LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cornel Wilde: Laurence Olivier
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His father was a traveling salesman who did a lot of business in Europe, and Wilde spent much of his youth traveling in Europe with him, where he became fluent in several languages. For several years he studied medicine in college, but he gave it up to pursue acting; he ... gave up a spot on the 1936 U.S. Olympic fencing team. He appeared in a number of plays in New York and on the road, playing everything from bit parts to leads. In 1940 he was hired as a fencing instructor and a featured player for the Broadway production of Hamlet with Laurence Olivier; some of the rehearsals were in Hollywood, where he landed a film contract. On-screen from 1940, Wilde played small roles as heavies in several films, then switched studios and began getting leads in B movies. His career took off after he played Chopin in A Song to Remember (1945), for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
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Cornelius Louis Wilde was an American actor. Born in New York City to Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary, Wilde traveled throughout Europe in his youth, acquiring the ability to speak many languages. He qualified for the United States fencing team prior to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, but quit the team just prior to the games in order to take a role in the theater. Hired as a fencing teacher by Laurence Olivier for his 1940 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, Wilde was given the role of Tybalt in the production. Because of this role, he was noticed by Hollywood.
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Hired as a fencing teacher by Laurence Olivier for his 1940 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, Wilde was given the role of Tybalt in the production. Because of this role, he was noticed by Hollywood. He was married to actress Jean Wallace from 1951 to 1981. Wallace, formerly married to actor Franchot Tone, co-starred with Wilde in several films including The Big Combo (1955) and Sword of Lancelot (1963). They divorced in 1981.
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From Broadway (notably as Tybalt in Olivier's 1940 production of "Romeo and Juliet"), Wilde entered films in 1940 and made his name playing Frederic Chopin in "A Song to Remember" (1945). Of limited charm and talent, he fluctuated between A and B pictures (including a number of swashbucklers) before beginning to direct and star in his own independent productions in the mid-1950s....
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Issu d'une famille d'émigrés hongrois, Cornel Wilde passe une partie de son enfance à Budapest. De retour aux Etats-Unis, il se passionne pour le théâtre et le sport. Champion d'escrime, il est choisi par Laurence Olivier pour être le maître d'armes de sa troupe et jouer dans Roméo et Juliette. C'est alors que la Warner le repère.
Laurence Oliver and Vivian Leigh hire Wilde as a technical advisor on the fencing sequences for their Romeo and Juliet, to be staged in New York the following year. She is contracted for a small part.
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