Hayne, Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille, 433-34. 1. DeMille had adopted him to avoid revealing the affairs to William's wife. [119] These three films, Dynamite, Madame Satan, and his 1931 remake of The Squaw Man were both critically and financially unsuccessful. [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. DeMille's early silent comedies influenced the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris. [132] DeMille would never again work on radio. [207] Costume designer Dorothy Jeakins, who worked with DeMille on The Ten Commandments (1956), said that he was skilled in humiliating people. But they have inspired cutting edge directors including Stephen Spielberg and Martin Scorcese. His wife did not like Paradise, so DeMille often brought his mistresses there with him including actress Julia Faye. [268] DeMille appeared as himself in numerous films, including the MGM comedy Free and Easy. [92] DeMille and Adams adopted Katherine Lester in 1920 whom Adams had found in the orphanage over which she was the director. The Captive (1915) $500 /week. [110] After the release of DeMille's The Godless Girl, silent films in America became obsolete and DeMille was forced to shoot a shoddy final reel with the new sound production technique. Film Director. He directed 70 feature films, beginning in the silent era . The wedding party was small. [15] The two were married on July 1, 1876, despite Beatrice's parents' objections because of the young couple's differing religions; Beatrice converted to Episcopalianism. [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. Julia was born in Richmond, Virginia, of French-American parentage. [53] Another DeMille-Lasky production that opened in January 1912 was The Antique Girl. Despite his loss, DeMille continued to lobby for the TaftHartley Act, which passed. Explore Cecil B. DeMille's biography, personal life, family and cause of death. 16 references. He debuted as an actor on February 21, 1900, in the play Hearts Are Trumps at New York's Garden Theater. heart failure. Furthermore, DeMille argued with Zukor over his extravagant and over-budget production costs. 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. Cecil B. DeMille was born on August 12, 1881 and died in 2000 De Mille Drive, Hollywood, California due to Heart failure due to a series of heart attacks on January 21, 1959. . [9] DeMille's father was also an English teacher at Columbia College (now Columbia University). MGM distributed the film in 1941 and donated profits to World War II relief charities. He suffered from a post-surgery infection from which he nearly did not recover, citing streptomycin as his saving grace. 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 . [161] Post-production lasted a year and the film premiered in Salt Lake City. Large gallery of Cecil B. DeMille pics. is the 10th plague, in which the Angel of Death is imagined as a thick . The cuts were sometimes rough, but the movies were always interesting. However, others interpreted DeMille's work as visually impressive, thrilling, and nostalgic. [321]:2123. Date of birth. [315] He was further nominated in the Best Picture category for The Ten Commandments at the 1957 Academy Awards. DeMille served as executive producer but could not improve Quinn's style of direction. He initially sought out William deMille. In addition to his use of volatile and abrupt film editing, his lighting and composition were innovative for the time period as filmmakers were primarily concerned with a clear, realistic image. 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. It opened on December 13, 1985, and features some of DeMille's personal artifacts. Cecil B. DeMille passed away January 21, 1959, from a heart condition. In March 1938, he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy. Pictorials. However, Sam Goldwyn realized that if they called it "Rembrandt" lighting, the audience would pay double the price. He appeared in eleven of the fifteen plays presented that season, although all were minor roles. . Media in category "Cecil B. DeMille" The following 53 files are in this category, out of 53 total. [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. [142] Jeanie MacPherson would work as a scriptwriter for many of DeMille's films. DeMille studied famous paintings that captured the life of Christ and brought them to the screen. [244] Another minor characteristic of DeMille's films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films. DeMille: The Master of the American Biblical Epic . [202] DeMille was unique in using this technique. Additionally, DeMille's epics such as The Crusades influenced Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. [208] DeMille had an authoritarian persona on set; he required absolute attention from the cast and crew. DeMille developed a plan with his doctor to allow him to continue directing while reducing his physical stress. Eddie Murphy is going to the Golden Globes. She was born in Canada to a Scottish schoolteacher, Edward Gabriel Lester, and his Italian-Swiss wife, Cecile Bianca Bertha (Colani) Lester. [39] DeMille wrote a few of his own plays in-between stage performances, but his playwriting was not as successful. Cecil B. DeMille Net Worth: Cecil B. DeMille was an American film director and producer who had a net worth equal to $50 million at the time of his death after adjusting for . [228] DeMille was often criticized for making his spectacles too colorful and for being too occupied with entertaining the audience rather than accessing the artistic and auteur possibilities that film could provide. 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 . This Day and Age and Four Frightened People were box office disappointments, though Four Frightened People received good reviews. 