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Otto Preminger is a Actor, Director, Producer and Co-Director American born on 5 december 1906 at Vienna (Austria)

Otto Preminger

Otto Preminger
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Birth name Otto Ludwig Preminger
Nationality USA
Birth 5 december 1906 at Vienna (Austria)
Death 23 april 1986 (at 79 years) at New York City (USA)

Otto Ludwig Preminger (5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian American theatre and film director. He is known for directing over 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as Laura (1944) and Fallen Angel (1945), while in the 1950s and '60s, he directed a number of high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with topics which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), rape (Anatomy of a Murder, 1959) and homosexuality (Advise & Consent, 1962). He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. He also had a few acting roles.

Biography

As they continued living together, Preminger and his wife Marion became more and more estranged. It was an open secret that the two had an arrangement, whereby as long as he promised not to seek a divorce, Preminger was free to see other women. In effect, he lived like a bachelor, as was the case when he met burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee and began an open relationship with her. Lee had already attempted to break into movie roles, but she was not taken seriously as anything more than a stripper. She appeared in B pictures in less-than-minor roles. Preminger's liaison with Lee produced a child, Erik. Lee rejected the idea of Preminger helping to support the child, and instead elicited a vow of silence from Preminger: he was not to reveal Erik's paternity to anyone, including Erik himself. Lee called the boy Erik Kirkland, after her separated husband, Alexander Kirkland. It was not until 1966, when Preminger was 60 years old and Erik was 22 years old, that they were to meet finally as father and son.

Although Preminger and Marion had been estranged for years, he was surprised when in May 1946 she asked for a divorce. On a trip to Mexico she had met a very wealthy (and married) Swedish financier, Axel Wenner-Gren. The Premingers' divorce ended smoothly and speedily. Marion did not seek any alimony, just a few personal belongings that would be picked up in a few days by her fiancé's private plane. Mrs. Wenner-Gren, madly jealous of her rival, began to stalk Marion and was not willing to grant a divorce. Marion even went as far as to claim that Mrs. Wenner-Gren attempted to shoot her at a post office in Mexico. Marion returned to the Preminger home in New York City feeling embarrassed and shamed. She resumed her appearances as Preminger's wife, and nothing more. Preminger was enjoying his escapades as a freewheeling man-about-town and had begun dating Natalie Draper, a niece of Marion Davies.

While filming Carmen Jones (1954), Preminger began an affair with the film's star, Dorothy Dandridge, which lasted four years. During that period, Preminger advised her on career matters, including an offer made to Dandridge for the featured role of Tuptim in the 1956 film of The King and I. Preminger advised her to turn down the supporting role, as he believed it to be unworthy of her. Dandridge later regretted accepting Preminger's advice. Their affair was depicted in the HBO Pictures biopic, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, in which Preminger was portrayed by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. According to this biopic, she ended the affair with Preminger upon realization that he had no plans to leave his first wife to marry her.

Best films

Exodus (1960)
(Director)
The Cardinal (1963)
(Director)
Stalag 17 (1953)
(Actor)
Forever Amber (1947)
(Director)
River of No Return (1954)
(Director)
Laura (1944)
(Director)

Usually with

Lyle Wheeler
Lyle Wheeler
(18 films)
Thomas Little
Thomas Little
(15 films)
Ben Nye
Ben Nye
(11 films)
Saul Bass
Saul Bass
(7 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Otto Preminger (48 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

