You may not be familiar with the name Robert Wise, but you have seen his films. He may never have been as well known outside Hollywood as some of his contemporaries, but in a career spanning seven decades, he made The Sound of Music, The Day The Earth Stood Still and West Side Story.
Wise won four Oscars as producer and director of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, as well as the honorary Irving G. Thalberg award for sustained achievement, and was nominated for three others, including one for Film Editing for Citizen Kane. He also worked with Orson Welles on The Magnificent Ambersons and credited him as a major influence on his own directorial career. Wise's death also marks the end of an era, as he was the last surviving crew member of Citizen Kane.
Born in 1914, Wise dropped out of college during the Depression when his brother managed to get him a job at RKO Studios. He worked his way up through the ranks of editing, before landing his directorial debut when the director of The Curse of the Cat People, a horror sequel, fell behind and studio bosses assigned Wise to step in.
Wise directed 39 films in all, which included The Haunting, The Andromeda Strain, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Somebody Up There Likes Me. He turned his hand to virtually every genre, from war movies (Run Silent Run Deep) to western (Tribute To A Bad Man) to drama (I Want To Live!).
"I'd rather do my own thing, which has been to choose projects that take me into all different kinds of genres," he once said. "I don't have a favourite kind of film to make – I just look for the best material I can find."
More recently, Wise served as President of the Academy and the Director's Guild of America. At his 91st birthday on Saturday, he apparently in good health and good spirits, but died suddenly yesterday after falling ill and being rushed to the hospital, where he died of heart failure. An accomplished director and Hollywood giant, Wise will be missed.