Otto Preminger

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Otto Preminger
Birth name Otto Ludwig Preminger
Born 5 December 1906(1906-12-05)
Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary
Died 23 April 1986 (aged 79)
New York City, New York

Otto Ludwig Preminger (December 5, 1906 – April 23, 1986) was an Austrian actor and twice Oscar-nominated film director.

Preminger was born in Czernowitz to a well-known family. Preminger's father Marc was once the Attorney General of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As their father, both Otto and his brother, Ingo Preminger, earned law degrees in Vienna.

Preminger worked with Max Reinhardt before emigrating to America. At first he directed and acted for 20th Century Fox. His Austrian accent caused him to be typecast as a cinematic Nazi, despite the fact that he was a Jew who had left Austria in 1935, three years before Austria merged with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss.

After the war, he became well known as a Hollywood director in the 1950s and early 1960s, delivering films that were praised by critics such as Andrew Sarris.

The bald-headed Preminger was known to be demanding and strict according to the stereotype embodied by such directors such as Erich von Stroheim and Fritz Lang. Well-respected by some, he was belittling and cruel towards his actors. Giving direction to a group of children on the set of Exodus he said, "Cry, you little monsters!" He was also instrumental in ending the morals code then controlling motion pictures by his demands, creativity and control.

Contents

[edit] Life and career

Some of his notable films include: Anatomy of a Murder with James Stewart, Lee Remick, George C. Scott and Ben Gazzara; Laura, a much admired film noir starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews; Whirlpool also starring Tierney and Jose Ferrer. Advise and Consent, starring an on-form Charles Laughton; Bonjour Tristesse with David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg, who made her film debut in Preminger's Saint Joan; The Man With the Golden Arm for which Frank Sinatra was Oscar nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Bunny Lake is Missing, a cult-movie starring Laurence Olivier and Carol Lynley, who herself was part of the ensemble cast of The Cardinal. Preminger also acted in a few movies; his most notable role is that of the warden of a German POW camp in Stalag 17.

At the New York City Opera, in October 1953, Preminger directed the American premiere (in English translation) of Gottfried von Einem's Der Prozeß (The Trial), after Franz Kafka. Soprano Phyllis Curtin headed the cast.

In the 1960s Batman television series, Preminger was the second of three actors who played Mr. Freeze, in the two-parter "Green Ice/Deep Freeze." Adam West, who portrayed Batman, remembers Preminger as incredibly rude and unpleasant, and that all other members of the cast were secretly delighted when he was subsequently pursued for unpaid dues by the Screen Actors Guild. Ingo Preminger, who produced the 1970 M*A*S*H movie, was Otto Preminger's kid brother.

The father of twins by his third wife, he also he had a son, writer and screenwriter Erik Lee Preminger by entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee. During his marriage, he also had an affair with Dorothy Dandridge, who starred in Preminger's film version of Carmen Jones (1954), and sabotaged her career with bad advice.

Otto Preminger died in 1986, aged 79, of cancer and Alzheimer's disease, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York.


[edit] Filmography

[edit] Awards

Preminger received one Oscar nomination for Best Picture for Anatomy of a Murder. He was twice nominated for the best director award for Laura and for The Cardinal.

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Films directed by Otto Preminger

Die große Liebe • Under Your Spell • Danger, Love at Work • Kidnapped • Clare Booth Luce's Margin for Error • In the Meantime, Darling • Laura • A Royal Scandal • Fallen • Centennial Summer • Forever Amber • Daisy Kenyon • That Lady in Ermine • The Fan • Whirlpool • Where the Sidewalk Ends • The 13th Letter • Angel Face • The Moon Is Blue • Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach • River of No Return • Carmen Jones • The Man with the Golden Arm • The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell • Saint Joan • Bonjour Tristesse • Porgy and Bess • Anatomy of a Murder • Exodus • Advise and Consent • The Cardinal • In Harm's Way • Bunny Lake Is Missing • Hurry Sundown • Skidoo • Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon • Such Good Friends • Rosebud • The Human Factor

Persondata
NAME Preminger, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otto Ludwig Preminger
SHORT DESCRIPTION film director
DATE OF BIRTH 5 December, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna, Austria
DATE OF DEATH 23 April, 1986
PLACE OF DEATH New York, New York, U.S.
de:Otto Preminger

es:Otto Preminger fr:Otto Preminger it:Otto Preminger nl:Otto Preminger ja:オットー・プレミンジャー pl:Otto Preminger pt:Otto Preminger ru:Премингер, Отто fi:Otto Preminger sv:Otto Preminger tr:Otto Preminger

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