Otto Ludwig Preminger (December 5, 1906 – April 23, 1986) was an Austrian actor and film director.

Preminger was born in Vienna to a prominent family. Preminger's father Marc was once the Attorney General of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Following in their father's footsteps, both Otto and his brother, Ingo Preminger, earned law degrees in Vienna.

Preminger worked with Max Reinhardt before emigrating to America. At first he directed and acted for 20th Century Fox. His Austrian accent caused him to be typecast as a screen Nazi, despite the fact that he was a Jew who had left Austria in 1935, three years before Austria merged with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss.

After the war, he became well known as a Hollywood director in the 1950s and early 1960s, delivering films that were well received by critics such as Andrew Sarris.

The bald-headed Preminger was known to fulfill the stereotype of the demanding Teutonic terror, in the vein of directors such as Erich von Stroheim and Fritz Lang. He was well-respected by some, but was often antagonistic towards his actors: Dyan Cannon once commented that she didn't think "he was capable of directing his nephew to the bathroom." Nonetheless, he was credited with helping break down the ingrained censorship then controlling motion pictures by dint of his demands, creativity and control.

Notable films include: Anatomy of a Murder with James Stewart, Lee Remick, George C. Scott and Ben Gazzara; Laura, a much admired film noir starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews; Advise and Consent, starring an on-form Charles Laughton; Bonjour Tristesse with David Niven and Deborah Kerr; The Man With the Golden Arm for which Frank Sinatra was Oscar nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Bunny Lake is Missing, a cult-movie starring Laurence Olivier. Preminger also acted in a few movies; his most notable role is that of the warden of a German POW camp in Stalag 17.

At the New York City Opera, in October 1953, Preminger directed the American premiere (in English translation) of Gottfried von Einem's Der Prozeß (The Trial), after Franz Kafka. Soprano Phyllis Curtin headed the cast.

In the 1960s Batman television series, Preminger was one of three actors who played Mr. Freeze. Adam West, who portrayed Batman, recalls Preminger as incredibly rude and unpleasant, and that all members of the cast were secretly delighted when he was subsequently pursued for unpaid dues by the Screen Actors Guild.

Ingo Preminger, who produced the 1970 M*A*S*H movie, is Otto Preminger's kid brother.

Through an extramarital relationship with Gypsy Rose Lee he had a child, writer and screenwriter Erik Lee Preminger.

During his marriage, he engaged in an affair with Dorothy Dandridge, who wanted him to leave his wife and marry her.

Otto Preminger died in 1986, aged 79, of cancer and Alzheimer's disease, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York.

• Die große Liebe (1931)

• Under Your Spell (1936)

• Danger, Love at Work (1937)

• Kidnapped (1938)

• Clare Booth Luce's Margin for Error (U.S.) also known as Margin for Error (UK) (1943)

• In the Meantime, Darling (1944)

• Laura (1944)

• A Royal Scandal (U.S.) also known as Czarina (UK) (1945)

• Fallen Angel (1945)

• Forever Amber (1947)

• Daisy Kenyon (1947)

• The Fan (U.S.) also known as Lady Windermere's Fan (UK) (1949)

• Whirlpool (1949)

• Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

• The 13th Letter (1951)

• Angel Face (1952)

• Stalag 17 (1953)

• The Moon Is Blue (1953)

• Carmen Jones (1954)

• River of No Return (1954)

• The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (U.S.) also known as One Man Mutiny (UK) (1955)

• The Man with the Golden Arm (1956)

• Saint Joan (1957)

• Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

• Porgy and Bess (1959)

• Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

• Exodus (1960)

• Advise and Consent (1962)

• The Cardinal (1963)

• In Harm's Way (1964)

• Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)

• Hurry Sundown (1967)

• Skidoo (1968)

• Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)

• Such Good Friends (1971)

• Rosebud (1975)

• The Human Factor (1979)

Awards

Preminger received one Oscar nomination for Best Picture for Anatomy of a Murder. He was twice nominated for the best director award for Laura and for The Cardinal.