Cecil B. DeMille
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Legendary director and Hollywood pioneer Cecil
B. DeMille directed nearly 100 films, the vast majority of them silent
films made before 1930.
DeMille's parents both wrote plays. After his father
died, his mother supported the family by running a school for girls and
a theatrical company, which DeMille helped operate for 12 years, often
appearing in the productions himself. In 1913, DeMille joined with Jesse
Lasky and Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn) to form with the Jesse L. Lasky
Feature Play Company in Los Angeles. DeMille urged the group to consider
switching from the short, two-reel films that were popular at the time,
to a full-length, six-reel feature. The company's first production was
"The Squaw Man" (1914), a feature-length Western, shot in a rented horse
barn and on the hills around Hollywood. "The Squaw Man," written and directed
by DeMille and Oscar Apfel -- DeMille even appeared in the film as an extra
-- was an enormous financial and critical success, and helped transform
Los Angeles into a film center. ("The Squaw Man" was also the only film to
be made three times by the same director. DeMille made another silent version
of the film in 1918, and a sound version in 1931.)
In 1916, the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company company
merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players to form the Famous Players-Lasky
Corporation. Over the years, with additional mergers and corporate realignments,
that corporation became Paramount Pictures, and DeMille was the creative force
at the studio for decades.
In addition to directing, DeMille often worked as writer, editor,
producer and sometimes even as actor. More than anything else, DeMille was known
for his massive Biblical and historical epics, including "The Ten Commandments"
(1923 and 1956), "The King of Kings" (1927), "The Sign of the Cross" (1932),
"Cleopatra" (1934) and "Samson and Delilah" (1949). DeMille also directed
"The Plainsman" (1936), "Union Pacific" (1939) and "Unconquered" (1947).
DeMille, one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director only
once, for "The Greatest Show On Earth" (1952), but he did not win, although
he did take home an Academy Award for his role as producer when the film
won the Best Picture award. He also won the Academy Award for Best Picture
for "The Ten Commandments" (1956). In 1950, DeMille was awarded an honorary
Academy Award, "for 37 years of brilliant showmanship," and he won the
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1953.
As an actor, DeMille appeared as himself in several films,
including "Star Spangled Rhythm" (1942), "Variety Girl" (1947), "Sunset Boulevard"
(1950) and "The Buster Keaton Story" (1957). He also supplied the voice
of God in "The Ten Commandments" (1956).
DeMille is buried next to his wife of 56 years, Constance
Adams DeMille (1874 - 1960).
DeMille was born Cecil Blount DeMille on Aug. 12, 1881,
in Ashfield, MA. He died on Jan. 21, 1959, in Los Angeles, CA.
1881 - 1959
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