William A. Wellman

Wellman was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Arthur Gouverneur Wellman, was a Boston Brahmin. William was a great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Puritan Thomas Wellman, who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony circa 1640. He was also a great-great-great-grandson of Welsh-born Francis Lewis of New York, one of the 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence. Wellman's mother, Cecilia McCarthy, was an Irish immigrant. During his teenage years, Wellman often found himself in trouble with authorities. He was expelled from Newton High School in Newtonville, Massachusetts for dropping a stink bomb on the principal's head. He was also arrested and placed on probation for car theft. His mother, who actually worked as a probation officer, was asked to address Congress on the subject of juvenile delinquency. Later, Wellman worked as a salesman, as a general laborer in a lumber yard, and as a player on a minor-league hockey team. ==World War I==

(image from his 1918 account Go Get Em!...) In World War I, Wellman enlisted in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps to serve as a driver in Europe. While in Paris, Wellman joined the French Foreign Legion and was assigned on December 3, 1917, as a fighter pilot, becoming the first American to join Escadrille N.87 in the Lafayette Flying Corps (not the sub-unit Lafayette Escadrille as usually stated), where he earned himself the nickname "Wild Bill", and was awarded the Croix de Guerre with two palms. N.87, les Chats Noir (Black Cat Group) was stationed at Lunéville in the Alsace-Lorraine sector and was equipped with Nieuport 17 and later Nieuport 24 "pursuit" aircraft. Wellman's combat experience culminated in three recorded "kills", along with five probables, although he was ultimately shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on March 21, 1918. Wellman survived the crash but he walked with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life. • January 19: a German "Rumpler" shot down in front of American lines in Lorraine by Wellman and Thomas Hitchcock. • January 20: a German "Rumpler" shot down near German airfield at Mamy, France; pilot killed/gunner escaped • March 8: forced two observers to jump from an observation balloon (attack unsuccessful; balloon taken down) • March 9: fired on a German "Rumpler" over Parroy; plane escaped, but rear gunner killed. • March 9: shot down a German "Rumpler"; killed rear gunner; pilot killed by airman Ruamps. • March 9: shot down a German "Albatros"; pilot killed; plane fell into American lines • March 17: shot down at least two +one[?] German patrol planes; not confirmed as fight took place over German lines. • March 18: shot down a German "Rumpler;" not confirmed as fight took place over German lines. Maréchal des logis (Sergeant) Wellman received a medical discharge from the Foreign Legion and returned to the United States a few weeks later. He spoke at War Savings Stamp rallies in his French uniform. In September 1918 his book about French flight school and his eventful four months at the front, ''Go Get 'Em!'' (written by Wellman with the help of Eliot Harlow Robinson), was published. He joined the United States Army Air Service, but was too late to fly for America in the war. Stationed at Rockwell Field in San Diego, he taught combat tactics to new pilots. ==Film career==

While in San Diego, Wellman flew to Hollywood for the weekends in his Spad fighter, using Douglas Fairbanks' polo field in Bel Air as a landing strip. and was miserable watching himself on screen while learning the craft. Wellman's other films include The Public Enemy (1931), the first version of A Star Is Born (1937), Nothing Sacred (1937), Beau Geste (1939) starring Gary Cooper, Thunder Birds (1942), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Lady of Burlesque (1943), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), The Iron Curtain (1948), Battleground (1949) and three films starring and produced by John Wayne: Island in the Sky (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954), and Blood Alley (1955). While he was primarily a director, Wellman also produced 10 films, one of them uncredited, all of which he also directed. His last film was Lafayette Escadrille (1958), which he produced, directed, wrote the story for and narrated. He wrote the screenplay for two other films that he directed, and one film that he did not direct: 1936's The Last Gangster. Wellman wrote the story for A Star Is Born and (with Robert Carson) received the Academy Award for Best Story. Wellman is credited for the story in the remakes released in 1954, 1976, and 2018. Wellman's work was influenced by his good friend and fellow film director Howard Hawks, with whom he rode motorcycles together in a group called the Moraga Spit and Polish Club. Wellman reportedly worked fast, usually satisfied with a shot after one or two takes. Innovations Wings led to several firsts in filmmaking including newly invented camera mounts that could be secured to plane fuselages and motor-driven cameras to shoot actors while flying as the cameramen ducked out of frame in their cockpits. Star Richard Arlen had some flying experience but co-star Buddy Rogers had to learn to fly for the film, as stunt pilots could not be used during close-up shots. Towers up to were used to shoot low-flying planes and battle action on the ground. Awards Wellman won a single Academy Award, for the story of A Star Is Born. He was nominated as best director three times: for A Star Is Born, Battleground and The High and Mighty, for which he was also nominated by the Directors Guild of America as best director. In 1973, the DGA honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Copies of both Wings and The Story of G.I. Joe are preserved in the Academy Film Archive. Wellman also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ==Personal life and death==

Wellman revealed near the end of his life that he had married a French woman named Renee during his time in The Lafayette Flying Corps. She was killed in a bombing raid during the war. • Margery Chapin (daughter of Frederic Chapin): married (1925–1926); together for a short time; adopted Robert Emmett Tansey's daughter, Gloria. • Marjorie Crawford: married (1930–1933) divorced • Dorothy "Dottie" Coonan: married (March 20, 1934 – 1975); until his death; they had seven children - four daughters, three sons. Dorothy starred in Wellman's 1933 film Wild Boys of the Road and had seven children with him, including actors Michael Wellman, William Wellman Jr., Maggie Wellman, and Cissy Wellman. His daughter Kathleen "Kitty" Wellman married actor James Franciscus, although they later divorced. His first daughter is Patty Wellman, and he had a third son, Tim Wellman. In 1974, Wellman published his autobiography, A Short Time for Insanity. William Wellman died of leukemia in 1975 at his Brentwood home in Los Angeles. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. His widow Dorothy, at age 95, died on September 16, 2009, in Brentwood, California. ==Career assessments==

Decades after Wellman's death, William Jr. wrote two biographies about his father, The Man and His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture (2006) and Wild Bill Wellman—Hollywood Rebel (2015). Fellow filmmakers have also examined Wellman's career. Richard Schickel in 1973 devoted an episode of his PBS series The Men Who Made the Movies to Wellman, and in 1996, Todd Robinson made the feature-length documentary Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick. ==Filmography==