The Ten Commandments, filmed here at the Guadeloupe sand dunes, 150 miles from Hollywood. Stills. Date of Death: January 21, 1959. [38], In 1902, he played a small part in Hamlet. [82] Additionally, because of DeMille's cordiality after the Peter Grimm incident, DeMille was able to rekindle his partnership with Belasco. [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. This allowed for the rapid production of his films in the early years of the Lasky Company. He said he was rather against union leaders such as Walter Reuther and Harry Bridges whom he compared to dictators. DeMille studied famous paintings that captured the life of Christ and brought them to the screen. [297] The title of the 2000 John Waters film Cecil B. Demented alludes to DeMille. [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. Cecil B. DeMille: Film director from the United States (1881 - 1959), Actor, Writer, Film producer, Film director, Film editor, Screenwriter, Playwright, Stage actor . She was born in Canada to a Scottish schoolteacher, Edward Gabriel Lester, and his Italian-Swiss wife, Cecile Bianca Bertha (Colani) Lester. 1902-08-16 Filmmaker Cecil B DeMille (21) weds actress . According to director of photography Janusz Kaminski, Steven Spielberg's earliest home movies still exist, and were consulted for the scene in "The Fabelmans" in which young Sammy Fabelman recreates a train crash scene from Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 film "The Greatest Show on Earth." "We've watched them before, but they are a little too primitive [] [132] [note 7], In 1939, DeMille's Union Pacific was successful through DeMille's collaboration with the Union Pacific Railroad. Consequently, his mother hired him for her agency The DeMille Play Company and taught him how to be an agent and a playwright. This concerned the executives at Paramount; however, the film turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film. [23][note 2] DeMille's parents operated a private school in town and attended Christ Episcopal Church. While visually appealing, this made the films appear more old-fashioned. A censorship board called the Hays Code was established. [259] He cultivated the image of the omnipotent director,[260] complete with megaphone, riding crop, and jodhpurs. [244] Another minor characteristic of DeMille's films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films. DeMille's film The Affairs of Anatol came under fire. Broadway Actor. Although less critically revered than D.W. Griffith, DeMille actually played a more important role in . Actor, The F.B.I. Recent images. [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. A lasting memory for DeMille was a lunch with his father and actor Edwin Booth. [78] In December 1914, Constance Adams brought home John DeMille, a fifteen-month-old, whom the couple legally adopted three years later. vigilantes and fulminating fanatics suffering flock shock and who wanted to shut down 1920s Hollywood because of the cause clbre scandals . DeMille's highest-grossing films include: The Sign of the Cross (1932), Unconquered (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and The Ten Commandments (1956). [156] Fifty-two of his features are silent films. [60] In addition to directing, DeMille was the supervisor and consultant for the first year of films made by the Lasky Feature Play Company. They took time off weekly from film production to practice military drills. Birthday: August 12, 1881. Adams was 29 years old at the time of their marriage, eight years older than DeMille. Consequently, the film was never made. The Captive (1915) $500 /week. The film was considered a "masterpiece" and surpassed the quality of other sound films of the time. He was a Freemason who remained a member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York . [168] Despite a cast led by Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, the 1958 film The Buccaneer was a disappointment. He initially sought out William deMille. Friday 12 Aug 1881. 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. 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. [92] DeMille and Adams adopted Katherine Lester in 1920 whom Adams had found in the orphanage over which she was the director. 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. Self - Actor, The F.B.I. [36][note 6], Film started becoming more sophisticated and the subsequent films of the Lasky company were criticized for primitive and unrealistic set design. Immediate Family: Biological son of Gus Gonzales and Ada Piper. Cecil Blount DeMille (/ssl dml/; August 12, 1881 January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. [118] His first three sound films were produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Memoir of DeMille titled 'The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille' was published in 1959. 