Trivia of Cornel Wilde

 Trivia of Cornel Wilde (13 October 1912 - 16 October 1989)

*A talented linguist and an astute mimic, he had an ear for languages.Wilde entered Columbia University, class of 1933, as one of the youngest undergraduates. He fenced for the Columbia Lions fencing team. He won the National Novice Foils Championship held at the New York Athletic Club in 1929.He also qualified for the United States fencing team for the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, but quit the team before the games in order to take a role in the theater.

*Wilde was hired as a fencing teacher by Laurence Olivier for his 1940 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet and was given the role of Tybalt in the production. Although the show only had a small run, his performance in this role netted him a Hollywood film contract with Warner Bros.He started Hollywood debut in film Lady with Red Hair (1940).

*In 1945, Columbia Pictures began a search for someone to play the role of Frédéric Chopin in A Song to Remember. They eventually tested Wilde, and agreed to cast him in the role.A Song to Remember was a big hit, made Wilde a star and earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

*He played the male lead in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), with Gene Tierney and Jeanne Crain, an enormous hit at the box office.For the proposal scene, Cornel Wilde had trouble reacting convincingly to Gene Tierney's advances, but each time they did a take the crew was so impressed, the crew whistled at her. Finally, John M. Stahl said to Wilde, "They all seem to understand how the scene should be played. Why can't you?".

*A vintage year for "beefcake bondage" in his film career was 1952. In At Sword's Point (1952), he appeared bound and stripped to the waist in a torture chamber where his torso was burned with a hot iron. In California Conquest (1952), he appeared stripped to the waist and bound to a tree where he was lashed across the chest with a whip. Perhaps in a nod to these situations (but without the bondage), three years later, in his appearance on television in The Star Upstairs (1955) he strips to the waist before going 'offstage' to take a bath.

*He casted as in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) as The Great Sebastian after Burt Lancaster turned down.Cecil B. DeMille doubly regretted when he learned that Cornel Wilde was afraid of heights. Wilde was game, however he ended up performing many of his own stunts on the flying trapeze.During one scene Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) is hanging from the trapeze by his knees. He catches Holly (Betty Hutton) then pulls her up and kisses her. During one of the early takes, Wilde tore the ligaments in his shoulder. He managed to make it through two more takes, then had to stop. Wilde was unable to use his arm for several days so Cecil B. DeMille shot scenes where he was not needed.

*He produced, directed and starred in film The Naked Prey (1965), a tour-de-force adventure drama that brought him real acclaim as a director.During filming, Wilde was careful to try to avoid harm to animals appearing in the film where possible. In the scene where the python and the monitor lizard battle, it became clear that the python was winning and the monitor was in danger. Wilde personally intervened to save the monitor lizard; the lizard bit him on the leg, refusing to let go. Crew members killed it and Wilde had to be evacuated to a hospital for treatment.