Audrey Young

Born on October 30, 1922 in Los Angeles (California), Audrey Young belonged to a family in the film industry, as both her father and uncles built sets. Not surprisingly, she tried her hand at acting, and she landed a contract with Paramount in the mid-40s.

She got her start as an extra in Mitchell Leisen ‘s A Woman in the Twilight , with Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland . After several years shooting films in which she did not even appear in the credits, she was finally given a major role in The Wistful Widow of Wagon Cap , where she was one of the locals of the town in which the protagonists, the comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello , a couple of salesmen, were mistaken for murderers. It was his longest work, although he later appeared briefly in The Red Danube , by George Sidney , and Vida fácil , by Jacques Tourneur ..

In 1945 she was recruited for a minimal role in Days Without a Trace , where she came to film her scenes as a coat check girl serving Ray Milland , who played a man with a problem with alcoholism. Ultimately, this part was left on the editing table, but she fell in love with the director, Billy Wilder , who was married to Judith Coppicus, mother of her two children. Eventually, he divorced and was with Young from 1949 until her death in 2002.

When she joined the filmmaker, Young gave up her acting job. She only intervened in one more film, Love me or leave me , by Charles Vidor , where she cannot be seen too much either. She worked as a wardrobe assistant in Like Crazy Skirts and The Apartment , two of Wilder’s great films. On the director’s death, she donated $5 million to create the Billy Wilder Theatre, home to the Cinematographic Archive of the film section of the University of California, Westwood.