The Hobbit
The Hobbit (1977)
, 1h18
Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Animation
Themes Films about animals, Feminist films, Films about magic and magicians, Monde imaginaire, Middle-earth films, Films about dragons, Political films, Children's films
Actors Orson Bean, Richard Boone, Hans Conried, John Huston, Otto Preminger, Cyril Ritchard
Roles Elvenking (voice)
Rating66% 3.347933.347933.347933.347933.34793
The plot of the animated production is in most respects similar to that of the book, which was already styled as a classic children's novel, and so is adapted in that vein for a younger audience; but certain plot points are significantly compressed due to the time limitations of the format. In addition, certain scenes are obviously edited for commercial breaks. In general, alterations include simple omission of additional detail, as the producers expressed their desire to adhere to the written text, including lyrics adapted from the songs in the book but in much longer and greater format.
Skidoo
Skidoo (1968)
, 1h37
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs
Actors Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin
Roles voix du générique
Rating47% 2.3570452.3570452.3570452.3570452.357045
As a cartoon character dressed in prison stripes (and holding a peace-logo flower which turns into a tiny parasol and then a helicopter blade) executes a few dance steps to the music of Nilsson's Skidoo theme, the words "Otto Preminger" appear below him. Additional words "presents SKIDOO starring" can also be seen as the camera pulls back to reveal that this image is on a TV screen, while Carol Channing's voice is heard exclaiming, "No, Harry, not that. No, I don't wanna see that", with the channel suddenly switching to show a US Senate hearing conducted by Senator Hummel, portrayed by Peter Lawford, who asks a series of organized crime figures various questions to which they invariably reply, "I refuse to answer on the grounds it may tend to incriminate me." Every few seconds, the channel showing the hearing switches to another channel which is screening Preminger's black-and-white 1965 feature, In Harm's Way, or still other channels which have one spurious commercial after another. The initial ad depicts an attractive blonde declaring, "now you too can be beautiful and sexually desirable like me instead of being that fat, disgusting, foul-breathed, slimy, wallowing sow that you are," the second has another intensely smiling blonde stating that "maybe we blondes do have more fun" and the third ad depicts a drunken slob swilling beer and belching, interspersed with an image of a pig with beer foam around its snout, while an unseen announcer exclaims "feel big, drink pig.
Bunny Lake Is Missing, 1h47
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller
Actors Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Martita Hunt, Anna Massey, Finlay Currie
Rating72% 3.6480753.6480753.6480753.6480753.648075
American single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley), who recently moved to London from New York, arrives at the Little People's Garden preschool to collect her daughter, Bunny. The child has mysteriously disappeared. An administrator recalls meeting with Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Stephen (Keir Dullea) search the school and find a sinister woman living upstairs, who claims she collects children's nightmares. In desperation, the Lakes call the police and Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) arrives on the scene.
The Girl on The Roof, 1h30
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Hardy Krüger, Johannes Heesters, Johanna Matz, Tom Tully, Tom Tully, Dawn Addams
Roles Voice
Rating59% 2.991872.991872.991872.991872.99187
A comedy of manners, the film centers on virtuous actress Patty O'Neill, who meets playboy architect Donald Gresham on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and accepts his invitation to join him for drinks and dinner in his apartment. There she meets Donald's upstairs neighbors, his ex-fiancée Cynthia and her father, roguish David Slader. Both men are determined to bed the young woman, but they quickly discover Patty is more interested in engaging in spirited discussions about the pressing moral and sexual issues of the day than surrendering her virginity to either one of them. After resisting their amorous advances throughout the night, Patty leaves and returns to the Empire State Building, where Donald finds her and proposes marriage.
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 (1953)
, 2h
Directed by Billy Wilder
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Historical, Romance
Themes Military humor in film, Prison films, Théâtre, Political films, Évasion, Films based on plays
Actors William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Sig Ruman, Robert Strauss, Peter Graves
Roles Oberst von Scherbach
Rating79% 3.998243.998243.998243.998243.99824
Stalag 17 begins on "the longest night of the year" in 1944 in a Luftwaffe prisoner-of-war camp somewhere along the Danube River. The story is narrated by Clarence Harvey "Cookie" Cook (Gil Stratton). The camp holds Poles, Czechs, Russian females and, in the American compound, 640 sergeants from bomber crews, gunners, radiomen, and flight engineers.
Where Do We Go from Here?, 1h18
Directed by George Seaton, Gregory Ratoff
Origin USA
Genres Fantasy, Musical
Themes Time travel films, Musical films, Political films
Actors Fred MacMurray, Joan Leslie, June Haver, Gene Sheldon, Anthony Quinn, Fortunio Bonanova
Roles General Rahl (uncredited)
Rating57% 2.8581252.8581252.8581252.8581252.858125
Fred MacMurray stars as Bill Morgan, a young American who is eager to join the military and fight for his country during World War II, but his 4F status prevents him from enlisting. Bill does his bit for the war effort by collecting scrap metal. Among the discarded junk he discovers a mysterious brass bottle which he rubs to clean off the grime.
Margin for Error, 1h14
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Crime
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Joan Bennett, Milton Berle, Otto Preminger, Carl Esmond, Howard Freeman, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
Roles Karl Baumer
Rating58% 2.90552.90552.90552.90552.9055
When police officer Moe Finkelstein Milton Berle and his colleague Officer Salomon are ordered to serve as bodyguards to German consul Karl Baumer (Otto Preminger) by the mayor of New York City, Finkelstein turns in his badge, convinced he has to quit the service because the man is a Nazi. Capt. Mulrooney, who appointed them to this job, tells Moe that although the mayor personally is opposed to Adolf Hitler and his regime, the mayor is responsible for the safety of everybody, and he feels that through this Job Finkelstein can show them the difference between their system and the Nazi one.
They Got Me Covered, 1h35
Directed by David Butler
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Films about writers, Spy films, Films about journalists
Actors Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Otto Preminger, Lenore Aubert, Eduardo Ciannelli, Donald Meek
Roles Fauscheim
Rating64% 3.2441853.2441853.2441853.2441853.244185
In the middle of WWII, acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter Robert "Kit" Kittredge returns to the U.S. from his position as Moscow correspondent. He is fired for his incompetency by his editor, Norman Mason, the minute he comes back, since he has neglected to report that Germany recently has invaded Russia.
The Pied Piper, 1h27
Directed by Irving Pichel, Percy Stow
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Political films, Children's films
Actors Monty Woolley, Roddy McDowall, Anne Baxter, Otto Preminger, J. Carrol Naish, Jill Esmond
Roles Major Diessen
Rating69% 3.4897953.4897953.4897953.4897953.489795
Un professeur anglais, réfugié dans le Sud de la France, organise la fuite de plusieurs enfants au moment de l'invasion allemande…

