William A. Wellman | |
|---|---|
 Wellman filmingThe High and the Mighty (1954) | |
| Born | William Augustus Wellman (1896-02-29)February 29, 1896 Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | December 9, 1975(1975-12-09) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1919–1958 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 7, includingWilliam Jr. |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  France United States |
| Branch | |
| Years of service | 1917–1918 (FR) 1918–1919 (U.S.) |
| Rank |  Maréchal des logis |
| Unit | Escadrille Spa.87 |
| Battles / wars | |
William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor andmilitary pilot. He was known for his work incrime,adventure, andaction genre films, often focusing on aviation themes, a particular passion. He also directed several well-regarded satirical comedies. His 1927 film,Wings, was the first film to win anAcademy Award for Best Picture at the1st Academy Awards ceremony.[1]
Beginning his film career as an actor, he went on to direct over 80 films, at times co-credited as producer and consultant, from thesilent era through theGolden Age of Hollywood. He was nominated for fourAcademy Awards: threeBest Director Oscars for the originalA Star Is Born (1937),Battleground (1949), andThe High and the Mighty (1954) and one inBest Original Story forA Star Is Born, which he won. In 1973, he received theDirectors Guild of America'sLifetime Achievement Award. He was previously a decorated combat pilot duringWorld War I, serving in theLafayette Flying Corps of theFrench Air Force, and earning aCroix de Guerre with two palms for valorous action.[2]
Wellman was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Arthur Gouverneur Wellman, was aBoston Brahmin. William was a great-great-great-great-great-grandson ofPuritanThomas Wellman, who emigrated to theMassachusetts Bay Colonycirca 1640.[3] He was also a great-great-great-grandson ofWelsh-bornFrancis Lewis of New York, one of the 56 signatories to theDeclaration of Independence. Wellman's mother, Cecilia McCarthy, was an Irish immigrant.
During his teenage years, Wellman often found himself in trouble with authorities. He was expelled from Newton High School in Newtonville, Massachusetts for dropping astink bomb on the principal's head.[4][5] He was also arrested and placed onprobation for car theft.[6] His mother, who actually worked as a probation officer, was asked to address Congress on the subject of juvenile delinquency.[7] Later, Wellman worked as a salesman, as a general laborer in a lumber yard, and as a player on a minor-league hockey team.[6]
InWorld War I, Wellman enlisted in theNorton-Harjes Ambulance Corps to serve as a driver in Europe.[8] While in Paris, Wellman joined theFrench Foreign Legion and was assigned on December 3, 1917, as a fighter pilot, becoming the first American to joinEscadrille N.87 in theLafayette Flying Corps (not the sub-unitLafayette Escadrille as usually stated),[9][10] where he earned himself the nickname "Wild Bill", and was awarded theCroix de Guerre with two palms.[2] N.87,les Chats Noir (Black Cat Group) was stationed atLunéville in theAlsace-Lorraine sector and was equipped withNieuport 17 and laterNieuport 24 "pursuit" aircraft. Wellman's combat experience culminated in three recorded "kills", along with five probables, although he was ultimately shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on March 21, 1918.[11] Wellman survived the crash but he walked with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life.[8]
Wellman's air-combat credits include the following in 1918:[12][13]
Maréchal des logis (Sergeant) Wellman received a medical discharge from the Foreign Legion and returned to the United States a few weeks later. He spoke at War Savings Stamp rallies in his French uniform. In September 1918 his book about French flight school and his eventful four months at the front,Go Get 'Em! (written by Wellman with the help of Eliot Harlow Robinson), was published. He joined theUnited States Army Air Service, but was too late to fly for America in the war. Stationed atRockwell Field in San Diego, he taught combat tactics to new pilots.
