb.
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- Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
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- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Other Men’s Women (1931) Arguably Wellman’s most consistently rich period, his pre-code run of punchy 70-minute gems in the early 30s takes some beating.
- Night Nurse (1931) Come for the early performances from Barbara Stanwyck and Clark Gable, stay for what turns out to be one of Wellman’s toughest, strangest cookies.
- Wild Boys of the Road (1933) Another of his early best, Wild Boys of the Road sees Wellman at his most politically engaged. Downsizing the characters of Beggars of Life to a trio of kids, forced cross-country in a bid to find work and ease the burden on their suddenly-impoverished folks, the film pulls no punches confronting the grim slide into the social gutter of the Depression.
- A Star Is Born (1937) Given how many times even the official telling of the A Star Is Born narrative has been around the block (a fourth iteration with some combination of Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper and Beyoncé attached has been mooted for a while now), Hollywood clearly holds some stock in the timelessness of its most famous parallel rise-and-fall tale.
William A. Wellman was an American film director who won the first Academy Award for Best Picture for Wings in 1927. He also directed many other films in various genres, especially crime, adventure and aviation, and acted in some of his early works.
William Wellman, American film director whose more than 80 movies included Hollywood classics of documentary-like realism and who was ranked as an action director alongside Howard Hawks and John Ford.
- Michael Barson
Jan 27, 2017 · Wellman’s best-known Warner films are the social documents “Heroes for Sale” and “Wild Boys of the Road” (both from 1933 and included in the all-Wellman “Forbidden Hollywood”...
Dec 11, 1975 · William A. Wellman, the nearly legendary Hollywood director who made 82 movies, including “Wings,” “Beau Geste,” the original “A Star Is Born,” “Public Enemy” and the classic anti‐lynching...