Classic Film Club

BIO

Cornel Wilde was born Kornel Lajos Weisz in Prievidza, Slovakia, in 1912.   He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1920.

Wilde qualified for the U.S. fencing team prior to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, but quit to take a role in the theater.   As a Hungarian Jew, he may also have felt it risky to compete in Nazi Germany for the sake of the Olympics.

Wilde made his Broadway debut in 1933, at the age of 13.   He had already appeared in six productions when he was hired as a fencing teacher by Laurence Olivier for his 1940 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, Wilde was given a role in the production.   He was soon noticed by Hollywood.

Wilde had already appeared in a short-reel for Paramount Pictures in 1936.   However, he now had a contract with Warner Bros. and completed his first feature film in 1940, at the age of 25.

He received an Actor Academy Award nomination for his performance in A Song to Remember (1945).

Wilde appeared in 50 feature films.   His last film role was in 1985.

In the 1950s, he created his own film production company and starred in several movies, including a few alongside his second wife, Jean Wallace.

Wilde married the actress Patricia Wright in 1937. They raised one child who became the actress Wendy Wilde.   Wilde proved to be a volatile and extremely jealous husband, closely managing his wife's career.   After a few tumultuous break-ups, they divorced in 1951.

He married the actress Jean Wallace that same year.   Wallace, formerly married to the actor Franchot Tone, had previously attempted suicide twice, once with sleeping pills in 1946 and once with a self-inflicted knife wound in 1949.   They had one child and were divorced in 1981.

Wilde died of leukemia in Los Angeles, in 1989.   He was 77 years old.

Additional Broadway stage history is available at:

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Full filmography at: