Billy Wilder became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1939.
Born Samuel Wilder in Sucha, then part of Austria-Hungary, Wilder first worked as a journalist and screenwriter in Vienna and Berlin. The rise of Adolf Hitler and antisemitism forced him to leave Germany; after a period in Paris, he arrived in Hollywood in 1934 and began building a career as a screenwriter.
Wilder’s path to citizenship unfolded during his early Hollywood years. He spent time in Mexico while waiting for U.S. immigration permission after his temporary six-month card expired in 1934. He later became an American citizen in 1939, the same year that Ninotchka, which he co-wrote with Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, became a major success.
The date is easy to confuse with later milestones in his career. Wilder directed Double Indemnity in 1944 and won his first directing and screenplay Oscars for The Lost Weekend in 1945, but neither year marks his naturalization. His American citizenship followed his 1934 immigration by five years.