William A. Wellman
Encyclopedia
William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. Although Wellman began his film career as an actor, he worked on over 80 films, as director, producer and consultant but most often as a director, notable for his work in crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

, adventure
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

 and action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 genre films, often focusing on aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

 themes, a particular passion. He also directed several well regarded satirical comedies.

Wellman directed the 1927 film Wings
Wings (film)
Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...

, which became the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

 at the 1st Academy Awards
1st Academy Awards
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 1927 and 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in Los Angeles, California. AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the...

 ceremony.

Early life

Wellman's father, Arthur Gouverneur Wellman, was a New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 Brahmin
Boston Brahmin
Boston Brahmins are wealthy Yankee families characterized by a highly discreet and inconspicuous life style. Based in and around Boston, they form an integral part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment...

 of English-Welsh-Scottish and Irish descent. William was a great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 Thomas Wellman
Thomas Wellman
Thomas Wellman was born in about 1615 in England and died at Lynn, Massachusetts on 10 October 1672. He was among the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and progenitor of the Wellman family of New England...

 who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

 about 1640. William was a great-great-great grandson of Francis Lewis
Francis Lewis
Francis Lewis was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New York....

 of New York, one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...

. His much beloved mother was an Irish immigrant named Cecilia McCarthy.

Wellman was expelled from Newton High School in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts
Newton Highlands, Massachusetts
Newton Highlands is a village of Newton, Massachusetts. Newton Highlands is largely suburban outside of the village and the commercial district running along Winchester and Needham Streets....

, for dropping a stink bomb
Stink bomb
A stink bomb or stinkbomb is a device designed to create an unpleasant smell. They range in effectiveness from simple pranks to military grade or riot control chemical agents.The Guinness Book of Records lists two smelliest substances...

 on the principal's head. Ironically, his mother was a probation officer
Probation officer
Parole officers and probation officers play a role in criminal justice systems by supervising offenders released from incarceration or sentenced to non-custodial sanctions such as community service...

 who was asked to address Congress on the subject of juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...

. Wellman worked as a salesman and then at a lumber yard, before ending up playing professional ice hockey, which is where he was first seen by Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

, who suggested that with Wellman's good looks he could become a film actor.

World War I

In World War I Wellman enlisted in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps as an ambulance driver. While in Paris, Wellman joined the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

 and was assigned on December 3, 1917 as a fighter pilot and the first American to join N.87 escadrille in the Lafayette Flying Corps
Lafayette Flying Corps
The Lafayette Flying Corps is a name used to describe the American volunteer pilots who flew for the French during World War I. It includes the pilots who flew with the bona fide Lafayette Escadrille squadron. The estimations of number of pilots range from 180 to over 300. The generally accepted...

 (not the sub-unit Lafayette Escadrille
Lafayette Escadrille
The Lafayette Escadrille , was an escadrille of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique militaire, during World War I composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters.-History:Dr. Edmund L...

 as usually stated), where he earned himself the nickname "Wild Bill" and received the Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...

 with two palms. N.87, les Chats Noir (Black Cat Group) was stationed at Lunéville
Lunéville
Lunéville is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and lies on the Meurthe River.-History:...

 in the Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...

 sector and was equipped with Nieuport 17
Nieuport 17
|-Specifications :-See also:-Bibliography:* Bruce, Jack. "Those Classic Nieuports". Air Enthusiast Quarterly. Number Two, 1976. Bromley, UK:Pilot Press. pp. 137–153....

 and later Nieuport 24 "pursuit" aircraft. Wellman's combat experience culminated in three recorded "kills", along with five probables, although he was ultimately shot down. Wellman survived the crash but he walked with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life. (He used the limp to his advantage, often exaggerating it when he had to "meet a pretty girl.")

After the Armistice
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...

, Wellman returned to the United States, wrote a book about his exploits (with the help of a ghostwriter), and joined the United States Army Air Service
United States Army Air Service
The Air Service, United States Army was a forerunner of the United States Air Force during and after World War I. It was established as an independent but temporary wartime branch of the War Department by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation...

. Stationed at Rockwell Field
Rockwell Field
Rockwell Field was an Army air base located in Coronado, California, near San Diego. It shared the area known as North Island with Naval Air Station North Island from 1912 to 1935. Its functions were eventually moved to March Field so that the naval air station could take over the whole area...

, San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, he taught combat tactics to new pilots.

Film career

While in San Diego, Wellman would fly to Hollywood for the weekends in his Spad
SPAD S.VII
The SPAD S.VII was the first of a series of highly successful biplane fighter aircraft produced by Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés during the First World War. Like its successors, the S.VII was renowned as a sturdy and rugged aircraft with good climbing and diving characteristics...

 fighter, using Fairbanks' polo field in Bel Air as a landing strip. Fairbanks was fascinated with the true-life adventures of "Wild Bill" and promised to recommend him for a job in the movie business; he was responsible for Wellman being cast in the juvenile lead of The Knickerbocker Buckaroo (1919). Wellman was hired for the role of a young officer in Evangeline (1919), but was fired for slapping the leading lady, the actress Miriam Cooper
Miriam Cooper
Miriam Cooper was a silent film actress who is best known for her work in early film including Birth of a Nation and Intolerance for D.W. Griffith and The Honor System and Evangeline for her husband Raoul Walsh...

, who happened to be the wife of director Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...

.

It did not matter, because Wellman hated being an actor, thought it was unmasculine, and disliked how he looked on film. He soon switched to working behind the camera, aiming to be a director, and progressed up the line as "a messenger boy, as an assistant cutter, an assistant property man, a property man, an assistant director, second unit director and eventually... director." His first assignment as an assistant director for Bernie Durning
Bernard Durning
Bernard Joseph Durning was an American silent film director and star who worked primarily withLon Chaney, Dustin Farnum, and Buck Jones. He was married to silent movie star Shirley Mason, whose sister, Viola Dana,...

 provided him with a work ethic that he adopted for future film work. One strict rule that Durning enforced was no fraternization with screen femme fatales, which almost immediately Wellman broke, leading to a confrontation and a thrashing from the director. Despite his transgression, both men became lifelong friends, and Wellman steadily progressed to more difficult first unit assignments.

Wellman made his uncredited directorial debut in 1920 at Fox with The Twins of Suffering Creek. The first films he was credited with directing were The Man Who Won and Second Hand Love, released on the same day in 1923. After directing a dozen low-budget 'horse opera' films (some of which he would rather forget), Wellman was hired by Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 in 1927 to direct Wings
Wings (film)
Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...

, a major war drama dealing with fighter pilots during World War I that was highlighted by air combat and flight sequences. The film culminates with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel
Battle of Saint-Mihiel
The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a World War I battle fought between September 12–15, 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Force and 48,000 French troops under the command of U.S. general John J. Pershing against German positions...

. In the 1st Academy Awards
1st Academy Awards
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 1927 and 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in Los Angeles, California. AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the...

 it was one of two films to win Best Picture (the other was Sunrise).

Wellman's other notable films include
The Public Enemy
The Public Enemy
The Public Enemy is a 1931 American Pre-Code crime film starring James Cagney and directed by William A. Wellman. The film relates the story of a young man's rise in the criminal underworld in prohibition-era urban America...

(1931
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

), the first version of
A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who...

(1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

),
Nothing Sacred
Nothing Sacred (film)
Nothing Sacred is a 1937 Technicolor screwball comedy film made by Selznick International Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by William A. Wellman and produced by David O. Selznick, from a screenplay credited to Ben Hecht, based on a story by James H. Street...

(1937), the 1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...

 version of
Beau Geste
Beau Geste (1939 film)
Beau Geste is a 1939 film produced by Paramount Pictures based on the novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. It was directed and produced by William A. Wellman from a screenplay by Robert Carson...

starring Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

,
Thunder Birds
Thunder Birds (1942 film)
Thunder Birds is a Technicolor film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Gene Tierney, Preston Foster, and John Sutton...

(1942
1942 in film
The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

),
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Ox-Bow Incident is a 1943 American western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Harry Morgan and Jane Darwell...

(1943
1943 in film
The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....

),
Lady of Burlesque
Lady of Burlesque
Lady of Burlesque is a 1943 American mystery film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea, based on the novel The G-String Murders written by famous strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee...

