[201], DeMille experimented in his early films with photographic light and shade which created dramatic shadows instead of glare. Film Director. [192] DeMille had large and frequent office conferences to discuss and examine all aspects of the working film including story-boards, props, and special effects. [203], DeMille often edited in a manner that favored psychological space rather than physical space through his cuts. [202] DeMille was unique in using this technique. [92] DeMille and Adams adopted Katherine Lester in 1920 whom Adams had found in the orphanage over which she was the director. [114] He was additionally vice president of the Commercial National Trust and Savings Bank in Los Angeles where he approved loans for other filmmakers. To provide for her family, she opened the Henry C. DeMille School for Girls in her home in February 1893. Magazine pics. Cecil B DeMille announced that his next production would be his biggest and most ambitious to date. DeMille frequently made cameos as himself in other Paramount films. [134] William Keighley was his replacement. He volunteered for the Intelligence Office during World War II as well. He directed and produced four films on his own, working with Producers Distributing Corporation because he found front office supervision too restricting. Along with biblical and historical narratives, he also directed films oriented toward "neo-naturalism", which tried to portray the laws of man fighting the forces of nature. DeMille discovered the possibilities of the "bathroom" or "boudoir" in film without being "vulgar" or "cheap". Here we have a man who made a film praising the Jewish people, that tells of Samson, one of the legends of our Scripture. We have estimated Cecil B. DeMille's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. [84] While on a European vacation in 1921, DeMille contracted rheumatic fever in Paris. [47] In 1907, due to a scandal with one of Beatrice's students, Evelyn Nesbit, the Henry deMille School lost students. Compared to other directors, few film scholars have taken the time to academically analyze his films and style. 1956 theater brochure [113][295] The former film building at Chapman University in Orange, California, is named in honor of DeMille. The legendary comedian, 61, has been confirmed to receive one of the night's highest honors, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, given as a way to honor "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment," per the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. He is particularly remembered for his 1956 film "The Ten Commandments", but made over 70 films throughout his long career. However, the idea failed due to lack of funding and commitment. Story - The Left's Kavanaugh Hate-Fest (2018) . [86] A large collection of DeMille's materials including scripts, storyboards, and films resides at Brigham Young University in L. Tom Perry Special Collections. [138] Audiences liked its highly saturated color, so DeMille made no further black-and-white features. These films represent those which DeMille produced or assisted in directing, credited or uncredited. [70] Filming began on December 29, 1913, and lasted three weeks. 1. [248], According to Sam Goldwyn, critics did not like DeMille's films, but the audiences did and "they have the final word". However, DeMille's second remake at MGM in 1931 would be a failure. [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. Read More Having emerged as a potent force during the birth of Hollywood, director Cecil B. DeMille was a crucial figure in the early development of the classic Hollywood narrative filmmaking style. The Warrens of Virginia (1915) $500 /week. Name Constance DeMille Cause of death pneumonia: Born April 27, 1874 . [75] Additionally, this was the only film in which DeMille shared director's credit with Oscar C. [105] Consequently, DeMille left Paramount in 1924 despite having helped establish it. His most notable works include The Ten Commandments -1923, The Sign of the Cross-1932 and Cleopatra-1934.Cleopatra earned him credits as it was the first film that was listed among the nominees for an Academy Award.. Birthday: August 12, 1881. With his editor, Anne Bauchens, DeMille used editing techniques to allow the visual images to bring the plot to climax rather than dialogue. Cecil B. DeMille: Film director from the United States (1881 - 1959), Actor, Writer, Film producer, Film director, Film editor, Screenwriter, Playwright, Stage actor . He was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. His family's, DeMille's niece and William deMille's daughter. [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. Cemetery Name: Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Further illustrated by his home life, DeMille required formality and politeness at home. [152] Art Arthur also interviewed people for the autobiography. 