 otto ludwig preminger (5 december 1905 â 23 april 1986) was an austrian american theatre and film director. after moving from the theatre to hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. he first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as laura (1944) and fallen angel (1945) while in the 1950s and '60s, he directed a number of high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. several of these later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with topics which were then taboo in hollywood, such as drug addiction (the man with the golden arm, 1955), rape (anatomy of a murder, 1959) and homosexuality (advise & consent, 1962). he was twice nominated for the academy award for best director. he also had a few acting roles. ==early life== preminger was born in 1905 in wiznitz (vyzhnytsia), a town west of czernowitz, northern bukovina, in today's ukraine, then part of the austro-hungarian empire, into a jewish family. his parents were josefa (nÃ©e fraenkel) and markus preminger.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0695937/biofoster hirsch, otto preminger: the man who would be king, random house llc, 2011. preminger's father was born in 1877 in galicia, at a time when it was part of the austro-hungarian empire. as an attorney general of austria-hungary, markus was a proud public prosecutor on the verge of an extraordinary career defending the interests of the emperor franz josef. the couple provided a stable home life for preminger and his younger brother ingo, later the producer of the original film version of m*a*s*h (1970). otto recalled:"my father believed that it was impossible to be too kind or too loving to a child. he never punished me. when there wer
1905_births 1986_deaths 20th-century_American_male_actors American_film_directors American_male_film_actors American_people_of_Ukrainian-Jewish_descent Austrian_emigrants_to_the_United_States Austrian_male_television_actors Bukovina_Jews Burials_at_Woodlawn_Cemetery_(Bronx) Cancer_deaths_in_New_York Deaths_from_Alzheimer\'s_disease Deaths_from_cancer German-language_film_directors Golden_Globe_Award_winning_producers People_from_Manhattan People_from_Vyzhnytsia Ukrainian_Jews