Director of ‘The Sound of Music’, Robert Wise
DEAN GOODMAN
LOS ANGELES - Four-time Oscar-winner filmmaker Robert Wise, who edited the classic 'Citizen Kane' for Orson Welles and then went on to direct two of Hollywood's […]
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The Namibian
LOS ANGELES – Four-time Oscar-winner filmmaker Robert Wise, who edited the classic ‘Citizen Kane’ for Orson Welles and then went on to direct two of Hollywood’s most beloved musicals, ‘West Side Story’ and ‘The Sound of Music’, has died at age 91.

Wise, whose film career spanned 65 years, died of heart failure at UCLA Medical Center last Wednesday, five days after he celebrated his 91st birthday at a party with close friends. Born on September 10 1914, in Winchester, Indiana, Wise got his first Hollywood job as a messenger at RKO Pictures.His big break came when he was hired as editor of ‘Citizen Kane’, the 1941 Orson Welles movie widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time.The project yielded the first of Wise’s seven Oscar nominations.He and Welles reunited the following year for ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’, and Wise was assigned to direct some additional scenes following negative preview screenings.He also came to the rescue of the 1944 project, ‘The Curse of the Cat People’, by directing it in 10 days after the original director was fired.That film was considered a cult masterpiece of low-budget psychological horror.Wise received his second Oscar nomination for directing the 1958 film ‘I Want to Live!’ The story revolved around a prostitute who was put to death in the gas chamber, and Wise researched the project by witnessing a real execution.The film won an Oscar for its star Susan Hayward.Wise won the directing and best picture Oscars in 1962 for ‘West Side Story’, sharing the former prize with Jerome Robbins.The Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale of two New York gangs, which starred Natalie Wood, received 10 Oscars in all.He won the same two honours in 1966 for the box office smash ‘The Sound of Music’, the Julie Andrews vehicle based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about the von Trapp Family singers.The following year, Wise received a best picture nomination for ‘The Sand Pebbles’.He once told the Los Angeles Times in an interview, “Some of the more esoteric critics claim that there’s no Robert Wise style or stamp.My answer to that is that I’ve tried to approach each genre in a cinematic style that I think is right for that genre.”I wouldn’t have approached ‘The Sound of Music’ the way I approached ‘I Want to Live!’ for anything, and that accounts for a mix of styles.”Among Wise’s 40 other films were ‘The Desert Rats’, ‘Star Trek: the Motion Picture’, ‘Tribute to a Bad Man’, ‘So Big’, ‘Helen of Troy’, ‘This Could Be the Night’, ‘Until They Sail’, ”Two for the Seesaw’, ‘Two People’, ‘The Hindenburg’ and ‘Audrey Rose’.His last project was 2000’s ‘A Storm in Summer’, a television movie he directed from a Rod Serling screenplay, which starred Peter Falk.Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said: “We lost one of the true giants of our art form on Wednesday, a man whose love for telling stories through moving pictures was complete and genuine.”Born on September 10 1914, in Winchester, Indiana, Wise got his first Hollywood job as a messenger at RKO Pictures.His big break came when he was hired as editor of ‘Citizen Kane’, the 1941 Orson Welles movie widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time.The project yielded the first of Wise’s seven Oscar nominations.He and Welles reunited the following year for ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’, and Wise was assigned to direct some additional scenes following negative preview screenings.He also came to the rescue of the 1944 project, ‘The Curse of the Cat People’, by directing it in 10 days after the original director was fired.That film was considered a cult masterpiece of low-budget psychological horror.Wise received his second Oscar nomination for directing the 1958 film ‘I Want to Live!’ The story revolved around a prostitute who was put to death in the gas chamber, and Wise researched the project by witnessing a real execution.The film won an Oscar for its star Susan Hayward.Wise won the directing and best picture Oscars in 1962 for ‘West Side Story’, sharing the former prize with Jerome Robbins.The Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale of two New York gangs, which starred Natalie Wood, received 10 Oscars in all.He won the same two honours in 1966 for the box office smash ‘The Sound of Music’, the Julie Andrews vehicle based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about the von Trapp Family singers.The following year, Wise received a best picture nomination for ‘The Sand Pebbles’.He once told the Los Angeles Times in an interview, “Some of the more esoteric critics claim that there’s no Robert Wise style or stamp.My answer to that is that I’ve tried to approach each genre in a cinematic style that I think is right for that genre.”I wouldn’t have approached ‘The Sound of Music’ the way I approached ‘I Want to Live!’ for anything, and that accounts for a mix of styles.”Among Wise’s 40 other films were ‘The Desert Rats’, ‘Star Trek: the Motion Picture’, ‘Tribute to a Bad Man’, ‘So Big’, ‘Helen of Troy’, ‘This Could Be the Night’, ‘Until They Sail’, ”Two for the Seesaw’, ‘Two People’, ‘The Hindenburg’ and ‘Audrey Rose’.His last project was 2000’s ‘A Storm in Summer’, a television movie he directed from a Rod Serling screenplay, which starred Peter Falk.Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said: “We lost one of the true giants of our art form on Wednesday, a man whose love for telling stories through moving pictures was complete and genuine.”