Director, producer, actor Otto Preminger was born in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1906. His father, Josefa Preminger, was an attorney, and, complying with his parents' wishes, young Preminger studied law. He received an LL.D. from the University of Vienna in 1928. But Preminger was also interested in theater and had made his stage debut at the age of seventeen in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Vienna's Theater in der Josefstadt. During his summer vacation he continued to act and stage plays and eventually formed his own company, the Comedie. After completing his degree, Preminger became a producer-director at the Theater in der Josefstadt where he staged many plays.
In 1935 he immigrated to the United States where his first effort was the Broadway production Libel. Other theater works included Outward Bound, Margin for Error (in which Preminger also played the lead); My Dear Children, and In Time to Come. In 1941 he signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox to produce, direct, and act in motion pictures. He appeared or starred in The Pied Piper (1942), They Got Me Covered (1943), and Margin for Error (1943), the last-named of which he also directed. His 1944 film, Laura, won him an Oscar nomination for best director. Preminger remained with Fox until 1951 when he left to form his own production company, Carlyle Productions, Inc.
In December 1951 he staged the Broadway play The Moon Is Blue; two years later he transferred this work to film serving as producer and director. The film version was denied a stamp of approval by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and was banned as obscene by several local censor boards. A 1955 Supreme Court decision ultimately determined that local censors could not prohibit its performance. Similarly his 1955 work The Man with the Golden Arm, which he also produced and directed, was not sanctioned by MPAA. It also ran afoul of state censors. Again court decisions reversed these actions. Ultimately the motion picture code was revised in 1956, partially due to the influence of Preminger's controversial films and successful court cases.
Among Preminger's other film credits as both director and producer are Angel Face (1953), Carmen Jones (1954), Saint Joan (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Exodus (1960), Advise and Consent (1962), The Cardinal (1963), In Harm's Way (1964), Hurry Sundown (1967), Skidoo (1968), and Rosebud (1975). His directing credits include River of No Return (1954), The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), and Porgy and Bess (1959). In addition he starred as the concentration camp commandant in Stalag 17 (1953).
