What was Billy Wilder's birth name?

Billy Wilder's birth name was Samuel Wilder.

Wilder was born Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906, in Sucha, then part of Galicia in Austria-Hungary and now known as Sucha Beskidzka, Poland. He grew up in a Jewish family whose business included cafés connected with railway stations. His mother gave him the nickname “Billie,” inspired by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows; after he moved to the United States, he changed the spelling to “Billy.”

Before becoming a celebrated Hollywood director, Wilder worked as a journalist in Vienna and later moved to Berlin, where he developed as a screenwriter. The rise of Nazism and antisemitism forced him to leave Europe; after a period in Paris, he arrived in Hollywood in 1934.

The name Samuel Wilder is sometimes confused with Samuel Wyler or with Wilder’s brother, W. Lee Wilder, who was also a filmmaker. Billy Wilder went on to direct and co-write films including Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment, winning Academy Awards across directing, writing, and producing categories.