Trivia

Billy Wilder had a sign over his office door, which read "How would Lubitsch do it?".

Billy Wilder considered him his favorite director.

Known for "The Lubitsch Touch" due to his sophisticated wit and style.

"MOS" is used, on a slate, when a scene is filmed without sync sound (or any sound). This term is widely thought to be an homage to Lubitsch, who would say, in his thick Berlin accent, that he wished to shoot some footage "mitout sound." "Mit" means "with" in German--ergo, without sound . . . "mitout sound" . . . "M-O-S".

Was known for always playing practical jokes on his film sets.

Was voted the 16th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Discovered actress Jeanette MacDonald. In 1929, Lubitsch was reviewing old screen tests of Broadway performers and spotted MacDonald. He cast her as the leading lady in The Love Parade (1929).

Brought together Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, one of Hollywood's greatest screen pairings. Off screen, the pair loathed each other.

Directed three different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Lewis Stone, Maurice Chevalier and Greta Garbo.

His family was Ashkenazi Jewish, his father born in Grodno in the Russian Empire and his mother from Wriezen (Oder), outside Berlin. He turned his back on his father's tailoring business to enter the theater, and by 1911, he was a member of Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater.

Lubitsch qualified as an accountant before he came in contact with the theater.

During the shooting of his last movie That Lady in Ermine (1948), he died and with him the so-called Lubitsch touch. The movie was finished by Otto Preminger.

He has directed five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Lady Windermere's Fan (1925), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Shortly before his death, he was awarded with the Honorary Award in 1947 for his life work.

Along with Jack Conway, Michael Curtiz, Victor Fleming, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Sam Wood, Francis Ford Coppola, Herbert Ross and Steven Soderbergh, he is one of ten directors to have more than one film nominated for Best Picture in the same year. The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) and One Hour with You (1932) (which he co-directed George Cukor) were both so nominated at the 5th Academy Awards in 1932.

He has directed six films that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Patriot (1928), The Love Parade (1929), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), One Hour with You (1932), Ninotchka (1939) and Heaven Can Wait (1943).

He had a daughter, Nicola, with his wife Vivian Gaye.

Son of Simcha (Simon) Lubitsch, a Jewish tailor.

Became a naturalized US citizen in 1936.

Because of the success of his movie Madame Du Barry (1934), he became well known in the United States.

At Lubitsch's funeral, directors William Wyler and Billy Wilder approached his casket to pay their respects. "No more Lubitsch", Wyler said sadly. Wilder added, "Worse than that - no more Lubitsch films!".

He directed a "mummy" film, the silent German production The Eyes of the Mummy (1918).

After that he gave up his acting career and concentrated to the direction. He shot first big movies and from now on Ernst Lubitsch belonged to the first brigade of German directors.

Retrospective at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival. (1984)

By 1915, he had already realized his first movie entitled Miss Soapsuds (1914). Together with Austro-Hungarian actor Ernst Matray, he established his reputation as a director, writer, producer and comedian with the foundation of the Malu-Film company.

The Ernst-Lubitsch-Prize, a German Comedy prize, was established in 1958 in an effort of Billy Wilder to keep the memory of his friend alive.

He made his film debut as an actor in The Ideal Wife (1913). Shortly thereafter, his appearances in The Perfect Thirty-Six (1914) and its sequel The Pride of the Firm (1914) established his Continental reputation as a talented comedian.

In 1946, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his distinguished contributions to the art of the motion picture.

The talkies were unable to get at Ernst Lubitsch, on the contrary. Some of his best works as a director came in the 30's and early 40's into being.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 692-700. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Formed his own production company, Romaine Film Corp.