[7] In 1933, due to the family's poor financial situation during the Great Depression, Wise was unable to return to college for his second year and moved to Hollywood to begin a lifelong career in the film industry.

In the 1930s, RKO was a budget-minded studio with "a strong work ethic" and "willingness to take artistic risks", which was fortunate for a newcomer to Hollywood such as Wise.

[11] Wise's first screen credit was a ten-minute short subject called A Trip through Fijiland (1935), which was made from RKO footage salvaged from an abandoned feature film.

Wise continued to work with Hamilton on other films, including Stage Door (1937), Having Wonderful Time (1938) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939).

[16] In Citizen Kane, Welles used a deep-focus technique, in which heavy lighting is employed to achieve sharp focus for both foreground and background in the frame.

[20] After Welles was dismissed from the studio, Wise continued editing films such as Seven Days Leave (1942), Bombardier (1943) and The Fallen Sparrow (1943), before he received his first directing assignment.

The Sand Pebbles (1966) featured the story of a biracial couple, and Jewish characters were included in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and The House on Telegraph Hill (1951).

[26] At RKO, Wise got his first credited directing job in 1944 while working for Hollywood horror film producer Val Lewton.

[29] In many of Wise's films, but especially in Curse of the Cat People, the melodrama used a vulnerable child or childlike character to challenge a dark, adult world.

[30] Lewton promoted Wise to his superiors at RKO, beginning a collaboration that produced the notable horror film The Body Snatcher (1945), starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

[32] Between Curse and Snatcher, Wise directed Mademoiselle Fifi (1944), an adaptation of two Guy de Maupassant short stories that explored man's darker side with a political subtext.

[39][40] In the 1950s, he proved adept in several genres, including science fiction in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); melodrama in So Big (1953);[41] Western in Tribute to a Bad Man (1956), starring James Cagney;[42] fictionalized biography in the boardroom drama Executive Suite (1954); and the epic Helen of Troy (1955) based on Homer's Iliad.

Three Secrets (1950), a soap opera/family melodrama, gave Wise a chance to work with actress Patricia Neal "in a landmark performance about gender double standards".

The Day the Earth Stood Still, a science fiction thriller that warned about the dangers of atomic warfare, included a realistic setting and an emphasis on the story instead of special effects.

[62] Wise struggled to keep The Sound of Music from being an overly sweet, sentimental story by cutting lesser-known songs and adding new dialogue to improve transitions.

The Sand Pebbles, Wise's critically acclaimed film epic, was a parable of the Vietnam War, with an antiwar director and message.

[57] Set in the late 1920s in China, this was an early entry in a series of Vietnam War era films followed by Catch-22 and M*A*S*H. Excellent reviews for The Sand Pebbles marked Wise's last "creative peak" in his long career.

(1968), with Julie Andrews in the lead as Gertrude Lawrence, failed at the box office,[68] although it was consistent with Wise's other successful films that portrayed a strong woman "whose life choices invite melodramatic relationships.

[70] Wise's adaptation of Michael Crichton's science-fiction thriller, The Andromeda Strain (1971), an anti-biological warfare film, was a "modest critical hit.

"[74] Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the first of the feature films based on the popular television series, was a difficult shoot for Wise.

Popular film critic Leonard Maltin called it "Slow, talky, and derivative, somewhat redeemed by terrific special effects".

Wise was Ilya and Alexander Salkind's first choice to direct the Superman spin-off Supergirl after Richard Lester departed the franchise, but he declined.

Starring Peter Falk, it was his only made-for-television movie, airing in 2001,[57] and won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Special.

Wise was named chairman of the Directors Guild of America's special projects committee in 1980, organizing its fiftieth anniversary celebration in New York in 1986.

He also oversaw and provided DVD commentary for his Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which included re-edited scenes, new optical effects and a new sound mix.

[citation needed] Wise had an expansive bungalow on the Universal Studios lot and owned a modern California beach house.

[96] In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild published a list of the 75 best-edited films of all time based on a survey of its membership.

[97] In Indiana, Governor Roger D. Branigin proclaimed March 1, 1967, Robert Wise Day in honor of the 1967 premiere of The Sand Pebbles in Indianapolis.

[98] In 1992, Wise was named the first recipient of the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival's Crystal Heart Career Achievement Award.