(1943), The Story of G.I. Joe
The Story of G.I. Joe
The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe, is a 1945 American war film directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor.The...

(1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....

),
Battleground (1949
1949 in film
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...

) and two films starring and co-produced by John Wayne,
Island in the Sky
Island in the Sky (1953 film)
Island in The Sky is a 1953 American aviation adventure/drama film written by Ernest K. Gann based on his 1944 novel of the same name, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring and co-produced by John Wayne. It was released by Warner Bros...

(1953
1953 in film
The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...

) and
The High and the Mighty
The High and the Mighty (film)
The High and the Mighty is a 1954 American "disaster" film directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the novel on which his screenplay was based. The film's cast was headlined by John Wayne, who was also the project's co-producer...

(1954
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...

).

While he was primarily a director, Wellman also produced ten films, one of them uncredited, all of which he also directed. His last film was
Lafayette Escadrille
Lafayette Escadrille (film)
Lafayette Escadrille American war film released in March of 1958 by Warner Brothers Pictures, starring Tab Hunter, David Janssen, and Will Hutchins, and featuring Clint Eastwood in an early supporting role. It was the final film in the career of director William A...

(1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....

), which he produced, directed, wrote the story for and narrated. He wrote the screenplay for two other films that he directed, and one film that he did not direct, 1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...

's
The Last Gangster
The Last Gangster
The Last Gangster is a 1937 crime drama film, directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart and Rose Stradner.-Plot:...

. He also wrote the story for A Star Is Born and received a story credit for both remakes in 1954
A Star Is Born (1954 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1954 American musical film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay written by Moss Hart was an adaptation of the original 1937 film, which was based on the original screenplay by Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell...

 and 1976
A Star Is Born (1976 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1976 American rock music musical film telling the story of a young woman, played by Barbra Streisand who enters show business, and meets and falls in love with an established male star, played by Kris Kristofferson, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline...

.

Wellman was known for his disdain for actors in general, and actresses in particular, "Movie stardom isn't about acting ability - it's personality and temperament", he stated in 1952, and added, "I once directed Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...

. She was mad and crazy but WHAT a personality!"

Many actors disliked working with him, because he bullied them to get the performance he wanted. Wellman liked to work fast. Even though he hated their narcissism
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...

, he preferred working with men, because they did not need as much preparation time before shooting as women did. Despite all this, Wellman managed to elicit Oscar-nominated performances from seven different actors: Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...

 and Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven , Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel...

 (A Star Is Born), Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...

 (
Beau Geste), Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...

 (
The Story of G.I. Joe), James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...

 (
Battleground), and Jan Sterling
Jan Sterling
Jan Sterling was an American actress.Most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty , and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same performance...

 and Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers...

 (
The High and Mighty).

In his career, Wellman won a single Academy Award, for the story of
A Star Is Born. He was nominated as best director three times, for A Star Is Born, Battleground and The High and Mighty, for which he was also nominated by the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...

 as best director. In 1973, the DGA honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Wellman also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

, at 6125 Hollywood Blvd.

Several filmmakers have examined Wellman's career. Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....

 devoted an episode of his PBS series
The Men Who Made the Movies to Wellman in 1973, and in 1996, Todd Robinson made the feature-length documentary Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick.

Family

Wellman married four times:
  • Helene Chadwick
    Helene Chadwick
    Helene Chadwick was an American actress in silent motion pictures and in early sound films.-Early life and career:Chadwick was born in the small town of Chadwicks, New York, which was named for her grandfather...

    : married (1918–1923) separated after a month; later divorced
  • Margery Chapin (daughter of Frederic Chapin
    Frederic Chapin
    Frederic Chapin was an American composer and writer best known for his work with L. Frank Baum on The Woggle-Bug, a 1905 musical based on Baum's novel, The Marvelous Land of Oz. His popular work The Storks with Guy F. Steeley led to his work with Baum, as he was recommended by M. Witmark & Sons,...

    ): married (1925–1926); together for a short time; adopted Robert Emmett Tansey's daughter, Gloria.
  • Marjorie Crawford: married (1931–1933) divorced
  • Dorothy Coonan: married (March 20, 1934–1975); until his death; they had seven children - four daughters, three sons.


