Otto Preminger

Otto Ludwig Preminger ( PREM-in-jər; German: [ˈɔtoː ˈpreːmɪŋɐ] ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre, and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940’s and ‘50s. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, twice for Best Director and once for Best Picture, among many other accolades. After achieving theatrical prominence in Vienna, Preminger emigrated to the United States in the mid-1930’s, working as a director for 20th Century Fox. He first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as Laura (1944) and Fallen Angel (1945), while in the 1950s and 1960s, he directed high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with themes which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), rape (Anatomy of a Murder, 1959) and homosexuality (Advise & Consent, 1962). He also had several acting roles, most famously as a Nazi POW camp commandant in Stalag 17. Preminger was also notorious for his temperamental and perfectionist attitude on-set, which led to rows with several actors and earned him the nicknames “Otto the Monster” and “Otto the Ogre”. Turner Classic Movies wrote that Preminger “enjoyed a long reign in Hollywood as the quintessence of the dictatorial European auteur.”

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