| Starring: William Holden : 1953 |
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| Stalag 1917 1953. Paramount Director: Billy Wilder Cast: William Holden (J.J. Sefton) Robert Strauss, Sig Ruman, Don Taylor, Peter Graves, Neville Brand, Otto Preminger Screenplay: |
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| William Holden, |
| William Holden, Peter Graves |
| William Holden, Robert Strauss |
| Willam Holden |
| Peter Graves, William Holden, Neville Brand, |
| Sig Ruman,, Willam Holden |
| William Holden, Otto Preminger |
| William Holden won the 1953 Best Actor oscar as a reward for audacious casting against type in Billy Wilder's raucous comedy-drama set in a German P.O.W. camp during World War II . |
| Holden hetched in a memorable portrait of wisecracking, cigar-chewing cynism as a scheming, wheeling-and- dealing sergeant suspected to be a spy for the Nazis. |
| Holden had often complained of the kind of roles in which his sunny,clean-cut , All-American good looks had condemned him: "I got into a rut playing all kind of nice-guy meningless roles in meaningless movies in which I found no interest or enjoyment." He defined his characteristic screen persona as *Nice Willie*: "He had a great smile and a great big laugh and he laughed at everything everyone said. I hated his guts' He said with feeling. Billy Wilder had changed all that a second time. |