--- name: "Cornel Wilde" canonical: "https://film.one/person/cornel-wilde" roles: ["Actor"] born: "13 October 1912" died: "16 October 1989" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T02:23:21.692773+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cornel Wilde Actor. Born 13 October 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary. Died 16 October 1989. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 13 October 1912, Prievidza, Hungary - **Died:** 16 October 1989 - **Also known as:** Jefferson Pascal, Kornél Lajos Weisz, Cornelius Louis Wilde - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_Wilde, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q727740, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0664273/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/35320 ## Fi1m on Cornel Wilde > Cornel Wilde was an athlete first and an actor second, and the films that knew it are the ones worth watching. Hollywood cast him as a costumed romantic lead; the films people still talk about are the ones he wrote and directed himself. Watch Cornel Wilde climb. In *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952) he goes up to the trapeze as The Great Sebastian grinning, and he is still grinning when Betty Hutton starts shouting at him from the other platform. The two of them try to outdo each other, the camera goes up into the rigging after them, and we gripped the arm of the sofa. We did not believe the rivalry for a second; we believed the bodies in the air and the sawdust a long way below. At ground level the film is stiff and the talk is pompous, and Wilde has the easiest time of anyone in it, all teeth and shrugs. That is the Wilde we know: better in motion than in conversation, and happiest when the part gives him something to hang from. He came to films from the stage and from the sword. He was fencing choreographer and Tybalt in Laurence Olivier's 1940 *Romeo and Juliet*, and had made his film debut in 1937. The break was Frédéric Chopin in *A Song to Remember* (1945), a consumptive composer at a piano, about as far from a rapier as a part can get. Then 20th Century Fox took him on and spent the rest of the decade putting him into melodramas and swashbucklers, *Leave Her to Heaven* (1945) among them, and the typecasting set in. The turn came in the 1950s. He went freelance, formed Theodora Productions with his second wife Jean Wallace, and from the middle of the decade began writing, producing and directing the films he starred in; he and Wallace made eight together. *The Big Combo* (1955) is a noir on which he was also associate producer. *The Naked Prey* (1965), which he produced, directed and played the lead in, is the one that still gets talked about, for how plainly it shows a man being hunted and how little it dresses up the violence. We have not reviewed it and will not judge it here. What we can say is that the man who stopped waiting for a studio to send him a script is a good deal more interesting than the one on the trapeze. The complaint about his directing was that it was crude by the standards of the studios he had left, and it may well have been. He was making films about people trying to kill one another and what that does to them, and he did not stop to make them pretty. "Acting is not just 'another day, another dollar'. If I hate a script or think it's foolish or in bad taste, I'm miserable," he said in 1954, and it goes some way to explaining why he ended up behind the camera. Start with the trapeze, which is worth the climb on its own, then go and find what he made once nobody was telling him to grin. ## Biography Cornel Wilde was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Born Kornél Lajos Weisz on 13 October 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary (now Slovakia), he emigrated to the United States as a child. He began his career on Broadway in the mid-1930s before making uncredited film appearances from 1937. He became a leading man in the 1940s under contract with 20th Century Fox. Wilde received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role as Frédéric Chopin in *A Song to Remember* (1945). Other notable performances include *Leave Her to Heaven* (1945), *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952) as The Great Sebastian, and *The Big Combo* (1955). From the 1950s he also wrote, produced and directed films, including *The Naked Prey* (1965). He died in Los Angeles on 16 October 1989. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952), Fi1m 56, as The Great Sebastian — [page](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-show-on-earth.md) ## Complete filmography (60) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Flesh and Bullets* (1985), as Police Captain - *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Duncan Barnett - *The Fifth Musketeer* (1979), as D'Artagnan - *The Norseman* (1978), as Ragnar - *Fantasy Island* (1978), series, as Daring Danny Ryan - *Sharks' Treasure* (1975), as Jim Carnahan · Director, Writer, Producer - *Gargoyles* (1972), as Dr. Mercer Boley - *Night Gallery* (1970), series, Actor - *No Blade of Grass* (1970), Director, Writer, Producer - *The Comic* (1969), as Frank Powers - *Beach Red* (1967), Capt. MacDonald / Narrator, Director, Screenplay, Producer - *The Naked Prey* (1965), as The Man · Director, Producer - *Kraft Suspense Theatre* (1963), series, as George Press - *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1963), series, Actor - *Sword of Lancelot* (1963), as Sir Lancelot · Director, Writer, Producer - *Constantine and the Cross* (1961), as Constantine - *Around the World with Nellie Bly* (1960), as Steve Roberts / German Captain / Count / Jacque / Sheik - *Edge of Eternity* (1959), as Les Martin - *Maracaibo* (1958), as Vic Scott · Director, Producer - *The Devil's Hairpin* (1957), as Nick Jargin · Director, Writer, Producer - *Omar Khayyam* (1957), as Omar Khayyam - *Beyond Mombasa* (1956), as Matt Campbell - *Hot Blood* (1956), as Stephano Torino - *Storm Fear* (1955), as Charlie · Director, Producer - *Star Stage* (1955), series, Actor - *The Scarlet Coat* (1955), as Maj. John Boulton - *The Big Combo* (1955), as Leonard Diamond - *Passion* (1954), as Juan Obreon - *Woman's World* (1954), as Bill Baxter - *Star of India* (1954), as Pierre St. Laurent - *Saadia* (1953), as Si Lahssen - *Treasure of the Golden Condor* (1953), as Jean-Paul - *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, as Peter Maresy, Rudy Alberti - *Operation Secret* (1952), as Peter Forrester - *California Conquest* (1952), as Don Arturo Bordega - *At Sword's Point* (1952), as D'Artagnan Jr. - *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952), as The Great Sebastian — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-show-on-earth.md) - *I Love Lucy* (1951), series, as Cornel Wilde - *Two Flags West* (1950), as Mark Bradford - *Swiss Tour* (1949), as Stanley Robin - *Shockproof* (1949), as Griff Marat - *The Walls of Jericho* (1948), as Dave Connors - *Road House* (1948), as Pete Morgan - *It Had to Be You* (1947), as George McKesson - *Forever Amber* (1947), as Bruce Carlton - *The Homestretch* (1947), as Jock Wallace - *Centennial Summer* (1946), as Philippe Lascalles - *The Bandit of Sherwood Forest* (1946), as Robert of Nottingham - *Leave Her to Heaven* (1945), as Richard Harland - *A Thousand and One Nights* (1945), as Aladdin - *A Song to Remember* (1945), as Frédéric Chopin - *Wintertime* (1943), as Freddy Austin - *Life Begins at Eight-Thirty* (1942), as Robert Carter - *Manila Calling* (1942), as Jeff Bailey - *The Perfect Snob* (1941), as Mike Lord - *Kisses for Breakfast* (1941), as Chet Oakley - *Knockout* (1941), as Tommy Rossi - *High Sierra* (1941), as Louis Mendoza - *Lady with Red Hair* (1940), as Mr. Williams (uncredited) - *Exclusive* (1937), as Reporter ## Gallery - ![Cornel Wilde](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-2b00f1c199ce.jpg) Cornel Wilde — Photographer not credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Cornel_Wilde_in_1946.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight, 1946](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-78f7af105dc0.jpg) Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight, 1946 — Photographer not credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Cornel_Wilde_and_Patricia_Knight%2C_1946.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photo of Cornel Wilde and Betty White from The Betty White Show in 1958. White had a prime-time comedy program in 1958; the photo is from this television show.](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-51d315ae55a6.jpg) Photo of Cornel Wilde and Betty White from The Betty White Show in 1958. White had a prime-time comedy program in 1958; the photo is from this television show. — ABC Television-part of the then ABC logo is visible on back of photo., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Cornel_Wilde_Betty_White_Betty_White_Show_1958.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight, 1946](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-88e90e3f6bab.jpg) Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight, 1946 — Photographer not credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Cornel_Wilde_and_Patricia_Knight_drinking_Coffee_Grog%2C_1946.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Cornel Wilde](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-812803a931c6.jpg) Cornel Wilde — Image via TMDB - ![Cornel Wilde](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-e7b2e2c0ce3f.jpg) Cornel Wilde — Image via TMDB - ![Cornel Wilde](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-5f700cee8900.jpg) Cornel Wilde — Image via TMDB - ![Cornel Wilde kisses Patricia Knight, 1946](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-b2d8325d73be.jpg) Cornel Wilde kisses Patricia Knight, 1946 — Photographer not credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Cornel_Wilde_kisses_Patricia_Knight%2C_1946.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Screenshot of Cornel Wilde and Gene Tierney from the film Leave Her to Heaven. (1945)](https://film.one/media/person/1237198/gallery-9c225ebdee2c.jpg) Screenshot of Cornel Wilde and Gene Tierney from the film Leave Her to Heaven. (1945) — Leave Her to Heaven (The Criterion Collection) screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Leave_Her_to_Heaven_%281945%29_screenshot.jpg/1280px-Leave_Her_to_Heaven_%281945%29_screenshot.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1946: Best Actor (nominated), for *A Song to Remember* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/cornel-wilde