He had several small film roles until he played the role of Frederic Chopin in 1945's A Song to Remember, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He spent the rest of the decade appearing in romantic and swashbuckling films. In the 1950s he created his own film production company, eventually producing and starring in The Naked Prey, in which he played a naked man being tracked by big game hunters.
He married actress Jean Wallace, the former Mrs. Franchot Tone.
Cornel Wilde is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.
Wilde has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1635 Vine Street.