‘Sound of Music’ director Robert Wise dead at 91

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood filmmaker Robert Wise, a
four-time Academy Award winner who brought the beloved musicals
“West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music” to the big screen
during a career that spanned six decades, died on Wednesday,
four days after turning 91.

Wise died of heart failure at UCLA Medical Center, trade
paper the Hollywood Reporter said, citing family friend and
talent agency owner Lawrence Mirisch.

Born September 10, 1914, in Winchester, Indiana, Wise got
his first Hollywood job as a messenger in the editing
department of 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,” taking over after the original director was fired
for falling behind schedule.

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.

He 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 honors 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.”

His other movies included “The Set-Up,” “The Desert Rats,”
“Helen of Troy,” “The Hindenburg,” and “Star Trek: The Motion
Picture.”

“Bob’s devotion to the craft of filmmaking and his wealth
of head-and-heart knowledge about what we do and how we do it
was a special gift to his fellow directors,” Directors Guild of
America president Michael Apted said in a statement.