Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos

William Wellman: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As William Augustus Wellman
Born February 29, 1896 • Brookline • Massachusetts
Died December 9, 1975 (aged 79) • Los Angeles • California
Awards And Honors Academy Award (1938)
Notable Works “A Star Is Born” • “Battleground” • “Beau Geste” • “Blood Alley” • “Buffalo Bill” • “Lafayette Escadrille” • “Magic Town” • “Men with Wings” • “Night Nurse” • “Small Town Girl” • “So Big” • “The Call of the Wild” • “The High and the Mighty” • “The Iron Curtain” • “The Light That Failed” • “The Ox-Bow Incident” • “The President Vanishes” • “The Public Enemy” • “The Story of G.I. Joe” • “Track of the Cat” • “Wild Boys of the Road” • “Wings” • “Yellow Sky”

Photos

Charles (“Buddy”) Rogers and Clara Bow in Wings (1927)
Wings
James Cagney in a tuxedo holding a gun sits in the foreground, while Jean Harlow in a glamorous dress stands behind him holding a cigarette holder, in a scene from The Public Enemy.
Fredric March and Janet Gaynor sit close together on the floor, gazing at each other and smiling, in a scene from the 1937 film A Star is Born.
Ray Milland, Gary Cooper, and Robert Preston dressed in French Foreign Legion uniforms sit together smiling in a scene from the 1939 film Beau Geste.
Dana Andrews, a bearded man holding rope, and Henry Fonda in cowboy attire stand together in front of a wooden wall in a scene from The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).
scene from The High and the Mighty
Ladies of the Mob
Black-and-white scene from The Ox-Bow Incident showing a posse gathered around three tied men, with Henry Fonda as Gil Carter standing to the right holding a gun.
See All Images →
default image
Ethan Coen
American filmmaker
default image
Joel Coen
American filmmaker
Steven Spielberg wearing a tuxedo and bow tie, smiling at the camera on the red carpet at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Steven Spielberg
American film director and producer
Woody Allen speaking into a microphone with hands raised beside his face during a press conference, against a red background.
Woody Allen
American director, writer, and actor
Orson Welles
Orson Welles
American actor, director, and writer
Martin Scorsese smiling in a tuxedo and bow tie, holding an Oscar statuette at the Academy Awards, with a gold Oscar statue in the background.
Martin Scorsese
American filmmaker
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
John Huston
American director, writer, and actor
Billy Wilder poses in a suit and hat, leaning against a streetlamp with a sign reading Sunset Blvd. in a promotional photo for the film Sunset Boulevard.
Billy Wilder
Austrian-born American director and producer
Francis Ford Coppola, with a beard, sits on a camera dolly surrounded by crew and actors on the set of The Godfather: Part II, with storefronts in the background.
Francis Ford Coppola
American director and screenwriter
Elia Kazan stands on a docked ship set with arms outstretched, directing a scene for Panic in the Streets in New Orleans, with crew members and rigging visible behind him.
Elia Kazan
American director and author
Mankiewicz, Joseph L.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
American filmmaker
Mel Brooks in a tuxedo smiles widely and points at his Emmy Award trophy while posing in front of a blue Emmy Awards backdrop.
Mel Brooks
American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
Leo McCarey, seated sideways in a director's chair, looks toward the camera in a black-and-white portrait from around 1930.
Leo McCarey
American director
George Lucas wearing a black suit and tie with a white shirt, standing in front of a dark backdrop at the 2017 LACMA Art Film Gala in Los Angeles.
George Lucas
American director, producer, and screenwriter
Ben Affleck wearing a dark suit, blue shirt, and navy tie, posing for a photo at the premiere of the film AIR with a blurred event backdrop behind him.
Ben Affleck
American actor, writer, and director
Sturges, Preston
Preston Sturges
American director
Making movies from the heart
Ryan Coogler
American filmmaker
Barbra Streisand in 2010, wearing a layered necklace and a black jacket, with straight shoulder-length hair, smiling slightly at an event.
Barbra Streisand
American singer and actress
Spike Lee wearing a suit, tie, and tortoiseshell glasses at the 2007 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Spike Lee
American filmmaker
Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes in Chinatown stands in front of a yellow sign reading Farm Land for Sale, with a sold banner, wearing a suit, sunglasses, and a bandage on his nose.
Jack Nicholson
American actor

Related Quizzes

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).
Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia