Icons Radio Hour - Host Writer/Director John Mulholland
This week, ICONS Radio Hour features an interview with Catherine Wyler about her father, the brilliant director William Wyler.
“It took a Jew to make a really good movie about Christ.” – William Wyler on Ben-Hur.
At the time of his death in 1981, famed Hollywood director William Wyler was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. During his lengthy Hollywood career, Wyler was nominated a record 12 times for an Academy Award and received three Best Director Oscars, second only to Ford's four. Among his other tributes are the Irving Thalberg Award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences ultimate accolade for a producer. And he was the fourth recipient of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the third director to be so honored, following John Ford and Orson Welles. Each of these tributes has been fitting amd well-deserved since it has been said that no director – not even Orson Welles – did as much to develop the basic principles of filmmaking technique than did Wyler. His career spanned 45 years, beginning in the Silent era.
William Wyler was awarded his first Oscar for the classic Mrs. Miniver, 1942 (which also won the Best Picture Award). After serving in the Army Air Corps during WWII, where he filmed two propaganda documentaries, including The Fighting Lady (1944), which won an Oscar for Best Documentary, he directed what has probably become his most famous and endearing feature The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), an affecting and sympathetic look at the plight of returning servicemen. The film was a huge commercial and critical success and garnered for Wyler his second Academy Award, as well as a Best Picture nod for the movie itself. Other post-war successes included: The Heiress (1949), Detective Story (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), Friendly Persuasion (1956) and what is perhaps his crowning achievement, the multi-Oscar winner Ben-Hur (1959) – Wyler’s third Best director Oscar win. His career continued into the 1960s, where he remade his earlier These Three under its original title The Children’s Hour (1961), a more frank examination of Lillian Hellman’s exploration of lesbianism, and helmed the dark psychological thriller The Collector (1965). He had his last box office hit with the Barbara Streisand-starrer Funny Girl (1968), for which the novice actress won an Oscar for her first leading role.
ICONS RADIO HOUR broadcast through the website iconsradio.com, each weekly hour-long program features exclusive interviews with actors, directors, producers and writers; along with entertaining and insightful discussions with colleagues and the families of the famous, and other knowledgeable insiders, to provide both professional and personal glimpses into Classic Hollywood. The program is hosted by John Mulholland and Meir Ribalow John Mulholland is a writer, director and film historian and Meir Ribalow is a noted author and film historian.
Since its inception, ICONS Radio Hour has welcomed such celebrity guests as Farley Granger, Charlton Heston, Tab Hunter, Joan Leslie, Liza Minelli and Eli Wallach; Hollywood insiders Paramount producer A.C. Lyles and TCM’s Robert Osborne. ICONS Radio also showcases the children of well-known celebrities, who discuss candidly and often humorously what it was like to grow up the child of an icon. Past guests include Chris Costello (daughter of Lou), Rory Flynn (daughter of Errol), Peter Ford (son of Glenn), Sarah Karloff (daughter of Boris), Kerry Kelly (daughter of Gene), Jaime Niven (son of David).
ICONS Radio Hour airs every Sunday @ 8PM ET on the ICONS Radio website. The show is hosted by John Mulholland and Meir Ribalow. ICONS Radio is presented by MODA Entertainment and produced by Richard Zampella. ICONS Radio Hour is a revealing look into the mystique, glamour – and occasional intrigue of Classic Hollywood, told by the people who know it best. Those who lived it.
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