Dorothy starred in Wellman's 1933 film Wild Boys of The Road
Wild Boys of the Road (1933 film)
Wild Boys of the Road is a black-and-white, Depression-era American film telling the story of several teens forced into becoming hobos. The film was directed by William Wellman from a screenplay by Earl Baldwin based on the story "Desperate Youth" by Daniel Ahern...

and had seven children with Wellman, including actors Michael Wellman, William Wellman Jr., Maggie Wellman, and Cissy Wellman. His daughter Kathleen "Kitty" Wellman married actor James Franciscus
James Franciscus
James Grover Franciscus was an American actor, known for his roles in the series The Naked City and The Investigators, and in feature films.-Life and career:...

, although they later divorced. His first daughter is Patty Wellman, and he had a third son, Tim Wellman.

His son William Jr. wrote a book about Wellman,
The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture, and has appeared a number of times on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...

 to introduce films made by his father.

William Wellman died in 1975 of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. His widow, Dorothy Wellman
Dorothy Wellman
Dorothy Coonan Wellman was an American actress and dancer. Wellman was the widow of film director William Wellman, to whom she was married from 1934 until his death in 1975. Wellman cast her in several of his films.-Early life:Wellman was born Dorothy Coonan in Minneapolis, Minnesota...

, died on September 16, 2009, in Brentwood, California
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...

, at the age of 95.

Selected Filmography

  • The Knickerbocker Buckaroo
    The Knickerbocker Buckaroo
    The Knickerbocker Buckaroo is a 1919 silent Western directed by Albert Parker and starring Douglas Fairbanks, who also wrote and produced the film. Fairbanks plays a hedonistic New York City aristocrat who tries to change his selfish ways by heading to Sonora, Texas to carry out a campaign of...

    (1919
    1919 in film
    The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 5 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists...

    )(*Wellman's debut in the film industry)
  • The Twins of Suffering Creek (1920
    1920 in film
    The year 1920 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 27 - The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks opens.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1920:U.S.A. unless stated*The $1,000,000 Reward...

    ) (uncredited)
  • The Man Who Won (1923
    1923 in film
    -Events:*April 15 - Lee De Forest demonstrates the Phonofilm sound-on-film system at the Rivoli Theater in New York with a series of short musical films featuring vaudeville performers.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1923:U.S.A...

    )
  • Second Hand Love (1923)
  • Big Dan (1923)
  • The Vagabond Trail
  • Not a Drum Was Heard
  • The Circus Cowboy
  • The Boob
    The Boob
    The Boob is a romantic comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by William Wellman, and starring Gertrude Olmstead, Antonio D'Algy, George K. Arthur, and Joan Crawford.-Plot:...

    (1926
    1926 in film
    -Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....

    )
  • You Never Know Women
    You Never Know Women
    You Never Know Women is a 1926 silent film romantic drama from director William Wellman that was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The stars of the picture are Florence Vidor, Lowell Sherman and Clive Brook...

    (1926)
  • Wings
    Wings (film)
    Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...

    (1927
    1927 in film
    -Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...

    )
  • Ladies of the Mob
    Ladies of the Mob
    Ladies of the Mob was a silent film directed by William Wellman, produced by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor for Famous Players-Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.-Production:The film is based on a story by Ernest Booth...

    (1928
    1928 in film
    -Events:Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.* July 28 - Lights of New York is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film...

    )
  • Beggars of Life
    Beggars of Life
    Beggars of Life is an early sound film with talking sequences starring Wallace Beery as a rail-riding hobo and Louise Brooks as a girl on the run. Based on a novel called Beggars of Life by Jim Tully, the film is often regarded as Brooks's best American movie...

    (1928)
  • The Legion of the Condemned
    The Legion of the Condemned
    The Legion of the Condemned was a silent film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by Jesse Lasky and Adolph Zukor with E. Lloyd Sheldon as associate producer. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures....

    (1928)
  • Chinatown Nights (1929
    1929 in film
    -Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....

