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60 free William Wyler trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This William Wyler trivia quiz covers the most Oscar-nominated director in Hollywood history, from silent Universal westerns to Funny Girl. The easy questions are ones any classic-film fan can attempt: the three films that won him Best Director, the epic with the chariot race, the actress he introduced in Roman Holiday, and the star whose debut he directed in 1968. From there it moves into the films and the people around them: Bette Davis and Jezebel, Olivier and Wuthering Heights, Gregg Toland's deep focus, Harold Russell's two Oscars, Dalton Trumbo's uncredited script, and Wyler's wartime documentaries. The harder end is for cinephiles: his birthplace in Alsace, the cousin who owned Universal, his first sound film in the Mojave, the record streak of Best Director nominations, the 40-take nickname and what he told Henry Fonda, the leg he offered Kirk Douglas, the actor whose graylisting he broke, the Palme d'Or, the Thalberg award, the film he quit before Patton and the mentor role he played for John Huston. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Wyler and his films before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our classic Hollywood, Academy Awards and Audrey Hepburn quizzes next.
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Q 01William Wyler holds the record for the most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. How many?
12
He won three times, and 13 of his films were nominated for Best Picture.
Q 02Which three films won Wyler his directing Oscars?
Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur
All three also won Best Picture, making him the only director with three Best Picture winners.
Q 03In which city was Wyler born?
Mulhouse
It was then in the German Empire's Alsace-Lorraine and is now in France.
Q 04Wyler's mother was a cousin of which studio founder, who gave him his start?
Carl Laemmle
Laemmle came to Europe each year looking for promising young men and hired Wyler in 1921.
Q 05Which studio did Wyler work for in his early Hollywood years, becoming its youngest director by 1925?
Universal
He started in the swing gang, cleaning stages and moving sets, before rising through the ranks.
Q 06Wyler's first all-talking film, shot on location in the Mojave Desert in 1929, was which western?
Hell's Heroes
It was one of many adaptations of Peter B. Kyne's story The Three Godfathers.
Q 07Which future agent, a young Czech, did Wyler befriend on the ship to New York in 1921?
Paul Kohner
Both had to repay the cost of their first-class passage out of $25-a-week jobs as studio messengers.
Q 08Wyler's first Best Director nomination came for which 1936 film starring Walter Huston?
Dodsworth
It began a long collaboration with producer Samuel Goldwyn.
Q 09Wyler's first Best Director nominee was adapted from a novel by which American author?
Sinclair Lewis
Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his own 1934 stage adaptation.
Q 10Which cinematographer, famous for Citizen Kane, worked with Wyler on Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes and The Best Years of Our Lives?
Gregg Toland
Their deep-focus style kept foreground and background sharp in the same shot.
Q 11What is the name of the visual technique Wyler pioneered with Toland, keeping an entire room sharp from front to back?
Deep focus
It allowed dramatic changes in lighting and movement to play out inside one long, uncut take.
Q 12Bette Davis won her second Oscar for which 1938 Wyler film?
Jezebel
She said Wyler trained her on it to be a far, far better actress.
Q 13On the set of his 1938 Bette Davis picture, Wyler put which actor through 40 takes of a scene with only the word "Again!" as direction?
Henry Fonda
When the actor asked for more direction, Wyler said: It stinks. The habit earned him the nickname 40-take Wyler.
Q 21What lasting injury did Wyler suffer while making the documentary Thunderbolt!?
He went deaf in one ear
He returned from the war a lieutenant colonel and a disabled veteran.
Q 22The Best Years of Our Lives follows how many veterans returning home after World War II?
Three
Wyler drew on his own homecoming after three years at the front.
Q 23Non-actor Harold Russell, who played Homer in The Best Years of Our Lives, had lost what in the war?
Both hands
He won Best Supporting Actor and an Honorary Award for the same role, the only time that has happened.
Q 14Which actor received his first Oscar nomination for Wyler's Wuthering Heights and credited him with teaching him to act for the screen?
Laurence Olivier
He later asked Wyler to direct his Henry V; Wyler declined, saying he was not a Shakespearian.
Q 15Who played Cathy opposite Olivier in Wuthering Heights?
Merle Oberon
David Niven co-starred, and Samuel Goldwyn produced.
Q 16Which director, later famous for The Maltese Falcon, called Wyler his best friend in the industry and early mentor?
John Huston
Wyler met him while directing his father Walter Huston in A House Divided in 1931.
Q 17Mrs. Miniver, Wyler's first Best Director winner, starred Walter Pidgeon and which actress, who won Best Actress?
Greer Garson
It was her first and only Academy Award.
Q 18Who sent MGM a telegram calling Mrs. Miniver "propaganda worth 100 battleships"?
Winston Churchill
Roosevelt wanted prints rushed to theatres, and the minister's speech was dropped as leaflets over occupied Europe.
Q 19Which US ambassador to Britain urged studios to stop making pro-British films because he believed British defeat was imminent?
Joseph Kennedy
MGM's Eddie Mannix disagreed, saying someone should salute England even if it lost $100,000.
Q 20Wyler's 1944 wartime documentary followed the crew of which type of aircraft?
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
He filmed it on real bombing missions in 1943, once passing out from lack of oxygen.
Q 24Who won Best Actor for The Best Years of Our Lives?
Fredric March
Each of Wyler's three Best Picture winners produced an acting Oscar in a lead category.
Q 25The Heiress, which won Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar, was based on which Henry James novel?
Washington Square
De Havilland saw the play in New York and persuaded Wyler to get Paramount to buy the rights.
Q 26Which actress won Best Actress for her first starring role in Wyler's Roman Holiday?
Audrey Hepburn
Wyler said the only comparable actresses were Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and maybe Bergman.
Q 27Roman Holiday's blacklisted screenwriter did not receive credit until decades later. Who was he?
Dalton Trumbo
Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him; full credit was restored in 2011.
Q 28Which Wyler film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1956?
Friendly Persuasion
It tells of a Quaker family in Indiana whose pacifism is tested by the Civil War.
Q 29How many Oscars did Ben-Hur win, a record unequalled until Titanic in 1997?
11
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King later matched the total too.
Q 30Roughly how long did the nine-minute chariot race in Ben-Hur take to film?
Six months
The film used fifteen thousand extras and was the most expensive ever made at the time.