William Wyler (July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a three-time Academy Award-winning motion picture director.

Wyler was born Willi Weiller to a Jewish family in Mulhouse in the French region of Alsace (then part of the German Empire). He was distantly related to Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures, through his mother Melanie (a cousin of Laemmle's). After realizing that Willi was not interested in the family business of haberdashery and suffering through a terrible year working at 100000 CHEMISES in Paris after World War I, Melanie contacted her distant cousin about opportunities for him. Carl Laemmle was in the habit of coming to Europe each year and finding promising young men who would work in America.

In 1921, Willi found himself and a young Czech man, Paul Kohner (later the independent agent) on the same boat to New York. Their enjoyment of the first class trip was short lived as they found they had to pay back the cost of the passage out of their $25 weekly income as messengers to Universal Pictures in New York. After working in New York for several years Wyler decided he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a director.