September 10 - Robert Wise

Movie director and editor Robert Wise was born on September 10, 1914, in west-central Indiana. After landing an odd job at RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood at age 19, he eventually became a film editor and performed that function on two landmark films by Orson Welles, “Citizen Kane” (1941) and “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942). Later in the 1940s he began directing low-budget “B” movies, including “The Body Snatcher” (1945), and then achieved success in a wide range of film genres, including horror, western, war, science fiction, drama and musical. Many of his most notable movies deal with the futility of war, conflict or arms proliferation. These include “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), now acclaimed for its moral significance; “Run Silent, Run Deep” (1958), about submarine warfare; “West Side Story” (1961), which won an unprecedented 10 Oscars; “The Sound of Music” (1965), the highest-grossing film of all time and winner of five Oscars; and “The Sand Pebbles” (1966), viewed as an early statement about U.S. involvement in Vietnam.