Ernst Lubitsch

German-born American film director, born in 1892. A master of romantic comedy whose name became a critical shorthand, "the Lubitsch touch," for elegant innuendo and wit. He began as a comic actor in German silent films and directed prestige productions for UFA before Mary Pickford brought him to Hollywood. His sound musicals, beginning with The Love Parade (1930), and his comedies with Maurice Chevalier, set the style for a decade of sophisticated Hollywood comedy. He ran Paramount production in the 1930s and made Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). He died in 1947.