Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil Blount DeMille (August 12, 1881 - January 21, 1959) was one of the most successful filmmakers during the first half of the 20th century. He directed hundreds of silent shorts before coming into huge popularity during the 1920s, when he reached the apex of his popularity with such films as Don't Change Your Husband (1919), The Ten Commandments (1923), and The King of Kings (1927). Though most commonly referred to by the press as DeMille with a capital "D", deMille preferred and even signed his checks as "deMille" with a small "d". DeMille's business address for most of his career was 2010 DeMille (capital "D") Drive, Hollywood, California. In either case, the persona of the larger than life showman was reinforced by such affectations and his status as an icon thrived.

Cecil B. DeMille had a keen eye for talent and was known for being an instumental catalyst for the rising status of many a previously young, struggling, or unknown actor. Actor Richard Dix's best-remembered early role was in the silent version of Demille's The Ten Commandments. Richard Cromwell owed his 1930s movie fame in part to being personally selected by DeMille for the role as the leader of the youth gang in Demille's poignant, now cult-favorite, This Day and Age (1933). DeMille displayed a loyalty to certain supporting performers, casting them over and over in his pictures. They included Henry Wilcoxen, Julia Faye, Joseph Schildkraut, Ian Keith, Charles Bickford, Theodore Roberts, Akim Tamiroff, and William Boyd. He also cast leading actors such as Claudette Colbert, Gloria Swanson, Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, Paulette Goddard, and Charlton Heston in multiple pictures. He was not known as a particularly good director, often hiring actors whom he relied on to develop their own characters and act accordingly. He was, however, adept at directing "thousands of extras," and many of his pictures include spectacular set pieces, including the parting of the Red Sea in both versions of The Ten Commandments, the toppling of the pagan temple in Samson and Delilah, train wrecks in Union Pacific and The Greatest Show on Earth and the destruction of a zeppelin in Madam Satan. He knew what the movie-going public wanted, and gave it to them over and over.

DeMille was one of the first directors in Hollywood to become a celebrity in his own right, performing as himself, long before the likes of Erich von Stroheim and Alfred Hitchcock made it fashionable. From 1936 to 1944, DeMille hosted and even acted as pitchman for Cecil B. DeMille's Lux Radio Theater, which was one of the most popular dramatic radio shows at the time. Actress Gloria Swanson immortalized DeMille with the oft-repeated line, "I'm ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille" in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, wherein DeMille played himself.

While he continued to be prolific throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he is probably best known for his 1956 film The Ten Commandments (which is very different from his 1923 film by the same title). Also representative of his penchant for the spectacular was the 1952 production of The Greatest Show on Earth which gave deMille an Oscar for best picture and a nomination for best director.

Cecil B. Demille died in 1959 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. At the time of his death, he was negotiating to direct the remake of Ben-Hur for MGM, and was planning to direct a movie about space travel.

A lesser known fact, regarding DeMille's date of death, is that Cecil DeMille died on exactly the same day as Carl Switzer who had played "Alfalfa" in the 1930s production "Our Gang". Many of Switzer's associates would later claim that this was bad timing and slightly unfair, since Cecil DeMille's obituary was so lengthy that Switzer's death was allocated very little attention in the media. Ironically, Switzer appeared, unbilled, in DeMille's 1956 The Ten Commandment's.

Demille's niece, Agnes de Mille, was a dancer and choreographer.

Filmography (As Director)

• The Squaw Man (1914)
• Brewster's Millions (1914)
• The Master Mind (1914)
• The Only Son (1914)
• The Man on the Box (1914)
• The Call of the North (1914)
• The Virginian (1914)
• What's His Name (1914)
• The Man from Home (1914)
• Rose of the Rancho (1914)
• The Ghost Breaker (1914)
• The Girl of the Golden West (1915)
• After Five (1915)
• The Warrens of Virginia (1915)
• The Unafraid (1915)
• The Captive (1915)
• The Wild Goose Chase (1915)
• The Arab (1915)
• Chimmie Fadden (1915)
• Kindling (1915)
• Carmen (1915)
• Chimmie Fadden Out West (1915)
• The Cheat (1915)
• Temptation (1915)
• The Golden Chance (1915)
• The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916)
• The Heart of Nora Flynn (1916)
• Maria Rosa (1916)
• The Dream Girl (1916)
• Joan the Woman (1917)
• Lost and Won (1917)
• A Romance of the Redwoods (1917)
• The Little American (1917)
• The Woman God Forgot (1917)
• The Devil-Stone (1917)
• You Can't Have Everything (1918)
• The Whispering Chorus (1918)
• Old Wives for New (1918)
• We Can't Have Everything (1918)
• Till I Come Back to You (1918)
• The Squaw Man (1918)
• Don't Change Your Hussband (1919)
• For Better, for Worse (1919)
• Male and Female (1919)
• Why Change Your Wife? (1920)
• Something to Think About (1920)
• Forbidden Fruit (1921)
• The Affairs of Anatol (1921)
• Fool's Paradise (1921)
• Saturday Night (1922)
• Manslaughter (1922)
• Adam's Rib (1923)
• The Ten Commandments (1923)
• Triumph (1924)
• Feet of Clay (1924)
• The Golden Bed (1925)
• The Road to Yesterday (1925)
• The Volga Boatman (1926)
• The King of Kings (1927)
• The Godless Girl (1929)
• Dynamite (1929)
• Madam Satan (1930)
• The Squaw Man (1931)
• The Sign of the Cross (1932)
• This Day and Age (1933)
• Four Frightened People (1934)
• Cleopatra (1934)
• The Crusades (1935)
• The Plainsman (1937)
• The Buccaneer (1938)
• Union Pacific (1939)
• North West Mounted Police (1940)
• Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
• The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944)
• Unconquered (1947)
• California's Golden Beginning (1948) (short subject)
• Samson and Delilah (1949)
• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
• The Ten Commandments (1956)

External links

• Template:Imdb name
• Official Cecil B. Demille Site (http://www.cecilbdemille.com/)de:Cecil B. DeMille

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