William Wyler

Willi Wyler left Germany in 1921 and worked his way up at Universal, becoming the studio's youngest director by 1925. In 1929 he helmed Hell's Heroes, Universal's first sound film shot entirely on location. The next three decades turned him into one of Hollywood's most bankable filmmakers, translating classic literature—Wuthering Heights, The Heiress, The Little Foxes—into both critical and commercial gold. He won Best Director Oscars for Mrs. Miniver in 1942, The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946, and Ben-Hur in 1959. His obsessive perfectionism became industry lore: endless retakes, every nuan…