While in San Diego, Wellman flew to Hollywood for the weekends in hisSpad fighter, usingDouglas Fairbanks' polo field in Bel Air as a landing strip.[8] Fairbanks was fascinated with the true-life adventures of "Wild Bill"[8] and promised to recommend him for a job in the movie business; he was responsible for Wellman being cast in the juvenile lead ofThe Knickerbocker Buckaroo (1919).[5] Wellman was hired for the role of a young officer inEvangeline (1919), but he was fired for slappingMiriam Cooper, the film's star and also the wife of the production's director,Raoul Walsh.[7]
Wellman hated being an actor, thinking it an "unmanly" profession,[14] and was miserable watching himself on screen while learning the craft.[15] He soon switched to working behind the camera, aiming to be a director, and progressed up the line as "a messenger boy, as an assistant cutter, an assistant property man, a property man, an assistant director, second unit director and eventually... director."[5] His first assignment as an assistant director forBernie Durning provided him with a work ethic that he adopted for future film work. One strict rule that Durning enforced was no fraternization with screen femme fatales, which almost immediately Wellman broke, leading to a confrontation and a thrashing from the director. Despite his transgression, both men became lifelong friends, and Wellman steadily progressed to more difficult first unit assignments.[8]
Wellman made his uncredited directorial debut in 1920 at Fox withTwins of Suffering Creek. The first films he was credited with directing wereThe Man Who Won andSecond Hand Love, released on the same day in 1923. After directing a dozen low-budget 'horse opera' films,[5] Wellman was hired byParamount in 1927 to directWings, a major war drama dealing with fighter pilots during World War I that was highlighted by air combat and flight sequences. The film culminates with the epicBattle of Saint-Mihiel. In the1st Academy Awards it was one of two films to win Best Picture (the other wasSunrise), although, due to tensions within the studio regarding time and budget overages, Wellman wasn't invited to the event.[15]
Wellman's other films includeThe Public Enemy (1931), the first version ofA Star Is Born (1937),Nothing Sacred (1937),Beau Geste (1939) starringGary Cooper,Thunder Birds (1942),The Ox-Bow Incident (1943),Lady of Burlesque (1943),The Story of G.I. Joe (1945),The Iron Curtain (1948),Battleground (1949) and three films starring and produced byJohn Wayne:Island in the Sky (1953),The High and the Mighty (1954), andBlood Alley (1955).[16]
While he was primarily a director, Wellman also produced 10 films, one of them uncredited, all of which he also directed. His last film wasLafayette Escadrille (1958), which he produced, directed, wrote the story for and narrated. He wrote the screenplay for two other films that he directed, and one film that he did not direct: 1936'sThe Last Gangster. Wellman wrote the story forA Star Is Born and (withRobert Carson) received theAcademy Award for Best Story. Wellman is credited for the story in the remakes released in1954,1976, and2018. Wellman's work was influenced by his good friend and fellow film directorHoward Hawks, with whom he rode motorcycles together in a group called the Moraga Spit and Polish Club.[17]
Wellman reportedly worked fast, usually satisfied with a shot after one or two takes.[15] Despite his reputation for not coddling his leading men and women, he coaxed Oscar-nominated performances from seven actors:Fredric March andJanet Gaynor (A Star Is Born),Brian Donlevy (Beau Geste),Robert Mitchum (The Story of G.I. Joe),James Whitmore (Battleground), andJan Sterling andClaire Trevor (The High and Mighty). Regarding actors, Wellman in a 1952 interview stated, "Movie stardom isn't about acting ability, it's personality and temperament". He then added, "I once directedClara Bow. She was mad and crazy but what a personality!"[18]
Wings led to several firsts in filmmaking including newly invented camera mounts that could be secured to plane fuselages and motor-driven cameras to shoot actors while flying as the cameramen ducked out of frame in their cockpits. StarRichard Arlen had some flying experience but co-starBuddy Rogers had to learn to fly for the film, as stunt pilots could not be used during close-up shots. Towers up to 100 feet (30 m) were used to shoot low-flying planes and battle action on the ground.[15]
During the filming ofBeggars of Life (1928), a silent film starringWallace Beery, Richard Arlen andLouise Brooks, sound was added to Beery's introductory scene at the behest of Paramount Studio. Wellman reportedly hung a microphone from a broom so Beery could walk and talk within the scene, avoiding the static shot required for early sound shoots.[15] During the filming ofChinatown Nights (1929), he sat under the camera on a dolly with the mic between his legs, essentially inventing a shotgun mic.[19]
Wellman won a single Academy Award, for the story ofA Star Is Born. He was nominated as best director three times: forA Star Is Born,Battleground andThe High and Mighty, for which he was also nominated by theDirectors Guild of America as best director. In 1973, the DGA honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Copies of bothWings andThe Story of G.I. Joe are preserved in theAcademy Film Archive.[20] Wellman also has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[21]
Wellman revealed near the end of his life that he had married a French woman named Renee during his time in The Lafayette Flying Corps. She was killed in a bombing raid during the war.[15] Later, between 1918 and 1934, he married four additional times in the United States:
Dorothy starred in Wellman's 1933 filmWild Boys of the Road and had seven children with him, including actors Michael Wellman,William Wellman Jr., Maggie Wellman, and Cissy Wellman.[1] His daughter Kathleen "Kitty" Wellman married actorJames Franciscus, although they later divorced. His first daughter is Patty Wellman, and he had a third son, Tim Wellman.
In 1974, Wellman published his autobiography,A Short Time for Insanity.
William Wellman died of leukemia in 1975 at hisBrentwood home in Los Angeles.[6] He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. His widow Dorothy, at age 95, died on September 16, 2009, in Brentwood, California.[1]
Decades after Wellman's death, William Jr. wrote two biographies about his father,The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture (2006) andWild Bill Wellman—Hollywood Rebel (2015). Fellow filmmakers have also examined Wellman's career.Richard Schickel in 1973 devoted an episode of hisPBS seriesThe Men Who Made the Movies to Wellman,[27] and in 1996, Todd Robinson made the feature-length documentaryWild Bill: Hollywood Maverick.[28]
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