LOS ANGELES – During his half-century career, film director Robert Wise was nominated for seven Academy Awards, had hits in a variety of genres and worked with Orson Welles on “Citizen Kane.”
But he gained his greatest acclaim – and four Oscars – with the big-budget productions of “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music,” two of the most popular musicals of all time.
Wise died Wednesday of heart failure. He was 91.
In all, Wise directed 39 films, 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”).
He also was nominated for an Oscar for editing “Citizen Kane.”
“I’d rather do my own thing, which has been to choose projects that take me into all different kinds of genres,” he once said. “I don’t have a favorite kind of film to make. I just look for the best material I can find.”
Wise died after falling ill and being rushed to the UCLA Medical Center, family friend and longtime entertainment agent Lawrence Mirisch said.
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