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. Farnum chose $250 per week. The legendary producer-director Cecil B. DeMille was a master of the American biblical epic who shaped the public's perceptions of Judeo-Christianity in his role as Hollywood's Sunday school teacher. Adopted son of Cecil B. DeMille and Constance DeMille. Henry, a . William deMille reluctantly became a story editor. The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and Adolph Zukor. The United States Supreme Court declined to review his case. Few words can describe the monumental Cecil B. DeMille. [37] Despite his reputation for extramarital affairs, DeMille did not like to have affairs with his stars, as he believed it would cause him to lose control as a director. DeMille used clips from his own films in Land of Liberty. This is the earliest of DeMille's films available in a quality, color-tinted video format. [138] Critics were impressed with the visuals but found the scripts dull, calling it DeMille's "poorest Western". This concerned the executives at Paramount; however, the film turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film. His art was even shown at Paramount meetings when pitching new films. DeMille's early silent comedies influenced the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris. [5] DeMille was named after his grandmothers Cecelia Wolff and Margarete Blount. DeMille's first film, The Squaw Man (1914), was also the first full-length feature film shot in Hollywood. [271] DeMille was immortalized in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard when Gloria Swanson spoke the line: "All right, Mr. DeMille. Name in native language: Cecil Blount DeMille: Date of birth: 12 August 1881 Ashfield: Date of death: 21 January 1959 Hollywood: Cause of death: heart failure; Place of burial: Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Pseudonym: C.B. imported from Wikimedia project. [225][226] DeMille was credited by actor Edward G. Robinson with saving his career following his eclipse in the Hollywood blacklist. DeMille served as executive producer, overseeing producer Henry Wilcoxon. [244] Another minor characteristic of DeMille's films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films. Apfel. The play was successful, and DeMille was distraught that his childhood idol had plagiarized his work. Eventually, the Guard was enlarged to a battalion and recruited soldiers from other film studios. In March 1938, he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy. He bought the rights to the novel in 1925, but abandoned the project in pre-production. If you have diabetes and take insulin or other oral medications aimed to reduce blood sugar, taking chromium may increase the risk of . Cecil was 77 years old at the time of death. Terrible. The actor had 10 Globes nominations and five wins, including a special award for his vocal work on . [127] However, according to DeMille himself, he was not anti-union and belonged to a few unions himself. [189] In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, both DeMille's Samson and Delilah and 1923 version of The Ten Commandments received votes, but did not make the top 100 films. (Born, August 13, 1881 - died January 21, 1959) Cecil Blount DeMille's career plowed relentlessly forward living and dying again and again in waves - on the crests and in the troughs of the "American Dream.". [51] In 1911, DeMille became acquainted with vaudeville producer Jesse Lasky when Lasky was searching for a writer for his new musical. [160] A unique practice at the time, DeMille offered ten percent of his profit to the crew. [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. [272] DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s. Birthplace: Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming, United States. [205], Composer Elmer Bernstein described DeMille as "sparing no effort" when filmmaking. He debuted as an actor on February 21, 1900, in the play Hearts Are Trumps at New York's Garden Theater. [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. [78] In December 1914, Constance Adams brought home John DeMille, a fifteen-month-old, whom the couple legally adopted three years later. [36] One of DeMille's affairs was with his screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson. [102] Many of his films featured scenes in two-color Technicolor. [163], On November 7, 1954, while in Egypt filming the Exodus sequence for The Ten Commandments, DeMille (who was seventy-three) climbed a 107-foot (33m) ladder to the top of the massive Per Rameses set and suffered a serious heart attack. He stated that The Ten Commandments was the final culmination of DeMille's style. [298][299], DeMille's legacy is maintained by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who serves as the president of the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation, which strives to support higher education, child welfare, and film in Southern California. [204] As DeMille's career progressed, he increasingly relied on artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck's concept, costume, and storyboard art. [109] Six of DeMille's filmsThe Arab, The Wild Goose Chase, The Dream Girl, The Devil-Stone, We Can't Have Everything, and The Squaw Man (1918)were destroyed due to nitrate decomposition, and are considered lost. Soon after, in 1959, he had another heart attack, which led to his death. DeMille wanted to film in Canada; however, due to budget constraints, the film was instead shot in Oregon and Hollywood. [259] He cultivated the image of the omnipotent director,[260] complete with megaphone, riding crop, and jodhpurs. . Moreover, DeMille's epics inspired directors such as Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and George Stevens to try producing epics. Epic. 