Born January 28, 1892, in Berlin, director Ernst Lubitsch successfully made the transition from German to American cinema and from silents to talkies with films that conveyed the sophisticated wit and keen sense of irony that would become known as the "Lubitsch touch."

Already an acclaimed director when Mary Pickford invited him to Hollywood in 1922, Lubitsch applied his trademark visual wit to a string of American triumphs, starting with silent films such as The Marriage Circle and continuing with early musical comedies, including The Love Parade (starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald). Later comic triumphs include the 1939 Ninotchka (in which Greta Garbo famously laughs), the anti-Nazi To Be or Not to Be (Carole Lombard's last picture) and Heaven Can Wait.

Shortly before his death on November 30, 1947, Lubitsch received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement.