Otto Ludwig Preminger (
December 5, 1906 –
April 23, 1986) was an
Austrian actor and twice
Oscar-nominated film director.
Preminger was born in
Czernowitz to a well-known family. Preminger's father Marc was once the
Attorney General of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. As their father, both Otto and his brother,
Ingo Preminger, earned law degrees in Vienna.
Preminger worked with
Max Reinhardt before emigrating to America. At first he directed and acted for
20th Century Fox. His
Austrian accent caused him to be typecast as a cinematic
Nazi, despite the fact that he was a
Jew who had left Austria in 1935, three years before Austria merged with Nazi Germany in the
Anschluss.
After the war, he became well known as a
Hollywood director in the 1950s and early 1960s, delivering films that were praised by critics such as
Andrew Sarris.
The bald-headed Preminger was known to be demanding and strict according to the stereotype embodied by such directors such as
Erich von Stroheim and
Fritz Lang. Well-respected by some, he was belittling and cruel towards his actors. Giving direction to a group of children on the set of Exodus he said, "Cry, you little monsters!" He was also instrumental in ending the morals code then controlling motion pictures by his demands, creativity and control.
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