What a wonderful career Robert Wise had. In the mid 1980's I spent two
weeks working with several directors and set designers to prepare for the 50th
anniversary of the DGA. One of those directors was Robert Wise or Mr. Wise as I
could never call him Bob. It took me a few days to get past my awe of him. He
was so kind and gentle and soft spoken in person. I often imagined him giving
direction and saw a few instances of his director's mode. Very meticulous and
strict, I soon realized why he was so good.
One evening after a long day of work, a group of us went across the street
for dinner. It was something to see all these guys outside of "work". Most of
them real characters, which I love. I was, of course, a young whippersnapper at
the time and got teased at the table about UCLA mostly as I remember. One of the
guys asked me why I wasn't involved in the apprentice director's program at the
guild. I explained that when the strike had come down I had begun directing
non-union projects, mostly to support myself. Non-union is not looked upon so
greatly by union organizations but these guys understood why I had to do what I
did at the time. Mr. Wise said to me, "you should really consider the program,
I've been watching you and you would make a great director for our guild."
I almost cried. He was going on about other women directors, but I didn't hear
much after that first comment, I was so overwhelmed. Here was this icon with
films like Citizen Kane, Sound of Music, Sand Pebbles, etc. under his belt and
he was such a wonderful person to say that to me, a young filmmaker at the time.
Makes me choked up just to remember it. I got out of the film business about 4
years after that when my oldest daughter was born. I worked on other projects
for the guild but none so wonderful as that one. It is one of my fondest
memories. Take good care of Mr. Wise up there!!
Sue
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 11:38
PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Goodbye, Robert Wise
:(
I'm so sad to hear about this. I've met Bob many
times
as he was a close friend and collaborator with
my close friend and mentor
Nelson Gidding. Bob was
kind, intelligent, supportive, and a
master
storyteller.
I saw Bob at Nelson's memorial and he was frail
but in
good spirits. His wife is so loving and kind. I am
so
sorry she is going through this.
Nelson and Bob are in heaven
collaborating again.
Toochis
--- Daniel Chia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> Filmmaker Robert Wise dies; won four Oscars
>
>
By Duane Byrge and Gregg Kilday (Hollywood Reporter
> )
>
>
Robert Wise, a four-time Academy Award winner whose
> epic 65-year
career
> ranged from editing Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" to
>
directing the
> quintessential 1960s musical "The Sound of Music"
to
> launching the first
> "Star Trek" film, died Wednesday of
heart failure.
> He was 91.
>
> Wise died at UCLA Medical
Center, according to
> family friend Lawrence
> Mirisch, owner of
The Mirisch Agency, a Hollywood
> talent agency.
>
> Wise,
who was honored with the American Film
> Institute's Life
Achievement
> Award in 1998, enjoyed a longevity that few
>
filmmakers achieve: His resume
> ranged from his early work as a sound
editor on Fred
> Astaire-Ginger Rogers
> musicals like "The Gay
Divorcee" to his
> collaboration as a film editor with
> Welles on
"Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent
> Ambersons" to his
emergence
> as a director, and later producer, of films as
>
varied as "The Day the Earth
> Stood Still," "I Want to Live!" and "West
Side
> Story," which he co-directed
> with Jerome Robbins. His
filmography covers almost
> every genre except
>
animation.
>
> Musicals provided him with some of his
biggest
> successes: He won Oscars for
> directing and best
picture in 1962 as "West Side
> Story" danced across the
> screen,
and he consolidated that success with two
> directing and best
>
picture Oscars in 1966 for the runaway hit "The
> Sound of
Music."
>
> His big-screen adaptation of the Rodgers &
>
Hammerstein musical about the
> von Trapp Family singers proved
disastrous for the
> film industry, however,
> as it led to a
round of expensive musicals,
> including Wise's "Star!" that
>
were costly boxoffice flops.
>
> A recipient of the Irving G.
Thalberg Award in 1967,
> Wise served as
> president of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
> Sciences (1985-88) and
>
president of the DGA (1971-75). He chaired the DGA's
> Special
Projects
> Committee for nearly 26 years, from its inception
>
until 2001. He also
> received the DGA's top honor, the Lifetime
>
Achievement Award, in 1988.
