15. William Wyler
One of the preeminent craftsmen and legendary perfectionists in the movie business, William Wyler enjoyed about a twenty year period where he was one of the best directors in Hollywood, capped off with Ben-Hur, one of the all-time great screen epics. Although not born in the U.S, he immigrated from Germany at 18, but Wyler's films are so associated with classical Hollywood that he qualifies for this list. His reputation has diminished in the last few decades but at the time of his death in 1980, Wyler was often listed as one of Hollywood's greatest directors, usually only bested by Orson Welles or John Ford. Nominated an astounding twelve times for Best Director at the Academy Awards, Wyler was one of the most versatile of all directors, moving from genre to genre so effortlessly that he lacks a signature style to some extent, one of the reasons his filmography has not aged as well as many of his contemporaries. Like other prominent directors of his time like Billy Wilder and John Huston, Wyler's films worked extremely well as entertainment but what made them special was their attention to screenwriting that worked in the same way as literature, touching on a variety of important topics and themes. Wyler was renowned then and today for his innate movie sense, someone who always had the camera in the right place at the right time looking at the right things. With a boatload of classic films, the respect of his fellow directors, and a talent that few others had, it's hard to rank Wyler this low. What keeps him this low is that although his films are great and loved by many, he didn't really change much about the way movies were made or what kind of movies were made. Regardless, we can all agree that Wyler was one of Hollywood's all-time greats.