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. DeMille plays himself in the film. "He was a thoroughly bad director," Huston said. Radford, Bill. Eventually, the Guard was enlarged to a battalion and recruited soldiers from other film studios. 10 June 2021. DeMille recalled that this church was the place where he visualized the story of his 1923 version of The Ten Commandments.[25]. DeMille was credited in small print as "based on an idea by Cecil DeMille". [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. Covers. It was produced with a large budget and contained many special effects including an electronically operated giant squid. 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. Soon after, in 1959, he had another heart attack, which led to his death. Heart Ailment. DeMille wanted to film in Canada; however, due to budget constraints, the film was instead shot in Oregon and Hollywood. [121], In 1932, DeMille returned to Paramount at the request of Lasky, bringing with him his own production unit. This is the earliest of DeMille's films available in a quality, color-tinted video format. [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". [23][note 2] DeMille's parents operated a private school in town and attended Christ Episcopal Church. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. [43] DeMille was credited with creating the premise of Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm. Cecil Blount DeMille (/ssl dml/; August 12, 1881 January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. "[265] Said fellow director William Wellman: "Directorially, I think his pictures were the most horrible things I've ever seen in my life. DeMille's return was approved by Zukor under the condition that DeMille not exceed his production budget of $650,000 for The Sign of the Cross. Birth place. (He would later cast her in The Ten Commandments.) However, his earlier films The Captive, Kindling, Carmen, and The Whispering Chorus are more serious films. A dark, exotic beauty, Katherine DeMille was a fascinating screen presence in the 1930s and 1940s. . DeMille's trademark scenes included bathtubs, lion attacks, and Roman orgies. Along the same lines, critics of DeMille often qualify him by his later spectacles and fail to consider several decades of ingenuity and energy that defined him during his generation. [134] William Keighley was his replacement. These films represent those which DeMille produced or assisted in directing, credited or uncredited. DeMille". Cecil B. DeMille's "Ten Commandments" is getting appropriately colossal treatment in honor of its 55th anniversary. [283] In response to the claims, DeMille donated some of the profits from The King of Kings to charity. [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. 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. [239], DeMille's films contained many similar themes throughout his career. [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. 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. [160] The Exodus scene was filmed on-site in Egypt with the use of four Technicolor-VistaVision camera filming 12,000 people. [54] DeMille found success in the spring of 1913 producing Reckless Age by Lee Wilson, a play about a high society girl wrongly accused of manslaughter starring Frederick Burton and Sydney Shields. [276] Famed director Steven Spielberg stated that DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth was one of the films that influenced him to become a filmmaker. Memoir of DeMille titled 'The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille' was published in 1959. Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, while his parents were vacationing there, and grew up in Washington, North Carolina. 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. Sunset Blvd. [140][note 8] While concurrently filmmaking, he served in World War II at the age of sixty as his neighborhood air-raid warden. [316] DeMille's Union Pacific received a Palme d'Or in retrospect at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. [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. [73] There were problems; however, with the perforation of the film stock and it was discovered the DeMille had brought a cheap British film perforator which had punched in sixty-five holes per foot instead of the industry-standard of sixty-four. Biography. With this year's Oscar nominations soon to be announced, we take a look back at his cinematic extraganzas. [28] On Henry DeMille's deathbed, he told his wife that he did not want his sons to become playwrights. [71] Apfel filmed most of The Squaw Man due to DeMille's inexperience; however, DeMille learned quickly and was particularly adept at impromptu screenwriting as necessary. 1 reference. [301][302], Cecil B. DeMille received many awards and honors, especially later in his career. [129], From June 1, 1936, until January 22, 1945, Cecil B. DeMille hosted and directed Lux Radio Theater, a weekly digest of current feature films. The film was considered a "masterpiece" and surpassed the quality of other sound films of the time. [76][77] The film grossed over ten times its budget after its New York premiere in February 1914. It was commercially very successful. DeMille, Cecil B. Sarris added that despite the influence of styles of contemporary directors throughout his career, DeMille's style remained unchanged. [108] The King of Kings established DeMille as "master of the grandiose and of biblical sagas". The United States Supreme Court declined to review his case. He said he was rather against union leaders such as Walter Reuther and Harry Bridges whom he compared to dictators. Additionally, during the war, DeMille volunteered for the Justice Department's Intelligence Office, investigating friends, neighbors, and others he came in contact with in connection with the Famous Players-Lasky. 