Oscar-winning filmmaker, Billy Wilder, has died in Los Angeles, aged 95. He was believed to have been suffering from pneumonia, according to producer and long-time friend, George Schlatter.

Austrian-born Wilder's gift for writing and directing led to such classics as Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, and Double Indemnity. As co-writer, director and producer of the 1960 film The Apartment, Wilder became the only person to collect three Oscars for one film.

Among his other classics were Stalag 17, The Lost Weekend, The Seven Year Itch, and Witness for the Prosecution.

Wilder was also noted as one of Hollywood's best wits. He once remarked of postwar France: "It's a country where you can't tear the toilet paper but the currency crumbles in your hands". William Holden said Wilder had "a mind full of razor blades".

His films were notable for their clever dialogue and an overlay of cynicism and betrayal. His actors won Oscars for their hard-bitten portrayals: Ray Milland as the unremitting alcoholic in The Lost Weekend, Holden as the suspected prison-camp traitor in Stalag 17, and Walter Matthau as an insurance cheat in The Fortune Cookie.

"Making movies is a little like walking into a dark room," Wilder once mused. "Some people stumble across furniture, others break their legs, but some of us see better in the dark than others. The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius."