Biography
Born in Winchester, Indiana, 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, echos 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.
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 becomes a director
First called as assistant director to shoot additional scenes for Welles' 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, a collaboration which would produce several notable horror films, among them The Body Snatcher starting 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 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. He repeated this achievement in 1965 with The Sound of Music. 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.
Even in his twilight years, Wise continued to be active in productions of DVD versions to his films, even making public appearances promoting those films.
Wise was a past president of both the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6338 Hollywood Blvd.
After suffering a heart attack at home, Wise was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where he died from heart failure. He died on 14 September 2005, four days after his birthday.
Filmography
As director / producer
* Action in Arabia (1944) (second unit director) (uncredited)
* Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) (director)
* The Curse of the Cat People (1944) (director)
* The Body Snatcher (1945) (director)
* Game of Death (1945) (director)
* Criminal Court (1946) (director)
* Born to Kill (1947) (director)
* Blood on the Moon (1948) (director)
* Mystery in Mexico (1948) (director)
* The Set-Up (1949) (director)
* Three Secrets (1950) (director)
* Two Flags West (1950) (director)
* The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (director)
* The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) (director)
* Something for the Birds (1952) (director)
* The Captive City (1952) (director)
* Return to Paradise (1953) (producer)
* So Big (1953) (director)
* Destination Gobi (1953) (director)
* The Desert Rats (film) (1953) (director)
* Executive Suite (1954) (director)
* Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) (director)
* Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) (director)
* Helen of Troy (1956) (director)
* Until They Sail (1957) (director)
* This Could Be the Night (1957) (director)
* Run Silent Run Deep (1958) (director)
* I Want to Live! (1958) (director)
* Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) (director)
* West Side Story (1961) (director) (producer)
* Two for the Seesaw (1962) (director)
* The Haunting (1963) (director) (producer)
* The Sound of Music (1965) (director) (producer)
* The Sand Pebbles (1966) (director) (producer)
* Star! (1968) (director)
* The Baby Maker (1970) (executive producer)
* The Andromeda Strain (1971) (director) (producer)
* Two People (1973) (director) (producer)
* The Hindenburg (1975) (director)
* Audrey Rose (1977) (director)
* Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (director)
* Wisdom (1986) (executive producer)
* Rooftops (1989) (director)
* The Stupids (1996) (actor, as Stanley's Neighbour)
* A Storm in Summer (TV Movie) (2000) (director)
As editor / assistant editor
* Top Hat (1935) (sound effects editor) (uncredited)
* The Informer (1935) (sound effects editor) (uncredited)
* The Gay Divorcee (1934) (sound effects editor) (uncredited)
* Of Human Bondage (1934) (apprentice sound effects editor) (uncredited)
* The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) (assistant editor) (uncredited)
* Bachelor Mother (1939) (editor)
* 5th Ave Girl (1939) (editor)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) (editor)
* My Favorite Wife (1940) (editor)
* Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) (editor)
* Citizen Kane (1941) (editor)
* The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) (editor)
* The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) (editor)
* Seven Days' Leave (1942) (editor)
* Bombardier (1943) (editor)
* The Fallen Sparrow (1943) (editor)
* The Iron Major (1943) (editor)
External links
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