Director

The Human Factor, 1h54
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Spy, Politic
Themes Spy films, Politique, Political films
Actors Richard Attenborough, Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, Iman, Nicol Williamson, Robert Morley
Rating60% 3.048663.048663.048663.048663.04866
Maurice Castle (Nicol Williamson) is a mid-level bureaucrat in MI6 whose life seems completely without peculiarity, peccadillo, or any highlighting quality to suggest he’s anything but a dull bureaucrat, except for the interesting, casually introduced detail that he has an African wife, Sarah (Iman), and son, Sam (Gary Forbes). Meanwhile, the company regime, represented by corpulent, bluffly cheery Dr. Percival (Robert Morley), who’s actually an expert in assassinations and biological toxins, and grey eminence Sir John Hargreaves (Richard Vernon), advise newly appointed security chieftain Daintry (Richard Attenborough) that, thanks to a source they have cultivated in their Moscow enemy headquarters, they believe they have a traitor at the MI6 African desk. The duo determine that the mole must be quietly killed, rather than be allowed publicity in a trial or a flight to Moscow. They determine quickly that the most likely candidate for the traitor is Arthur Davis (Derek Jacobi), Castle’s playboy office partner. Actually, Castle is the mole, but the information he leaks is entirely unimportant financial documents. He became involved in leaking to the Soviets when he was an MI6 agent in South Africa, seven years earlier: he met and fell in love with Sarah, and when their affair was discovered by the authorities, Castle was all but thrown out of the country, and he entrusted Sarah’s smuggling out of the country to a mutual communist acquaintance. Ever since, he’s been repaying the favor by filtering insignificant data to the Soviets. Castle makes one last informational drop to his communist handlers and he is summarily whisked off to Moscow for protection. However, Castle's primary problem is that he is not a communist, is not a communist sympathizer, and has absolutely no interest in politics, socialism, the Russian language, Slavic history or culture, geopolitical power plays, Moscow nor the Soviet Union. His only interest is in his wife and his son, who are left in London — where they will remain separated from him.
Rosebud
Rosebud (1975)
, 2h6
Directed by Otto Preminger, Yves Amoureux
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about writers, Films about journalists, Films about terrorism, Political films
Actors Peter O'Toole, Richard Attenborough, Cliff Gorman, Claude Dauphin, Brigitte Ariel, Peter Lawford
Rating52% 2.6057952.6057952.6057952.6057952.605795
Larry Martin (O'Toole) is a Newsweek reporter, secretly working for the CIA as he travels around the globe tasked, along with Israeli intelligence, to work for the release of five wealthy girls kidnapped by the anti-Israel terrorist Palestinian Liberation Army from the yacht Rosebud. Martin must contend with the girl's fathers, all of whom are wealthy, connected and concerned. Sloat (Attenborough), the extremist head of Black September, is connected with the kidnappings, and is subsequently hunted down after his plans for a centralized global terrorist network are uncovered.
Such Good Friends, 1h41
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Feminist films, Political films
Actors Dyan Cannon, James Coco, Jennifer O'Neill, Ken Howard, Nina Foch, Laurence Luckinbill
Rating59% 2.9974152.9974152.9974152.9974152.997415
Manhattanite Julie Messinger, a complacent housewife and mother of two raucous young sons, is married to Richard, a chauvinistic and self-centered magazine art director and author of a best-selling children's book. When he falls into a coma during minor surgery to remove a nonmalignant mole on his neck, Julie learns from his doctor, Dr. Timmy Spector, that another surgeon nicked his artery, necessitating a blood transfusion to which he had a rare allergic reaction. The following day, Julie is told Richard has overcome the reaction, but his liver has sustained serious damage requiring immediate treatment. In quick succession, all his organs begin to fail.
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, 1h53
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romance
Themes Films about disabilities
Actors Liza Minnelli, Robert Moore, Ken Howard, James Coco, Kay Thompson, Fred Williamson
Rating60% 3.0477853.0477853.0477853.0477853.047785
The film stars Liza Minnelli as the title character Junie Moon, a girl whose face is scarred in a vicious battery acid attack by her boyfriend (Ben Piazza). Later in an institution, she meets a man with epilepsy (Ken Howard), and a gay paraplegic who uses a wheelchair (Robert Moore). Disabled, but not down, they live together in an older, rented house and bond, determined to prove themselves and to help each other.
Skidoo
Skidoo (1968)
, 1h37
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs
Actors Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin
Rating47% 2.3570452.3570452.3570452.3570452.357045
As a cartoon character dressed in prison stripes (and holding a peace-logo flower which turns into a tiny parasol and then a helicopter blade) executes a few dance steps to the music of Nilsson's Skidoo theme, the words "Otto Preminger" appear below him. Additional words "presents SKIDOO starring" can also be seen as the camera pulls back to reveal that this image is on a TV screen, while Carol Channing's voice is heard exclaiming, "No, Harry, not that. No, I don't wanna see that", with the channel suddenly switching to show a US Senate hearing conducted by Senator Hummel, portrayed by Peter Lawford, who asks a series of organized crime figures various questions to which they invariably reply, "I refuse to answer on the grounds it may tend to incriminate me." Every few seconds, the channel showing the hearing switches to another channel which is screening Preminger's black-and-white 1965 feature, In Harm's Way, or still other channels which have one spurious commercial after another. The initial ad depicts an attractive blonde declaring, "now you too can be beautiful and sexually desirable like me instead of being that fat, disgusting, foul-breathed, slimy, wallowing sow that you are," the second has another intensely smiling blonde stating that "maybe we blondes do have more fun" and the third ad depicts a drunken slob swilling beer and belching, interspersed with an image of a pig with beer foam around its snout, while an unseen announcer exclaims "feel big, drink pig.