"Give me any two pages of the Bible, and I'll give you a picture." -Cecil B. DeMille. [173] After his death, notable news outlets such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian honored DeMille as "pioneer of movies", "the greatest creator and showman of our industry", and "the founder of Hollywood". . [169] DeMille attended the Santa Barbara premiere of The Buccaneer in December 1958. After more than thirty years in film production, DeMille reached a pinnacle in his career with Samson and Delilah (1949), a biblical epic which became the highest-grossing film of 1950. September 17, 1914. [251] Director Ridley Scott has been called "the Cecil B. DeMille of the digital era" due to his classical and medieval epics. MGM distributed the film in 1941 and donated profits to World War II relief charities. Famous Players-Lasky donated the films. She would die one year later. [139] DeMille was anti-communist and abandoned a project in 1940 to film Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls due to its communist themes despite the fact he had already paid $100,000 for the rights to the novel. [7] His brother, William C. DeMille, was born on July 25, 1878. DeMille was painstakingly attentive to details on set and was as critical of himself as he was of his crew. Constance Adams DeMille (April 27, 1873 - July 17, 1960) was an American actress and wife of filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille. Born in 1881, DeMille made his directorial debut with "The Squaw Man" (1914), a story he remade in 1918 and 1931 . [36] One of DeMille's affairs was with his screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson. DeMille filming the "big Indian raid" of Call of the North. Here, he parts the Red Sea. DeMille adored the art of Groesbeck, even hanging it above his fireplace, but film staff found it difficult to convert his art into three-dimensional sets. This is the earliest of DeMille's films available in a quality, color-tinted video format. Biographer Scott Eyman suggested that this may have been a result of Adams's recent miscarriage. William deMille reluctantly became a story editor. Cecil was 77 years old at the time of death. . DeMille toured with the circus while helping write the script. DeMille told the actor that he was "one hundred percent yellow". [31] In 1901, DeMille starred in productions of A Repentance, To Have and to Hold, and Are You a Mason? Jeakins admitted that she received quality training from him, but that it was necessary to become a perfectionist on a DeMille set to avoid being fired. . Mini Bio (1) Julia Faye's career is inextricably linked to director Cecil B. DeMille. [272] DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s. [147], DeMille's next film, Samson and Delilah in 1949, became Paramount's highest-grossing film up to that time. [154] In 1954, Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott asked DeMille for help in designing the cadet uniforms at the newly established United States Air Force Academy. From the archive, 22 January 1959: Pioneering film maker Cecil B. deMille dies Even the severest critics of his films had to concede that he was a great showman Cecil B. deMille (1881-1959). [211] He despised actors who were unwilling to take physical risks, especially when he had first demonstrated that the required stunt would not harm them. [215][216][217] He also cast established stars such as Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, Paulette Goddard and Fredric March in multiple pictures. However, one word is especially appropriate. His first several films were westerns and he produced a chain of westerns during the sound era. [114] He was additionally vice president of the Commercial National Trust and Savings Bank in Los Angeles where he approved loans for other filmmakers. [89] DeMille was maintained as director-general and Goldwyn became chairman of the board. [229] He began the production of epics earlier in his career until they began to solidify his career in the 1920s. [84] In 1916, exhausted from three years of nonstop filmmaking, DeMille purchased land in the Angeles National Forest for a ranch which would become his getaway. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), was both a critical and commercial success; it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years. [48] DeMille wrote another play originally called Sergeant Devil May Care which was renamed The Royal Mounted. The October 2002 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine saluted Paramount's ninetieth Anniversary by writing: "Somewhere Cecil B. DeMille is smiling.". [117] He also popularized the camera crane. After the film was shown, viewers complained that the shadows and lighting prevented the audience from seeing the actors' full faces, complaining that they would only pay half price. Cecil Blount DeMille (/ssl dml/; August 12, 1881 January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. This prohibited denying anyone the right to work if they refuse to pay a political assessment, however, the law did not apply retroactively. finding aid. [303] In 1957, DeMille gave the commencement address for the graduation ceremony of Brigham Young University wherein he received an honorary Doctorate of Letter degree. [29] He fled the school to join the SpanishAmerican War, but failed to meet the age requirement. [297] The title of the 2000 John Waters film Cecil B. Demented alludes to DeMille. [11] Henry deMille frequently collaborated with David Belasco in