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. U.S. State: Massachusetts. [168] In the months before his death, DeMille was researching a film biography of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Movement. They struggled to adapt the play from the stage to the set. Cause of Death. [185] Similar to Belasco, DeMille's theatre was revolved around entertainment, rather than artistry. . . Cecil DeMille's famous niece was named for her. Despite the urging of his associate producer, DeMille wanted to return to the set right away. Broadway Actor. [41] DeMille and his brother at times worked with the legendary impresario David Belasco, who had been a friend and collaborator of their father. DeMille plays himself in the film. Mini Bio (1) Julia Faye's career is inextricably linked to director Cecil B. DeMille. is the 10th plague, in which the Angel of Death is imagined as a thick . DeMille traveled abroad to find employment until he was offered a deal at Paramount. [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. [157] Adolph Zukor convinced the board to change their minds on the grounds of morality. In other "Talk Shop" columns, DeMille explained that "no stone was left unturned to make the picture absolutely true to the life portrayed" and that he had brought in "eighteen big Tiger Tribe Indians . 10 June 2021. Cecil B. DeMille Birthday and Date of Death. [236][189][237], Aside from his Biblical and historical epics which are concerned with how man relates to God, some of DeMille's films contained themes of "neo-naturalism" which portray the conflict between the laws of man and the laws of nature. Cecil B. DeMille's "Ten Commandments" is getting appropriately colossal treatment in honor of its 55th anniversary. He donated. However, Beatrice introduced Lasky to DeMille instead. [319] The Ten Commandments is broadcast every Saturday at Passover in the United States on the ABC Television Network. [130] While DeMille was host, the show had forty million weekly listeners, gaining DeMille an annual salary of $100,000. Recommended For You. Just two years before his death, and shortly after the release of his last film, The Ten Commandments, he delivered a commencement address at Brigham Young University. He began his career as a stage actor in 1900. [275] Scorsese said he had viewed The Ten Commandments forty or fifty times. In the months prior to his death, DeMille was researching a film biography of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Movement. Cecil B. DeMille's final film, another version of The Ten Commandments , is his most widely seen work, thanks to Easter-time television programming, but it is not one of his most respected. View Bio. Cecil B. DeMille began his career as an actor on the stage in the theatrical company of Charles Frohman in 1900. Furthermore, DeMille's film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Story. 1902-08-16 Filmmaker Cecil B DeMille (21) weds actress . DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in New York City. [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. [57] Having become disinterested in working in theatre, DeMille's passion for film was ignited when he watched the 1912 French film Les Amours de la reine lisabeth. [62] When William found out that DeMille had begun working in the motion picture industry, he wrote DeMille a letter, disappointed that he was willing "to throw away [his] future" when he was "born and raised in the finest traditions of the theater". He worked with visual technicians, editors, art directors, costume designers, cinematographers, and set carpenters in order to perfect the visual aspects of his films. A deficiency in chromium may cause high blood sugar; however, deficiency is very rare. [130] He resigned from the Lux Radio Show because he refused to pay a dollar to the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) because he did not believe that any organization had the right to "levy a compulsory assessment upon any member. [85][86] In addition to his Paradise, DeMille purchased a yacht in 1921 which he called The Seaward. [62] They offered Farnum a choice to have a quarter stock in the company (similar to William deMille) or $250 per week as salary. [118] His first three sound films were produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With this year's Oscar nominations soon to be announced, we take a look back at his cinematic extraganzas. However, his earlier films The Captive, Kindling, Carmen, and The Whispering Chorus are more serious films. DeMille, Cecil B. [234], DeMille was interested in art and his favorite artist was Gustave Dor; DeMille based some of his most well-known scenes on the work of Dor. [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. education: