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Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone (born Lev Milstein) (September 30 1895 - September 25 1980) was an accomplished, and award-winning motion picture director. He was born in Chisinau, Moldova, although at the time it was the Russian city of Kishinev, and came to the United States just prior to World War I. Milestone held a number of odd jobs before enlisting in the U.S. Signal Corps, where he worked as an assistant director on Army training films during the war.

After the war he went to Hollywood, where he first worked as a film cutter, and later as an assistant director. Howard Hughes promoted Milestone to director, and one of his early efforts, the 1928 film Two Arabian Knights, won him an Oscar in the first Academy Award ceremony. He also directed The Racket, an early gangster film, and later helped Hughes direct scenes for his aviation saga Hell's Angels (for which he never received credit).

Milestone won his second Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front, a screen adaptation of the antiwar novel by Erich Maria Remarque. His next, The Front Page, brought the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play to the screen. It earned him another Oscar nomination. He worked extensively in television from the mid 1950s.

Milestone's Academy Award nominations: 1940 Nominated Of Mice and Men; 1931 Nominated The Front Page; 1930 Won All Quiet on the Western Front; 1929 Won Two Arabian Knights.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Lewis Milestone Facts

Birth NameLev Milstein
OccupationDirector
BirthdaySeptember 30, 1895
SignLibra
BirthplaceChisinau, Moldova
Date of deathSeptember 25, 1980 (age 84)
Height5' 7½" (1m71)  How tall is Lewis Milestone compared to you?
Awards1930 Academy Awards: Best Director (for All Quiet on the Western Front)
1928 Academy Awards: Best Director (for Two Arabian Knights)

Selected Filmography

The North Star
All Quiet on the Western Front
Halls Of Montezuma
Garden of Eden, The
Ocean's 11
Mutiny on the Bounty
Pork Chop Hill
Dark Film Mysteries
TCM Spotlight: Errol Flynn Adventures
Have Gun Will Travel
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