    )
  • Woman Trap
    Woman Trap
    Woman Trap is a 1929 American drama film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Evelyn Brent.- Cast :* Hal Skelly as Dan Malone* Chester Morris as Ray Malone* Evelyn Brent as Kitty Evans* William B. Davidson as Watts* Effie Ellsler as Mrs. Malone...

    (1929)
  • Young Eagles (1930
    1930 in film
    -Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...

    )
  • The Public Enemy
    The Public Enemy
    The Public Enemy is a 1931 American Pre-Code crime film starring James Cagney and directed by William A. Wellman. The film relates the story of a young man's rise in the criminal underworld in prohibition-era urban America...

    (1931
    1931 in film
    -Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

    )
  • Night Nurse
    Night Nurse (1931 film)
    Night Nurse is a 1931 Pre-Code, Prohibition-era, Warner Bros. crime drama and mystery film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell and Clark Gable. The film was considered risqué at the time of its release, particularly the scene where Stanwyck and...

    (1931)
  • The Star Witness
    The Star Witness
    The Star Witness is a feature film directed by William A. Wellman. It is a crime drama about a family that witness a crime and now have the gang members after them to prevent them from being witnesses....

    (1931)
  • Safe in Hell
    Safe in Hell
    Safe in Hell is a 1931 pre-Code Warner Bros. melodrama film directed by William Wellman and starring Dorothy Mackaill and Donald Cook with featured performances by Morgan Wallace, Ralf Harolde, Noble Johnson and Nina Mae McKinney.-Plot:...

    (1931)
  • The Hatchet Man
    The Hatchet Man
    The Hatchet Man is a Pre-Code film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Edward G. Robinson. Warner Bros. had purchased the David Belasco/Achmed Abdullah play The Honorable Mr. Wong about the Tong gang wars...

    (1932
    1932 in film
    -Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....

    )
  • So Big!
    So Big! (1932 film)
    So Big! is a 1932 American drama film directed by William A. Wellman. The screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander and Robert Lord is based on the 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Edna Ferber....

    (1932)
  • The Purchase Price
    The Purchase Price
    The Purchase Price is a Pre-Code American film, which was directed by William Wellman and adapted from Arthur Stringer's novel, The Mud Lark .-Plot:...

    (1932)
  • Love Is a Racket
    Love Is a Racket
    Love Is a Racket is a romantic comedy drama 1932 film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Ann Dvorak. The movie was written by Courtney Terrett from the novel by Rian James, and directed by William A. Wellman....

    (1932)
  • The Conquerors (1932)
  • Central Airport
    Central Airport (film)
    Central Airport is a 1933 film starring Richard Barthelmess and Sally Eilers. John Wayne had an unbilled part, as a co-pilot, and this film features his first on-screen death.-Cast:* Richard Barthelmess as James 'Jim' Blaine...

    (1933
    1933 in film
    -Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....

    )
  • Lilly Turner
    Lilly Turner
    Lilly Turner is a 1933 melodrama about a woman who marries a bigamist, then a drunk, and falls in love with another man, all while working at a carnival...

     (1933)
  • Heroes for Sale
    Heroes for Sale
    Heroes for Sale is a Depression-era film directed by William Wellman, starring Richard Barthelmess, Aline MacMahon, and Loretta Young, and released by Warner Bros. A veteran of World War I, Thomas Holmes, struggles to make his way in civilian life in almost every way imaginable...

    (1933)
  • Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
  • College Coach
    College Coach
    College Coach is a 1933 drama film starring Dick Powell and Ann Dvorak. The film features John Wayne in his last bit-part role.-Cast:* Dick Powell - Philip 'Phil'/'Sarge' Sargeant* Ann Dvorak - Claire Gore...

    (1933)
  • Viva Villa!
    Viva Villa!
    Viva Villa! is a 1934 American film starring Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa and was written by Ben Hecht, adapted from a biography by Edgecumb Pinchon and Odo B. Stade. The picture was directed by Jack Conway. There was special, uncredited help with the script by Howard Hawks, James Kevin...

    (1934
    1934 in film
    -Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...

    ) (uncredited)
  • The President Vanishes
    The President Vanishes (film)
    The President Vanishes, released in the United Kingdom as Strange Conspiracy, is a 1934 American political drama film directed by William A. Wellman and produced by Walter Wanger...