American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, Pennsylvania Military College. [141], In 1942, DeMille worked with Jeanie MacPherson and brother William deMille in order to produce a film called Queen of Queens which was intended to be about Mary, mother of Jesus. [43] DeMille was credited with creating the premise of Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm. Robin Williams, 2005. [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. The film was considered a "masterpiece" and surpassed the quality of other sound films of the time. [255] Andrew Sarris, a leading proponent of the auteur theory, ranked DeMille highly as an auteur in the "Far Side of Paradise", just below the "Pantheon". The director Cecil B. died at the age of 77. The October 2002 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine saluted Paramount's ninetieth Anniversary by writing: "Somewhere Cecil B. DeMille is smiling.". retrieved. Heart Ailment. DeMille had considered making the film himself. However, Sam Goldwyn realized that if they called it "Rembrandt" lighting, the audience would pay double the price. Robert Birchard wrote that one could argue auteurship of DeMille on the basis that DeMille's thematic and visual style remained consistent throughout his career. However, the films of his silent era were often thematically different from the films of his sound era. [245], Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Cecil B. DeMille made 70 films including several box-office hits. [242] Another common theme in DeMille's films is the reversal of fortune and the portrayal of the rich and the poor, including the war of the classes and man versus society conflicts such as in The Golden Chance and The Cheat. DeMille toured with the circus while helping write the script. [187] E.H. Sothern's early influence on DeMille's work can be seen in DeMille's perfectionism. [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. Instead of portraying the danger and anarchy of the West, he portrayed the opportunity and redemption found in Western America. [119] These three films, Dynamite, Madame Satan, and his 1931 remake of The Squaw Man were both critically and financially unsuccessful. She had a Southern drawl which she never lost. He had a band of assistants who catered to his needs. [9] DeMille's father was also an English teacher at Columbia College (now Columbia University). [48] DeMille wrote another play originally called Sergeant Devil May Care which was renamed The Royal Mounted. Groesbeck's art was circulated on set to give actors and crew members a better understanding of DeMille's vision. Date of Death: January 21, 1959. [80] The first few years of the Lasky Company were spent in making films nonstop, literally writing the language of film. Long before he made his first sound picture, DeMille had become a cinema . that DeMille found his greatest inspiration. DeMille purchased the home in 1916 for $27,893 (Yes, five digits) and lived there with his family until his death in 1959. The longest-living Oscar winner is a recipient of the Golden Globes' prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award, which he was awarded in 1977, and he received the Producers Guild of America's Lifetime . [111], The immense popularity of DeMille's silent films enabled him to branch out into other areas. DeMille made a 1905 reprise in Hamlet as Osric. Character actor H. B. Warner was fifty, but looked Thirty was cast as Christ, and gives a gently . But he put on pictures that made a fortune. However much I may dislike some of his pictures, it would be very silly of me, as a producer of commercial motion pictures, to demean for an instant his unparalleled skill as a maker of mass entertainment. [194] DeMille was particularly adept at directing and managing large crowds in his films. [300] In 1963, the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation donated the "Paradise" ranch to the Hathaway Foundation, which cares for emotionally disturbed and abused children. [84] Goldwyn was later fired from Famous Players-Lasky due to frequent clashes with Lasky, DeMille, and finally Zukor. View the latest Cecil B. DeMille photos. He suffered from a post-surgery infection from which he nearly did not recover, citing streptomycin as his saving grace. Place of Death: Los Angeles, California, U.S. Ethnnicity: *father - English, small amounts of Scottish and Dutch, distant Belgian Flemish, remote Welsh. They continued filming in 1955 in Paris and Hollywood on 30 different sound stages. He graduated in 1900, and for graduation, his performance was the play The Arcady Trail. He related a story that he maintained his self-control when Gloria Swanson sat on his lap, refusing to touch her. 