1 reference. [255] Consequently, the name "DeMille" has become synonymous with filmmaking. cause of death. [49] In the 1910s, DeMille began directing and producing other writer's plays. [231][note 14] The Ten Commandments inspired DreamWorks Animation's later film about Moses, The Prince of Egypt. Chromium is a mineral that is found in a number of foods, such as meat, vegetables, grains, fruits and nuts. [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. "[132] Consequently, he had to resign from the radio show. Its interracial love story made it commercially successful and it first publicized Hollywood as the home of the U.S. film industry. But he put on pictures that made a fortune. His last and best known film, The Ten Commandments (1956), also a Best Picture Academy Award nominee, is currently the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. Age. [134] William Keighley was his replacement. His poor physical condition upon his return home affected the production of his 1922 film Manslaughter. Now he wants to make the life of Moses. However, he would never again vote for a Democratic candidate in a presidential election. [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. Date of birth. He was confined to bed and unable to eat. The second star is located at 1725 Vine Street. [249] Similarly, scholar David Blanke, argued that DeMille had lost the respect of his colleagues and film critics by his late film career. Carl Laemmle anniversary 1931.JPG 1,473 1,161; 359 KB. [34], They were sexually incompatible; according to DeMille, Adams was too "pure" to "feel such violent and evil passions. [126] DeMille was a conservative Republican activist, becoming more conservative as he aged. [106] His first film in the new production company, DeMille Pictures Corporation, was The Road to Yesterday in 1925. This was, according to DeMille, the lowest point of his career. [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. [191] DeMille was the first director to connect art to filmmaking; he created the title of "art director" on the film set. The October 2002 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine saluted Paramount's ninetieth Anniversary by writing: "Somewhere Cecil B. DeMille is smiling.". Host Scott . [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. Between 1914 and 1956, he made seventy feature films; all but seven were profitable. Maude Fealy would appear as the featured actress in several productions that summer and would develop a lasting friendship with DeMille. [51] In 1911, DeMille became acquainted with vaudeville producer Jesse Lasky when Lasky was searching for a writer for his new musical. [43] DeMille was credited with creating the premise of Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm. Finally, he would leave the script with artists and allow them to create artistic depictions and renderings of each scene. DeMille had considered making the film himself. [10], Cecil B. DeMille's mother, Beatrice, a literary agent and scriptwriter, was the daughter of German Jews. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. The Squaw Man (1914), co-directed by Oscar Apfel, was a sensation and it established the Lasky Company. [132] DeMille would never again work on radio. [66] With no knowledge of filmmaking, DeMille was introduced to observe the process at film studios. Apfel. [33] They had met in a theater in Washington D.C. while they were both acting in Hearts Are Trumps. Here, he parts the Red Sea. [281] However, not everyone received DeMille's religious films favorably. [108] The King of Kings established DeMille as "master of the grandiose and of biblical sagas". [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. [41] However, none of these were very successful; William deMille was most successful when he worked alone. [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. DeMille plays himself in the film. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. Mrs. DeMille's office and library opened to the music room. [129] DeMille also liked Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, finding him charismatic, tenacious, and intelligent and agreeing with Roosevelt's abhorrence of Prohibition. [28] On Henry DeMille's deathbed, he told his wife that he did not want his sons to become playwrights. 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. They screened four of his films at Christ Church, where DeMille and his family attended church when they lived there. View Bio. [138] Audiences liked its highly saturated color, so DeMille made no further black-and-white features. Moreover, DeMille was audited by the Internal Revenue Service due to issues with his production company. [5] On September 1, 1881, the family returned with the newborn DeMille to their flat in New York. Despite the urging of his associate producer, DeMille wanted to return to the set right away. [130] From 1936 to 1945, he produced, hosted, and directed all shows with the occasional exception of a guest director. Self - The Real FBI Story (2017) . [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. [130] While DeMille was host, the show had forty million weekly listeners, gaining DeMille an annual salary of $100,000. Cecil B. DeMille was a master of spectacle. His art was even shown at Paramount meetings when pitching new films. Director John Huston intensely disliked both DeMille and his films. [55][56] However, changes in the theater rendered DeMille's melodramas obsolete before they were produced, and true theatrical success eluded him. A documentary titled. (1950) $10,000. [204] As DeMille's career progressed, he increasingly relied on artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck's concept, costume, and storyboard art. To provide for her family, she opened the Henry C. DeMille School for Girls in her home in February 1893. [62] They offered Farnum a choice to have a quarter stock in the company (similar to William deMille) or $250 per week as salary. In March 1938, he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy. [229] He began the production of epics earlier in his career until they began to solidify his career in the 1920s. [251] Director Ridley Scott has been called "the Cecil B. DeMille of the digital era" due to his classical and medieval epics. [93] [note 5] In 1922, the couple adopted Richard deMille. Profile of the Hollywood directing legend who became known for his "spectaculars." Learn how DeMille helped establish Hollywood as the movie-making capital o. [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. Cause of Death: Heart failure. [231], According to Scott Eyman, DeMille's films were at the same time masculine and feminine due to his thematic adventurousness and his eye for the extravagant. 