High-flying Western Director

Director William Wellman’s career as a filmmaker during the mogul-studio era is a portrait in motion picture history, captured intimately by his son William Wellman Jr. in Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel. Wellman, whose films, beginning with the silent Wings in 1923, earned thirty-two Academy Award nominations and seven Oscars, is described by his son as a man who “never ran with the pack,” a “maverick, never trailing behind, always pointing the way forward.” A World War I flying ace, married five times, the fiercely independent Wellman was never afraid to use his fists to prove a point. In this book, he at last receives the credit he deserves for a more-than-honored place in motion picture history. Highly recommended.

— Jeb J. Rosebrook, screenwriter of Junior Bonner