DIRECTOR · BORN 1914 · DIED 2005
Robert Wise
- Born
- 10 September 1914, Winchester, Indiana, USA
- Died
- 14 September 2005
- Known for
- The Stupids (1996), The Oscars (1953), Visions of Light (1992), Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)
36 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
12 Facts From Robert Wise's Career
- #003
He accepted the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role on behalf of Paul Newman, who did not attend the ceremony, for Newman's performance in The Color of Money (1986).
- #005
He directed nine different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Nina Foch, Susan Hayward, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Julie Andrews, Peggy Wood, Steve McQueen, Mako and Daniel Massey. Hayward, Moreno and Chakiris won Oscars.
- #006
In Oscar history, director-collaborators have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar only four times: Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978), and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007). (Wise/Robbins and the Coens actually won the award.) In 2011 the Coens were nominated again as a best director duo, for the Western True Grit (2010).
- #007
He was chosen to direct The Sound of Music (1965) after William Wyler was dropped from the project on the condition that 20th Century Fox agreed to finance The Sand Pebbles (1966). Wise, who also produced the musical, won his second Best Director Oscar and the Best Picture Oscar. The following year "The Sand Pebbles" was nominated for Best Picture, and Wise was awarded the Irving Thalberg Award, the producers' highest honor.
- #008
When he and Jerome Robbins won the Best Director Oscar for West Side Story (1961) in 1962, it was the first time an Oscar for directing had been shared between collaborators.
- #011
He received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award (1998).
- #012
He directed three films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965). He also edited three films that are on the registry: Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).
- #013
On February 8, 1960, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- #020
Robert Wise was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC (1992).
- #026
Jerome Robbins, who had staged the theatrical production of West Side Story, took on directing the film, but Robert Wise was brought in to direct the musical numbers while the dancers rehearsed, and he eventually pushed Robbins aside and took control of the entire film. They were named the only co-directors in the history of the Academy Awards to win the prize, and they neither spoke of each other nor thanked each other.
- #030
Robert Wise directed three films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: West Side Story (1961), The Sound of Music (1965) and The Sand Pebbles (1966). West Side Story and The Sound of Music won in the category. He also edited two films that were Best Picture nominees: Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).
- #031
A retrospective of Robert Wise's work was held at the 53rd San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain (2005).
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