William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director 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 larger-than-life personality and lifestyle. A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the the 29th of February to a stockbroker father in Brookline, Massachusetts, Wellman was the great-great-great grandson of Francis Lewis, one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. His moth ...[Read Story]