The directors: No. 7: Billy Wilder

Almost six years after his death Billy Wilder is still hailed as one of the greatest directors of film comedy of all time.

Born Samuel Wilder in Austria in 1906, he was nicknamed Billy from an early age, because of his obsession with Buffalo Bill. He originally trained as a lawyer at Vienna University, but soon changed course and became a newspaper reporter, first in Vienna and later in Berlin. With Hitler and the Nazi party's rise to power Mr Wilder's Jewish ancestry made him decide to move to the US. Several members of his family, who stayed behind, later died in Auschwitz.

Before moving to the States Mr Wilder had already garnered something of a reputation as a screenwriter. But when he arrived in the US he spoke no English, so he had to start from the bottom again.

In 1934 he became a naturalised US citizen and had already started work in the film industry as a writer. His first real success came in 1939 with the Greta Garbo vehicle Ninotchka, a screwball comedy, very different from Garbo's usual stuff.

This movie also qualified Mr Wilder for his first Oscar nomination, with his co-writer Charles Brackett, with whom he had a long and successful collaboration.

Mr Wilder's first notable success as a director came in 1944, with the release of Double Indemnity, a piece of film noir, which he co-wrote with detective storywriter Raymond Chandler.

In 1946 he earned the best director and best screenplay Academy Awards for his handling of the Charles R. Jackson book The Lost Weekend. This was the first major Hollywood movie to deal with the subject of alcoholism. But film comedy is what this very great director will be largely remembered for, and in particular his 1959 mega-hit comedy Some Like It Hot. Starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as a pair of cross-dressing musicians, the film also starred Marilyn Monroe. Mr Wilder had great respect for Jack Lemmon, calling him the hardest-working actor he had ever met. Some Like It Hot is even today listed by many film buffs and critics as their all-time favourite film comedy.

Other comedy hits followed like The Apartment and The Fortune Cookie. These were all in collaboration with the IAL Diamond. This partnership was to last right through until the end of both men's careers. Billy Wilder was a master at film narration, plot construction and dialogue that was genuinely funny - and all that makes him one of the most talented directors in cinema history.

His pictures have tight plotting and memorable dialogue. He filmed in monochrome whenever studios would let him. He was also very skilled at working with actors, coaxing silent-era legends Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim out of retirement for roles in Sunset Boulevard.

Billy Wilder died in 2002 at the age of 95 and the inscription on his tomb in Hollywood memorably reads: "Billy Wilder is dead. Nobody is perfect." This was a reference to the famous closing line of Some Like it Hot.