Cecil B. De Mille
| Cecil B. DeMille | |
|---|---|
Cecil B. DeMille, c. 1920
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| Born |
Cecil Blount DeMille August 12, 1881 Ashfield, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 21, 1959 (aged 77) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart failure |
| Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Pennsylvania Military College American Academy of Dramatic Arts |
| Occupation | Producer, director, editor, screenwriter, actor |
| Years active | 1899–1958 |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Constance Adams DeMille (m. 1902–59) |
| Children | Cecilia DeMille Katherine DeMille John DeMille Richard de Mille |
| Parent(s) |
Henry Churchill de Mille Matilda Beatrice deMille |
| Relatives |
William C. deMille (brother) Agnes de Mille (niece) |
| Website | Official website |
Cecil Blount DeMille (/ˈsɛsəl dəˈmɪl/; August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker. 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. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. He made silent films of every genre: social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants.
DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville producer. DeMille's first film, The Squaw Man (1914), was also the first feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it a phenomenal hit and it "put Hollywood on the map." The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and Adolph Zukor. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), was both a critical and financial success; it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years.
In 1927 he directed The King of Kings, a biography of Jesus of Nazareth, which was acclaimed for its sensitivity and reached more than 800 million viewers.The Sign of the Cross (1932) was the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique.Cleopatra (1934) was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. After more than thirty years in film production, DeMille reached the pinnacle of his career with Samson and Delilah (1949), a biblical epic which did "an all-time record business." 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.
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