William Wellman, the Oscarwinning screenwriterdirector of the original A Star Is Born 1937, was called Wild Bill during his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his largerthanlife personality and lifestyle. A leapyear baby born in 1896 on the the 29th of February to a stockbroker father in Brookline, Massachusetts, Wellman was the greatgreatgreat grandson of Francis Lewis, one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. His mother, the former Cecilia McCarthy, was born in Ireland.Despite an uppermiddle class upbringing, the young Wellman was a hellraiser. He excelled as an athlete and particularly enjoyed playing ice hockey, but he also enjoyed joyriding in stolen cars at nights.Cecilia Wellman served as a probation officer for wayward boys juvenile delinquents for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was such a success in her field, she was asked to address Congress on the subject of delinquency. One of her charges was her own son, as the young Bill Wellman was kicked out school at the age of 17 for hitting his high school principal on the head with a stink bomb. He tried making a living as a candy and a cotton salesman, but failed. He then worked for a lumber yard but was fired after losing control of a truck and driving it through the side of the barn.Eventually, he wound up playing professional ice hockey in Massachusetts and, as a young actor, while playing at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, actor named Douglas Fairbanks took note of Wellman.Impressed by his good looks and the figure he cut on ice, the soontobe silentfilm superstar Fairbanks suggested to Wellman that he had what it took to become a movie actor. But Wellmans youthful dream was to become an aviator, but since his father didnt have enough money for me to become a flier in the regular way...I went into a war to become a flier.

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