    (1934)
  • Stingaree
    Stingaree (1934 film)
    Stingaree is a musical western film directed by William A. Wellman released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1934. The film was based on a story by E. W. Hornung, which was published in 1905. Set in Australia, it starred Irene Dunne as Hilda Bouverie and Richard Dix as Stingaree.- Plot :Hilda Bouverie is...

    (1934)
  • Looking for Trouble
    Looking for Trouble
    Looking for Trouble is a 1934 American crime film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Spencer Tracy, Jack Oakie and Constance Cummings. After he is rejected by a woman, a man leaves his safe job and joins a gang that robs banks.-Cast:...

    (1934)
  • The Call of the Wild
    The Call of the Wild (1935 film)
    The Call of the Wild is a 1935 American adventure film adaptation of Jack London's novel of the same name. A prospector heading for the Alaska gold rush rescues a sled dog from its cruel master. Stars Clark Gable and Loretta Young had an affair during the film's production, resulting in Young's...

    (1935
    1935 in film
    -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

    )
  • The Robin Hood of El Dorado
    The Robin Hood of El Dorado
    The Robin Hood of El Dorado is a western film directed by William A. Wellman for MGM in 1936. The film stars Warner Baxter as real life Mexican folk hero Joaquin Murrietta and Ann Loring as his love interest....

    (1936
    1936 in film
    The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...

    )
  • Small Town Girl
    Small Town Girl (1936 film)
    Small Town Girl is a film starring Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, and James Stewart. The romantic comedy was directed by William A. Wellman.Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, the film went through many changes before it reached the screen...

    (1936)
  • Tarzan Escapes
    Tarzan Escapes
    Tarzan Escapes is a 1936 Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the third in the MGM Tarzan series to feature Johnny Weissmuller as the "King of the Apes".-Plot:...

    (1936) (uncredited)
  • A Star Is Born
    A Star Is Born (1937 film)
    A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who...

    (1937
    1937 in film
    The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

    )

  • Nothing Sacred
    Nothing Sacred (film)
    Nothing Sacred is a 1937 Technicolor screwball comedy film made by Selznick International Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by William A. Wellman and produced by David O. Selznick, from a screenplay credited to Ben Hecht, based on a story by James H. Street...

    (1937)
  • Beau Geste
    Beau Geste (1939 film)
    Beau Geste is a 1939 film produced by Paramount Pictures based on the novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. It was directed and produced by William A. Wellman from a screenplay by Robert Carson...

    (1939
    1939 in film
    The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...

    )
  • The Light that Failed
    The Light that Failed
    The Light That Failed is a novel by Rudyard Kipling that was first published in 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan or India. The Light that Failed follows the life of Dick Heldar, a painter who...

    (1939)
  • Thunder Birds
    Thunder Birds (1942 film)
    Thunder Birds is a Technicolor film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Gene Tierney, Preston Foster, and John Sutton...

    (1942
    1942 in film
    The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

    )
  • Roxie Hart
    Roxie Hart (film)
    Roxie Hart is a 1942 film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Nigel Bruce, Phil Silvers, William Frawley, and Spring Byington....

    (1942)
  • The Great Man's Lady
    The Great Man's Lady
    The Great Man's Lady is a 1942 American western film directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. The film is based on the short story "The Human Side" by Viña Delmar.-Plot:...

    (1942)
  • Lady of Burlesque
    Lady of Burlesque
    Lady of Burlesque is a 1943 American mystery film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea, based on the novel The G-String Murders written by famous strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee...

    (1943
    1943 in film
    The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....

    )
  • The Ox-Bow Incident
    The Ox-Bow Incident
    The Ox-Bow Incident is a 1943 American western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Harry Morgan and Jane Darwell...

    (1943)
  • Buffalo Bill
    Buffalo Bill (film)
    Buffalo Bill Technicolor is a biographical Western about the life of the legendary frontiersman, starring Joel McCrea and Maureen O'Hara with Linda Darnell and Anthony Quinn in supporting roles.-Cast:*Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody...

    (1944
    1944 in film
    The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....