>
> "Bob's devotion to the craft of
filmmaking and his
> wealth of head-and-heart
> knowledge about
what we do and how we do it was a
> special gift to his
> fellow
directors," DGA president Michael Apted said
> in a statement
>
Wednesday afternoon. "As president of the guild and
> as co-founder of
the
> DGA Special Projects Committee, his decades of
> hands-on
leadership were an
> inspiration to us all. We will deeply miss
him."
>
> The son of a meatpacker, Wise was born Sept. 10,
>
1914, in Winchester, Ind.
> As a youngster, he became an avid movie
fan,
> spending Saturdays at the dime
> matinee in his small
hometown. He originally set his
> sights on a career in
>
journalism, but with the help of his older brother
> Dave, who was
an
> accountant with RKO, Wise got a job as a messenger
> in the
studio's editing
> department. He soon became fascinated with the
ways
> movies were cut, and,
> after nine months, he was made an
apprentice editor.
>
> He distinguished himself at RKO and began
to work
> solo as an editor on "My
> Favorite Wife," which starred
Cary Grant and Irene
> Dunne. At the time,
> Wise's editing
mentor, Billy Hamilton, gave him what
> was to turn out to be
>
the opportunity of a lifetime. He took the young
> Wise to meet another
new
> young talent at the studio, Welles. After a brief
> chat,
Welles approved of
> Wise as his editor for "Citizen
Kane."
>
> Characteristically modest, Wise always
maintained
> that Welles chiefly took
> him on because they were
about the same age and
> Welles preferred his
> attitude to that
of the cynical old-timers in the
> studio's editing
> department.
Wise received his first Academy Award
> nomination for editing
>
the film.
>
> After "Kane," Wise went on to cut "Ambersons"
for
> Welles, but while the
> director was in South America as
part of the U.S.
> government's Good
> Neighbor Policy, the studio
decided after preview
> screenings that
> "Ambersons" needed some
additional scenes to make it
> play better with
> audiences. In
Welles' absence, Wise was assigned to
> direct the scenes,
> which
were well received by RKO.
>
> Wise then began to bombard studio
executives with
> requests to direct. In
> 1943, while he was
editing "The Curse of the Cat
> People," the film's
> director was
removed because the project was behind
> schedule. Wise was
>
handed the job, and he completed it within the 10
> allotted days. The
movie
> went on to become a hit and has since become a cult
>
classic.
>
> With that, Wise became a studio director. He
signed
> on with a young agent,
> Phil Gersh, who remained his
agent for a
> half-century. (Gersh died last
> year at the age of
92.)
>
> When Howard Hughes bought RKO in the late 1940s,
he
> shut down production,
> but Wise was allowed to continue to
shoot a boxing
> movie, "The Set-Up." An
> industrious and
meticulous researcher, Wise spent a
> long period in an arena
> in
Long Beach, researching the fight game. The film
> went on to win
the
> Critics Prize at the Festival de Cannes. His most
>
challenging research came
> for the death-house drama "I Want to Live!"
his film
> about the last days of
> Barbara Graham, a prostitute
who died in the gas
> chamber. The last scene
> was of Graham,
played by Susan Hayward, in her cell
> the night before the
>
execution. In preparation for the scene, Wise
> watched an execution,
which
> appalled him. He received his first directing Oscar
>
nomination for the project.
>
> After "Live!" Wise became a
producer at United
> Artists. Although he
> established his
reputation with horror and action
> films, his projects as a
>
producer and director ranged through the whole
> spectrum of subject
matter
> and genres. While some critics have maintained that
>
Wise never possessed a
> directorial style, he claimed that his style
always
> fit the pictures.
>
> "Some of the more esoteric
critics claim that
> there's no Robert Wise style
> or stamp. My
answer to that is that I've tried to
> approach each genre in a
>
cinematic style that I think is right for that
> genre. I wouldn't
have
> approached 'The Sound of Music' the way I approached
> 'I
Want to Live!' for
> anything, and that accounts for a mix of styles,"
he
> said in a Los Angeles
> Times interview.
>
>
Among Wise's many other films are "The Desert Rats,"
> "Tribute to a
Bad
> Man," "So Big," "Helen of Troy," "This Cold Be the
> Night,"
"Until They
> Sail," "Two for the Seesaw," "Two People," "The
>
Hindenburg" and "Audrey Rose."
>
> His last project was 2000's "A
Storm in Summer," a
> television movie he
> directed from a Rod
Serling screenplay, which
> starred Peter Falk.
>
>
Information about his survivors was not immediately
>
available.
>
>
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