Otto Preminger, (born Dec. 5, 1906, Vienna, Austria—died April 23, 1986, New York, N.Y., U.S.), Austrian-born U.S. film director. While studying law in his native Vienna, he worked with Max Reinhardt’s theatre and soon became its director. In 1935 he went to the U.S. to direct Libel on Broadway. Invited to Hollywood, he made the successful thriller Laura (1944), which helped establish film noir. Forming his own production company, he defied Hollywood’s Production Code with a series of controversial films and brought about the relaxation of censorship regulations. His landmark films include The Moon Is Blue (1953); the all-African American Carmen Jones (1954); and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), a tale of drug addiction. His later films include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Exodus (1960), The Cardinal (1963), and Hurry Sundown (1967). He also worked as a character actor, most notably in Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17 (1953).
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