Part of the deal involved Fox borrowing Alexander Knox from Columbia to appear in Wilson (1944). They eventually tested Wilde, and agreed to cast him in the role after some negotiation with Fox, who agreed to loan him out to Columbia and one film a year for several years.
In 1945, Columbia Pictures began a search for someone to play the role of Frédéric Chopin in A Song to Remember. He was the romantic male lead in Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942), supporting Monte Woolley, and supported Sonja Henie in Wintertime (1943).
It was followed by a war movie, Manila Calling (1942). Wilde was then signed by 20th Century Fox who gave him a good role in a B picture, The Perfect Snob (1941). He also had small roles in Knockout (1941) and Kisses for Breakfast (1941). Wilde had an uncredited bit part in Lady with Red Hair (1940), then got a small part in High Sierra (1941), which included a scene with Humphrey Bogart. His performance in this role netted him a Hollywood film contract with Warner Bros. 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. Wilde supplemented his income with exhibition fencing matches his wife also did modelling work. He toured with Tallulah Bankhead in a production of Anthony and Cleopatra during the run he married his co-star Patricia Knight.Īcting jobs were sporadic over the next few years. He did the illustrations for Fencing, a 1936 textbook on fencing and wrote a fencing play, Touché, under the pseudonym Clark Wales in 1937. He also appeared in Love is Not So Simple, Daughters of Etreus, and Having a Wonderful Time. He made his Broadway debut in 1935 in Moon Over Mulberry Street. CareerĪfter study at Theodora Irvine's Studio of the Theatre, Wilde began appearing in plays in stock and in New York. As a result, most publicity records and subsequent sources wrongly indicate a 1915 birth for Wilde. In preparation for an acting career, he and his new wife Marjory Heinzen (later to be known as Patricia Knight) shaved years off their ages, three for him and five for her. He qualified for the United States fencing team prior to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, but quit the team just prior to the games in order to take a role in the theater. Wilde attended the City College of New York as a pre-med student, completing the four-year course in three years and winning a scholarship to the Physicians and Surgeons College at Columbia University. at age 7 in 1920, his name was Americanized to Cornelius Louis Wilde.Ī talented linguist and an astute mimic, he had an ear for languages which became apparent later in his acting career. He was named for his paternal grandfather, and upon arrival in the U.S. His Hungarian Jewish parents were Vojtech Béla Weisz (Americanized to Louis Bela Wilde) and Renée Mary Vid (Rayna Miryam). Kornél Lajos Weisz was born in 1912 in Privigye, Hungary (now Prievidza, Slovakia), although his year and place of birth are usually and inaccurately given as 1915 in New York City.
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