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. [85][86] In addition to his Paradise, DeMille purchased a yacht in 1921 which he called The Seaward. Cleopatra (1934) was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. However, he did take a few months to set up a movie theater for the French front. Cecil B. DeMille's "Ten Commandments" is getting appropriately colossal treatment in honor of its 55th anniversary. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. [233] DeMille's 1956 version of The Ten Commandments, according to director Martin Scorsese, is renowned for its level of production and the care and detail that went into creating the film. The surgery caused him to suffer from sexual dysfunction for the rest of his life, according to some family members. [172] DeMille's funeral was held on January 23 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. [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. Covers. DeMille frequently made cameos as himself in other Paramount films. He stated that The Ten Commandments was the final culmination of DeMille's style. He was her mentor, while she was for many years his mistress (a liaison which was tolerated by De Mille's long-suffering wife Constance Adams ). Date of death: 21 Jan 1959. The Ten Commandments gave the director a chance to play God, to film miracles. [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. [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. 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. [283] In response to the claims, DeMille donated some of the profits from The King of Kings to charity. [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. I'm ready for my close-up." They were even required to expand to RKO sound studios for filming. Consequently, he focused his efforts on his films' visuals. It opened on December 13, 1985, and features some of DeMille's personal artifacts. 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. Instead of portraying the danger and anarchy of the West, he portrayed the opportunity and redemption found in Western America. His first several films were westerns and he produced a chain of westerns during the sound era. [91] Although DeMille considered enlisting in World War I, he stayed in the United States and made films. [169] DeMille attended the Santa Barbara premiere of The Buccaneer in December 1958. When the AFRA expanded to television, DeMille was banned from television appearances. Constance Adams DeMille (April 27, 1873 - July 17, 1960) was an American actress and wife of filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille. Compared to other directors, few film scholars have taken the time to academically analyze his films and style. . [268] DeMille appeared as himself in numerous films, including the MGM comedy Free and Easy. (He would later cast her in The Ten Commandments.) Frequent actors and actresses on the show included Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, Don Ameche, and Fred MacMurray. The project was later completed by DeMille's former assistant director. 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. They continued filming in 1955 in Paris and Hollywood on 30 different sound stages. He is one of the most extraordinarily able showmen of modern times. His family's, DeMille's niece and William deMille's daughter. [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. Unlike the other children the DeMille's adopted, John was never told about his birth parents. [317], Two of DeMille's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Cheat (1915) and The Ten Commandments (1956). [84] While on a European vacation in 1921, DeMille contracted rheumatic fever in Paris. The first, for radio contributions, is located at 6240 Hollywood Blvd. Next, he would work with writers to develop the story that he was envisioning. Work period (start) . [61], The Squaw Man was a success, which led to the eventual founding of Paramount Pictures and Hollywood becoming the "film capital of the world". [84] His specific use of lighting, influenced by his mentor David Belasco, was for the purpose of creating "striking images" and heightening "dramatic situations". Constance was born the daughter of Judge Frederic Adams, New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, and Ella Adams, Frederics first wife. is the 10th plague, in which the Angel of Death is imagined as a thick . DeMille lent Roosevelt a car for his campaign for the 1932 United States presidential election and voted for him. [171], Cecil B. DeMille suffered a series of heart attacks from June 1958 to January 1959,[168] and died on January 21, 1959, following an attack. Beatrice became a play broker and author's agent, influencing DeMille's early life and career.