playwriting;[12] their best-known collaborations included "The Wife", "Lord Chumley", "The Charity Ball", and "Men and Women". [159] The Ten Commandments, released in 1956, was DeMille's final film. Cecil Blount deMille, 12 th August 1881, Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA. However, Birchard acknowledged that Sarris's point was more likely that DeMille's style was behind the development of film as an art form. The actual parting of the sea was created by releasing 360,000 gallons of water into a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, overlaying it with film of a giant waterfall that was built on the Paramount backlot, and playing the clip backwards. [263] Joseph Henabery recalled that DeMille looked like "a king on a throne surrounded by his court" while directing films on a camera platform. [264], DeMille was liked by some of his fellow directors and disliked by others, though his actual films were usually dismissed by his peers as vapid spectacle. He was so eager to produce the film, that he hadn't yet read the novel. The sets and effects were so realistic that 30 extras needed to be hospitalized due to a scene with fireballs and flaming arrows. U.S. State: Massachusetts. They struggled to adapt the play from the stage to the set. In March 1938, he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy. DeMille, Cecil B. The Warrens of Virginia (1915) $500 /week. [123] The Sign of the Cross was the first film to integrate all cinematic techniques. [166] [note 11], Due to his frequent heart attacks, DeMille asked his son-in-law, actor Anthony Quinn, to direct a remake of his 1938 film The Buccaneer. [273], As a filmmaker, DeMille was the aesthetic inspiration of many directors and films due to his early influence during the crucial development of the film industry. He would speak to the entire set, sometimes enormous with countless numbers of crew members and extras, via a microphone to maintain control of the set. [235] DeMille was also known for his use of special effects without the use of digital technology. He was a Freemason who remained a member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York . He produced or directed about 80 movies - including The Ten Commandments (1956), a movie in the 'epic' genre for which he is probably best known today. Profile of the Hollywood directing legend who became known for his "spectaculars." Learn how DeMille helped establish Hollywood as the movie-making capital o. [231] DeMille's distinctive style can be seen through camera and lighting effects as early as The Squaw Man with the use of daydream images; moonlight and sunset on a mountain; and side-lighting through a tent flap. [20] John Philip Sousa was a friend of the family, and DeMille recalled throwing mud balls in the air so neighbor Annie Oakley could practice her shooting. View Bio. But they have inspired cutting edge directors including Stephen Spielberg and Martin Scorcese. After Henry DeMille's death at age 40, Cecil's mother, Beatrice, ran a well-known boarding school for girls in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. DeMille had adopted him to avoid revealing the affairs to William's wife. . While visually appealing, this made the films appear more old-fashioned. [36][note 6], Film started becoming more sophisticated and the subsequent films of the Lasky company were criticized for primitive and unrealistic set design. [183] DeMille's father worked with David Belasco theatrical producer, impresario, and playwright. [252], Despite his box-office success, awards, and artistic achievements, DeMille has been dismissed and ignored by critics both during his life and posthumously. [305] From the film industry, DeMille received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards in 1953,[306] and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America Award the same year. [184] While working in theatre, DeMille used real fruit trees in his play California as influenced by Belasco. [61] Moreover, when he was busy directing other films, he would co-author other Lasky Company scripts as well as create screen adaptations that others directed. [111], The immense popularity of DeMille's silent films enabled him to branch out into other areas. DeMille did not believe a large movie set was the place to discuss minor character or line issues. Despite his loss, DeMille continued to lobby for the TaftHartley Act, which passed. Eventually, the Guard was enlarged to a battalion and recruited soldiers from other film studios. Paramount Pictures 1956 release of the Academy Award-winning, Cecil B. DeMille-directed epic and international success, "The Ten Commandments," is more than likely the most famous religious-drama of all time. They continued filming in 1955 in Paris and Hollywood on 30 different sound stages. [174] DeMille left his multi-million dollar estate in Los Feliz, Los Angeles in Laughlin Park to his daughter Cecilia because his wife had dementia and was unable to care for an estate. Instead of portraying the danger and anarchy of the West, he portrayed the opportunity and redemption found in Western America. He began his career as a stage actor in 1900. [142] Jeanie MacPherson would work as a scriptwriter for many of DeMille's films. [168] DeMille was unable to attend the Los Angeles premiere of The Buccaneer. [81] The most successful films during the beginning of the Lasky Company were Brewster's Millions (co-directed by DeMille), Rose of the Rancho, and The Ghost Breaker. Any problems on the set were often fixed by writers in the office rather than on the set. [61], The Lasky Play Company sought out William DeMille to join the company, but he rejected the offer because he did not believe there was any promise in a film career. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville producer. Cecil Blount DeMille[note 1] was born on August 12, 1881, in a boarding house on Main Street in Ashfield, Massachusetts, where his parents had been vacationing for the summer. [180] and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. In the 1950s, Paramount sold its entire pre-1948 film library, including those of DeMille, to, The set was discovered by Peter Brosnan after hearing a rumor in 1982 that DeMille had ordered the enormous set to be buried after filming rather than taken away. Broadway Actor. Large gallery of Cecil B. DeMille pics. Male. [281] However, not everyone received DeMille's religious films favorably. Date of death: 21 Jan 1959. [315] He was further nominated in the Best Picture category for The Ten Commandments at the 1957 Academy Awards. [301][302], Cecil B. DeMille received many awards and honors, especially later in his career. . An annual award, the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award recognizes lifetime achievement in the film industry. [289] The Dunes Center in Guadalupe, California contains an exhibition of artifacts uncovered in the desert near Guadalupe from DeMille's set of his 1923 version of The Ten Commandments, known as the "Lost City of Cecil B. [249] Similarly, scholar David Blanke, argued that DeMille had lost the respect of his colleagues and film critics by his late film career. Of his seventy films, five revolved around stories of the Bible and the New Testament; however many others, while not direct retellings of Biblical stories, had themes of faith and religious fanaticism in films such as The Crusades and The Road to Yesterday. [28] On Henry DeMille's deathbed, he told his wife that he did not want his sons to become playwrights. Its interracial love story made it commercially successful and it first publicized Hollywood as the home of the U.S. film industry. [109] Eight of his films were "epics" with five of those classified as "Biblical". His wife did not like Paradise, so DeMille often brought his mistresses there with him including actress Julia Faye. d. 21 st January 1959, Hollywood, California, USA. Consequently, his mother hired him for her agency The DeMille Play Company and taught him how to be an agent and a playwright. However, Sam Goldwyn realized that if they called it "Rembrandt" lighting, the audience would pay double the price. [120] After his contract ended at MGM, he left, but no production studios would hire him. [65] Already $15,000 in debt to Royle for the screenplay of The Squaw Man, Lasky's relatives bought the $5,000 stock to save the Lasky Company from bankruptcy. [268] DeMille appeared as himself in numerous films, including the MGM comedy Free and Easy. [104], In the early 1920s, scandal surrounded Paramount; religious groups and the media opposed portrayals of immorality in films. He wanted to prevent other companies from shooting on . His overriding spirit . Cecil B. DeMille real name: Cecil Blount DeMille Height: 5'11''(in feet & inches) 1.8034(m) 180.34(cm) , Birthdate(Birthday): August 12, 1881 , Age on January 21, 1959 (Death date): 77 Years 5 Months 9 Days Profession: Movies (Director), Also working as: Producer, Director, Editor, Screenwriter, Actor, Father: Henry Churchill de Mille, Mother: Matilda Beatrice deMille, Married: Yes, Children: Yes [261][262] He was known for his unique, working wardrobe which included riding boots, riding pants, and soft, open necked shirts. [274] DeMille has influenced the careers of many modern directors. DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s and his work has influenced numerous other films and directors. She had a Southern drawl which she never lost. [32] From 1904 to 1905, DeMille attempted to make a living as a stock theatre actor with his wife Constance. cause of death. The Ten Commandments, filmed here at the Guadeloupe sand dunes, 150 miles from Hollywood. [39] DeMille wrote a few of his own plays in-between stage performances, but his playwriting was not as successful. [250] Five of DeMille's film were the highest-grossing films at the year of their release, with only Spielberg topping him with six of his films as the highest-grossing films of the year. Date of death: 21 Jan 1959. DeMille developed a plan with his doctor to allow him to continue directing while reducing his physical stress. DeMille's Ten Commandments premiered in 1956. Cecil Blount DeMille. De Mille daughter dies. [244] Another minor characteristic of DeMille's films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films. Charlie Chaplin lived next door for a time, and after he moved, DeMille purchased the other house and combined the estates. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in New York City. [231][note 14] The Ten Commandments inspired DreamWorks Animation's later film about Moses, The Prince of Egypt. [75] Additionally, this was the only film in which DeMille shared director's credit with Oscar C. A documentary titled. Character actor H. B. Warner was fifty, but looked Thirty was cast as Christ, and gives a gently . In that respect, he was better than any of us. He received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Drama. . He initially sought out William deMille. [191] DeMille was the first director to connect art to filmmaking; he created the title of "art director" on the film set. This was, according to DeMille, the lowest point of his career. DeMille lent Roosevelt a car for his campaign for the 1932 United States presidential election and voted for him. [144], In 1942, DeMille released Paramount's most successful film, Reap the Wild Wind. [129] DeMille also liked Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, finding him charismatic, tenacious, and intelligent and agreeing with Roosevelt's abhorrence of Prohibition. However, others interpreted DeMille's work as visually impressive, thrilling, and nostalgic. Birthplace: Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming, United States. [84] His specific use of lighting, influenced by his mentor David Belasco, was for the purpose of creating "striking images" and heightening "dramatic situations". [138] Despite the criticism, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of the year. [148] Again, 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth became Paramount's highest-grossing film to that point. [228] In order to attract a high-class audience, DeMille based many of his early films on stage melodramas, novels, and short stories. He went before the Paramount board of directors, which was mostly Jewish-American. More Facts. [84] Goldwyn was later fired from Famous Players-Lasky due to frequent clashes with Lasky, DeMille, and finally Zukor. Consequently, he focused his efforts on his films' visuals. He produced many flops. [130] Broadcast on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from 1935 to 1954,[131] the Lux Radio show was one of the most popular weekly shows in the history of radio. December 26, 2014 at 3:45 p.m. As the keeper of her grandfather Cecil B. DeMille's legacy, Cecilia de Mille Presley is used to fielding calls from people who want to ask her questions, recruit . [202] Another important aspect of DeMille's editing technique was to put the film away for a week or two after an initial edit in order to re-edit the picture with a fresh mind. Host Scott . date of death. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts honored DeMille with an Alumni Achievement Award in 1958. [64] The Lasky Company bought the rights to the play The Squaw Man by Edwin Milton Royle and cast Dustin Farnum in the lead role. Henry, a . [136] During pre-production of Union Pacific, DeMille was dealing with his first serious health issue. His art was even shown at Paramount meetings when pitching new films. Epic. [52] The collaboration of DeMille and Lasky produced a successful musical called California which opened in New York in January 1912. Immediate Family: Biological son of Gus Gonzales and Ada Piper. He is from USA. Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA. imported from Wikimedia project. Beatrice became a play broker and author's agent, influencing DeMille's early life and career. His first three films were Westerns, and he filmed many Westerns throughout his career. [238] Although he is known for his later "spectacular" films, his early films are held in high regard by critics and film historians. He stands as one among the famous individuals for he was a creative filmmaker. Ben Gabbe/Getty. [84] While on a European vacation in 1921, DeMille contracted rheumatic fever in Paris. However, Beatrice introduced Lasky to DeMille instead. In the audience was Charles Frohman who would cast DeMille in his play Hearts are Trumps, DeMille's Broadway debut. However, throughout his career, he filmed comedies, periodic and contemporary romances, dramas, fantasies, propaganda, Biblical spectacles, musical comedies, suspense, and war films. The play was successful, and DeMille was distraught that his childhood idol had plagiarized his work. [43] DeMille was credited with creating the premise of Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm. . He adapted several of Belasco's screenplays into film. Though the film was not high-grossing, it was well-received and DeMille was asked to shorten its running time to allow for more showings per day. Although this final reel looked so different from the previous eleven reels that it appeared to be from another movie, according to Simon Louvish, the film is one of DeMille's strangest and most "DeMillean" film. [109] Western and frontier American were also themes that DeMille returned to throughout his career. Then, he would help writers construct a script. A deficiency in chromium may cause high blood sugar; however, deficiency is very rare. DeMille traveled abroad to find employment until he was offered a deal at Paramount. [212] Paulette Goddard's refusal to risk personal injury in a scene involving fire in Unconquered cost her DeMille's favor and a role in The Greatest Show on Earth. [30] DeMille attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (tuition-free due to his father's service to the Academy). Movie posters. [170] DeMille's autobiography was mostly completed by the time DeMille died and was published in November 1959. [18] DeMille and William collaborated on The Genius, The Royal Mounted, and After Five. Spanish Wikipedia. Adams allowed DeMille to have several long term mistresses during their marriage as an outlet, while maintaining an outward appearance of a faithful marriage. DeMille's film The Affairs of Anatol came under fire. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. [58], Desiring a change of scene, Cecil B. DeMille, Jesse Lasky, Sam Goldfish (later Samuel Goldwyn), and a group of East Coast businessmen created the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company in 1913 over which DeMille became director-general. [278] As one of the establishing members of Paramount Pictures and co-founder of Hollywood, DeMille had a role in the development of the film industry. However, the idea failed due to lack of funding and commitment. On January 8, 1893, at age 40, Henry de Mille died suddenly from typhoid fever, leaving Beatrice with three children. [168] Despite a cast led by Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, the 1958 film The Buccaneer was a disappointment. His family's, DeMille's niece and William deMille's daughter. Apfel. Perhaps Cecil B. DeMille is more responsible for this than are today's preachers.' 13. [10] At the military college, even though his grades were average, he reportedly excelled in personal conduct. An example is the Bible which has been remade into many different movies including The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille and The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. Date of death: 21 January 1959 Hollywood: Cause of death: heart failure; Place of burial: Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Pseudonym: C.B. [32] Publicists wrote that he became an actor in order to learn how direct and produce, but DeMille admitted that he became an actor in order to pay the bills. DeMille himself directed twenty films by 1915. Legendary producer-director Cecil B. DeMille, (1) affectionately known as C.B., was a seminal cofounder of Hollywood and a progenitor of Paramount studio who became a mega-star of . The Tikah still made a few trade canoes into the early 20th Century. List of the best Cecil B. DeMille movies: The Ten Commandments(1956), The Godless Girl(1929), The Golden Bed(1925), Union Pacific(1939), Unconquered(1947), Male and Female(1919), The Plainsman(1936), The Whispering Chorus(1918), The Ten Commandments(1923), Samson and Delilah(1949), The Story of Dr. Wassell(1944), Reap the Wild Wind(1942 . Credits. [130] While DeMille was host, the show had forty million weekly listeners, gaining DeMille an annual salary of $100,000. Belasco was known for adding realistic elements in his plays such as real flowers, food, and aromas that could transport his audiences into the scenes. [179][note 12], DeMille believed his first influences to be his parents, Henry and Beatrice DeMille. The Roaring Twenties were the boom years and DeMille took full advantage, opening the Mercury Aviation Company, one of America's first commercial airlines. He was confined to bed and unable to eat. Radford, Bill. English Wikipedia. [182] DeMille noted that his mother had a "high sense of the dramatic" and was determined to continue the artistic legacy of her husband after he died. Biography: Cecil B. deMille is one of the most important and successful filmmakers Hollywood has ever produced. These films represent those which DeMille produced or assisted in directing, credited or uncredited. DeMille achieved international recognition for his unique use of lighting and color tint in his film The Cheat. 72 pictures of Cecil B. DeMille. Broadway Actor. [88] On July 19, 1916, the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, becoming Famous Players-Lasky. Moreover, DeMille was audited by the Internal Revenue Service due to issues with his production company. [177] Cecilia lived in the house for many years until her death in 1984,[178] but the house was auctioned by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who also lived there in the late 1980s. 77. He is particularly remembered for his 1956 film "The Ten Commandments", but made over 70 films throughout his long career. [149][150] DeMille signed a contract with Prentice Hall publishers in August 1953 to publish an autobiography. Among his best-known films are The Ten Commandments (1956), Cleopatra (1934), and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. [337], Charles Frohman, Constance Adams, and David Belasco, Scandalous dramas, Biblical epics, and departure from Paramount, There are several variants of DeMille's surname. Alternative names DeMille, Cecil Blount Short description Film director: Date of birth August 12, 1881 Place of birth heart failure. [126] DeMille was a conservative Republican activist, becoming more conservative as he aged. Here we have a man who made a film praising the Jewish people, that tells of Samson, one of the legends of our Scripture. [191] Plot and dialogue were not a strong point of DeMille's films. [195] DeMille was adept at directing "thousands of extras",[113] and many of his pictures include spectacular set pieces: the toppling of the pagan temple in Samson and Delilah;[196] train wrecks in The Road to Yesterday,[197] Union Pacific[198] and The Greatest Show on Earth;[199] the destruction of an airship in Madam Satan;[200] and the parting of the Red Sea in both versions of The Ten Commandments. DeMille". Oscars 1950 - Honorary Award. [292], In summer 2019, The Friends of the Pompton Lakes Library hosted a Cecil B DeMille film festival to celebrate DeMille's achievements and connection to Pompton Lakes. Here is all you want to know, and more! However, DeMille's second remake at MGM in 1931 would be a failure. [note 4], While filming The Captive in 1915, an extra, Bob Fleming, died on set when another extra failed to heed to DeMille's orders to unload all guns for rehearsal.
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