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. [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. By 1930, DeMille had perfected his film style of mass-interest spectacle films with Western, Roman, or Biblical themes. In the audience was Charles Frohman who would cast DeMille in his play Hearts are Trumps, DeMille's Broadway debut. 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.. 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. DeMille frequently made cameos as himself in other Paramount films. [201], DeMille experimented in his early films with photographic light and shade which created dramatic shadows instead of glare. vigilantes and fulminating fanatics suffering flock shock and who wanted to shut down 1920s Hollywood because of the cause clbre scandals . DeMille asked David Niven to star in the film, but it was never made. Cecil B. DeMille, in full Cecil Blount DeMille, (born August 12, 1881, Ashfield, Massachusetts, U.S.died January 21, 1959, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California), American motion-picture producer-director whose use of spectacle attracted vast audiences and made him a dominant figure in Hollywood for almost five decades. [126] DeMille was a conservative Republican activist, becoming more conservative as he aged. [85][86] In addition to his Paradise, DeMille purchased a yacht in 1921 which he called The Seaward. [144], In 1942, DeMille released Paramount's most successful film, Reap the Wild Wind. [259] He cultivated the image of the omnipotent director,[260] complete with megaphone, riding crop, and jodhpurs. [248], According to Sam Goldwyn, critics did not like DeMille's films, but the audiences did and "they have the final word". [138] Despite the criticism, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of the year. Early life [ edit ] Born in Orange, New Jersey , [1] DeMille was the daughter of Judge Fredrick Adams, [2] New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, [1] and Ella Adams, his first wife. Billy Jim Hawkins . Director John Huston intensely disliked both DeMille and his films. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. [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. [180] His playwright father introduced him to the theater at a young age. The Ten Commandments gave the director a chance to play God, to film miracles. [68] He continued to Los Angeles. Between 1913 and 1956, he made a total of 70 features, both silent and sound films.He is acknowledged as a founding father of the cinema of the United States and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. [168] Despite a cast led by Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, the 1958 film The Buccaneer was a disappointment. (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.". Chromium. ", "10 Great Films that Influenced Alfred Hitchcock", "The Construction of a Christ-figure within the 1956 and 1923 Versions of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments", "The International Film Magazine, Sight & Sound, All films", "Hollywood Heritage volunteers preserve the Industry's earliest incarnation", "National Register of Historic Places Program", "Cecil B. DeMille Film Festival July 2 & 16", "After 54 years, it's the end for DeMille Middle School", "Vietnamese Language Roundtable showcased effectiveness of dual-language immersion program at DeMille Elementary School", "Apollo 11-Technical Air to Ground Voice Transcription", "Cecilia DeMille Presley Joins National Film Preservation Foundation Board of Directors", "BYU special collections archives houses extensive Cecil B. DeMille memorabilia", "BYU Hears: "Understand the Law of God", DeMille Advises 1957 Graduates", "5th Annual DGA Awards Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 1952", "5th Annual DGA Awards: Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 1952", "Jeff Bridges to Receive Cecil B. DeMille Award at 2019 Golden Globes", "Academy Alum Cecil B. DeMille, The Founding Father of Hollywood Filmmaking", "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Robert Townsend Directing 'Brewster's Millions' Reboot", "The Only Son/Cecil B. Demille [motion picture]", "DVD Extra: The first, and best 'Chicago' (1927)", "Rare 1949 Photographs Show the Making of 'Sunset Boulevard', "Screen: 'The Ten Commandments'; De Mille's Production Opens at Criterion The Cast", Cecil B. DeMille's Early Films' Costs and Grosses by David Pierce, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cecil_B._DeMille&oldid=1141568133, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 18:28. [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. Consequently, he focused his efforts on his films' visuals. View Bio. [318], Cecil B. DeMille made 70 features. "[156], Alfred Zukor responding to DeMille's proposal of The Ten Commandments remake, In 1952, DeMille sought approval for a lavish remake of his 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments. Barbara Stanwyck. [156] DeMille did not have an exact budget proposal for the project,[158] and it promised to be the most costly in U.S. film history. [187] It is difficult to typify DeMille's films into one specific genre. [297] The title of the 2000 John Waters film Cecil B. Demented alludes to DeMille. [151] DeMille would reminisce into a voice recorder, the recording would be transcribed, and the information would be organized in the biography based on the topic. [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. Hot! Robin Williams, 2005. [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.