Director of The Sound of Music passes away

Robert Wise

Wise died Wednesday last of heart failure after falling ill and being rushed to the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, according to family friend and longtime entertainment agent Lawrence Mirisch. He also said Wise had appeared in good health when he celebrated his 91st birthday Saturday.

Wise was nominated for seven Oscars during a career that spanned more than 50 years. The nominations were for editing the 1941 Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane, directing 1958's I Want to Live! and producing 1966's The Sand Pebbles, which was nominated for best picture.

Recently, he served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Directors Guild of America.

Wise directed 39 films in all, ranging from science fiction (The Day the Earth Stood Still) to drama (I Want to Live!) to war stories (Run Silent Run Deep) to Westerns (Tribute to a Bad Man).

"I'd rather do my own thing, which has been to choose projects that take me into all different kinds of genres," he was once quoted. "I don't have a favorite kind of film to make. I just look for the best material I can find."

With the big-budget productions West Side Story and The Sound of Music, he helped create two of the most critically acclaimed and popular musicals of all time.

West Side Story was the tale of 'Romeo and Juliet' set in the New York City tenement slums of the early 1960s. The movie won 10 Academy Awards. The Sound of Music, which told the story of the singing Von Trapp family's escape from Nazi-ruled Austria, won five Oscars. It was for many years the top-grossing film of all time.

Born September 10, 1914, in Winchester, Indiana, Wise dropped out of college during the Depression after his brother, helped get him a job at the studio. He worked his way up to film editing and it was almost by accident when he was assigned to finish directing The Curse of the Cat People (1944), after the original director fell too far behind schedule.

Source: AP