born Feb. 29, 1896, Brookline, Mass, U.S.
died Dec. 9, 1975, Los Angeles, Calif.
U.S. film director.
He was a flying ace in World War I and later a barnstorming stunt pilot. He acted in Knickerbocker Buckeroo (1919) with Douglas Fairbanks before turning to directing. Known as "Wild Bill," he made the aerial dogfight classic Wings (1929, Academy Award), setting standards for documentary realism, and he launched a gangster movie trend with Public Enemy (1931), starring James Cagney . The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), considered one of his best films, examined frontier justice in the American West. In Track of the Cat (1954), Wellman experimented with the minimal use of colour. His other films include A Star Is Born (1937), Nothing Sacred (1937), Beau Geste (1939), The Story of GI Joe (1945), and The High and the Mighty (1954).