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. He joined the Producers Distributing Corporation. Right here at FameChain. [142] Jeanie MacPherson would work as a scriptwriter for many of DeMille's films. DeMille: The Master of the American Biblical Epic . DeMille filming the "big Indian raid" of Call of the North. [218][219] DeMille cast some of his performers repeatedly, including: Henry Wilcoxon,[220] Julia Faye, Joseph Schildkraut,[221] Ian Keith,[222] Charles Bickford,[223] Theodore Roberts, Akim Tamiroff[224] and William Boyd. He was so eager to produce the film, that he hadn't yet read the novel. [63] The Lasky Company wanted to attract high-class audiences to their films so they began producing films from literary works. In the early 1950s, DeMille was recruited by Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner to serve on the board of the anti-communist National Committee for a Free Europe, the public face of the organization that oversaw the Radio Free Europe service. Cleopatra (1934) was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Actor, The F.B.I. He was disliked by many inside and outside of the film industry for his cold and controlling reputation. [101], After five years and thirty hit films, DeMille became the American film industry's most successful director. Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, while his parents were vacationing there, and grew up in Washington, North Carolina. [232] In the early age of cinema, DeMille differentiated the Lasky Company from other production companies due to the use of dramatic, low-key lighting they called "Lasky lighting" and marketed as "Rembrandt lighting" to appeal to the public. [191] DeMille was the first director to connect art to filmmaking; he created the title of "art director" on the film set. In 1923, DeMille released a modern melodrama The Ten Commandments which was a significant change from his previous stint of irreligious films. However, this version is actually a 1918 re-release. Biography - A Short WikiDirector of the epic 1956 film The Ten Commandments, which featured Charlton Heston as Moses. Carl Laemmle anniversary 1931.JPG 1,473 1,161; 359 KB. The members rejected his proposal, even though his last two films, Samson and Delilah and The Greatest Show on Earth, had been record-breaking hits. [187] DeMille's films Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife?, and The Affairs of Anatol can be retrospectively described as high camp and are categorized as "early DeMille films" due to their particular style of production and costume and set design. LOS ANGELES -- Cecilia de Mille Harper, daughter of pioneer film-director Cecil B. de Mille and one of the first child movie actresses, has died after a long battle with . Additionally, DeMille's epics such as The Crusades influenced Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. [316] DeMille's Union Pacific received a Palme d'Or in retrospect at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. DeMille studied famous paintings that captured the life of Christ and brought them to the screen. DeMille was accused of antisemitism after the release of The King of Kings,[282] and director John Ford despised DeMille for what he saw as "hollow" biblical epics meant to promote DeMille's reputation during the politically turbulent 1950s. [207], DeMille made stars of unknown actors: Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels, Rod La Rocque, William Boyd, Claudette Colbert, and Charlton Heston. [215][216][217] He also cast established stars such as Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, Paulette Goddard and Fredric March in multiple pictures. Occupations. [41] His first play was The Pretender-A Play in a Prologue and 4 Acts set in seventeenth century Russia. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. Date of death: 21 January 1959 Hollywood: Cause of death: heart failure; Place of burial: Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Pseudonym: C.B. [229] He began the production of epics earlier in his career until they began to solidify his career in the 1920s. He is from USA. DeMille served as executive producer but could not improve Quinn's style of direction. [17] As a child, DeMille created an alter-ego, Champion Driver, a Robin Hood-like character, evidence of his creativity and imagination. Then, he would help writers construct a script. He began his career with reserved yet brilliant melodramas; from there, his style developed into marital comedies with outrageously melodramatic plots. He was a Freemason who remained a member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York . After the death of William deMille, DeMille revealed to Richard DeMille that William was his father and he had been born to William and a mistress. Consequently, his mother hired him for her agency The DeMille Play Company and taught him how to be an agent and a playwright. [32] At the age of twenty-one, Cecil B. DeMille married Constance Adams on August 16, 1902, at Adams's father's home in East Orange, New Jersey. [162] Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, it grossed over $80million, which surpassed the gross of The Greatest Show on Earth and every other film in history, except for Gone with the Wind. [168] Despite a cast led by Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, the 1958 film The Buccaneer was a disappointment. [122] His first film back at Paramount, The Sign of the Cross, was also his first success since leaving Paramount besides The King of Kings.
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