Born on 10 September 1914 in Winchester, Indiana. He started out studying journalism, but the hard economic conditions of the Depression obliged him to look for work. His brother David, who was an administrator in the Hollywood RKO studios, got him a job in the montage department. Young Robert was taught by one of the finest film editors in Hollywood, William Hamilton, becoming an editor himself in 1938. He carried out this job for directors as important as Orson Welles, on Citizen Kane and The Maginifıcent Ambersons, or William Dieterle, on the Hunchback of Notre Dame and All That Money Can Buy. Wise became a director by default when Gunther von Fritsch failed to meet the production schedule of the horror film The Curse of the Cat People (1944). He took over and completed the film in ten days. It turned out to be a high-quality psychological thriller, one of the best in the Val Lewton cycle of horror films. The following year, Wise directed for Lewton a classic of the horror genre, The Body Snatcher, notable for its period atmosphere and intelligent exploitation of the macabre. After directing several routine B-pictures in the late 40s, Wise made what is one of the best boxing pictures ever filmed, The Set Up (1949), a mercilessly candid portrait of the seedy world of the professional ring. It won the Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Wise followed this in the 50s with such high-quality films as The Day the Earth Stood Still, Executive Suite, Somebody Up There Likes Me, I Want to Live, and Odds Against Tomorrow, as well as several other productions. He won Academy Awards for the direction of West Side Story (in collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins) and The Sound Filmography of Music. Robert Wise is the recipient of the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Prize for lifetime achievement, was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1992, is a former president of the Director' s Guild and current member of the board of directors of the Academy Morion Picture Arts and Sciences. Wise has spent the last decade concentrating on pet projects like the charming documentary The Fantasy World of George Pal (1986) and acting as a much sought-after advisor and mentor.