    )
  • This Man's Navy
    This Man's Navy
    This Man's Navy is a World War II film about U.S. Navy airships starring Wallace Beery, Tom Drake, and James Gleason, and directed by William A. Wellman.-Plot:...

    (1945
    1945 in film
    The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....

    )
  • The Story of G.I. Joe
    The Story of G.I. Joe
    The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe, is a 1945 American war film directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor.The...

    (1945)
  • Magic Town
    Magic Town
    Magic Town is a comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, starring James Stewart and Jane Wyman. It is one of the first films about the then-new science of public opinion polling...

    (1947
    1947 in film
    The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...

    )
  • The Iron Curtain
    The Iron Curtain (film)
    The Iron Curtain is a 1948 black-and-white thriller film starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. The film was supposedly based on the memoirs of Igor Gouzenko . The film was directed by William Wellman with photography done on location in Ottawa, Canada by Charles G. Clarke. The film was later...

    (1948
    1948 in film
    The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...

    )
  • Yellow Sky
    Yellow Sky
    Yellow Sky is an American western film directed by William A. Wellman. The story is believed to be loosely adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. A band of outlaws flee after a bank robbery and encounter an old man and his granddaughter in a ghost town.-Plot:In 1867, a gang led by James...

    (1948)
  • Battleground (1949
    1949 in film
    The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...

    )
  • The Happy Years (1950
    1950 in film
    The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...

    )
  • The Next Voice You Hear... (1950
    1950 in film
    The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...

    )
  • Across the Wide Missouri
    Across the Wide Missouri (film)
    Across the Wide Missouri is a 1951 American film based on historian Bernard DeVoto's book, Across the Wide Missouri. The film dramatizes an account of several fur traders and their interaction with the Native Americans....

    (1951
    1951 in film
    The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...

    )
  • Westward the Women
    Westward the Women
    Westward the Women is a 1951 western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel and John McIntire.-Plot:...

    (1951)
  • My Man and I (1952)
  • Island in the Sky
    Island in the Sky (1953 film)
    Island in The Sky is a 1953 American aviation adventure/drama film written by Ernest K. Gann based on his 1944 novel of the same name, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring and co-produced by John Wayne. It was released by Warner Bros...

    (1953
    1953 in film
    The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...

    )
  • The High and the Mighty
    The High and the Mighty (film)
    The High and the Mighty is a 1954 American "disaster" film directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the novel on which his screenplay was based. The film's cast was headlined by John Wayne, who was also the project's co-producer...

    (1954
    1954 in film
    The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...

    )
  • Track of the Cat
    Track of the Cat
    Track of the Cat is a William A. Wellman film starring Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright. The film is based on a 1949 adventure novel of the same name by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. This was Wellman's second adaptation of a Clark novel, the first being The Ox-Bow Incident...

    (1954)
  • Blood Alley
    Blood Alley
    Blood Alley is a 1955 seafaring adventure movie starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall set in China.-Background:The film was written by Albert Sidney Fleischman from his novel, directed by William Wellman and was produced by Wayne's Batjac Productions...

    (1955
    1955 in film
    The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....

    )
  • Good-bye, My Lady
    Good-bye, My Lady (film)
    Good-bye, My Lady is a 1956 American film adaptation of the novel Good-bye, My Lady by James H. Street. The book had been inspired by Street's original story appearing in The Saturday Evening Post. As written, the story takes place in Mississippi, but was Hollywood changed to the state of Georgia,...

    (1956
    1956 in film
    The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...

    )
  • Darby's Rangers
    Darby's Rangers (1958 film)
    Darby's Rangers is a 1958 war film starring James Garner as William Orlando Darby, World War II commander of the 1st Ranger Battalion. The movie was shot by Warner Brothers Studios in black and white to match wartime stock footage included in the production and was directed by William...

    (1958
    1958 in film
    The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....

    )
  • Lafayette Escadrille
    Lafayette Escadrille (film)
    Lafayette Escadrille American war film released in March of 1958 by Warner Brothers Pictures, starring Tab Hunter, David Janssen, and Will Hutchins, and featuring Clint Eastwood in an early supporting role. It was the final film in the career of director William A...

    (1958)


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