Cecil B. DeMille

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Birthday:

12 August 1881, Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA

Birth Name:

Cecil Blount DeMille

Height:

178 cm

His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too young to enlist in the Spanish-American War, Cecil followed his brother William C. de Mille to the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, making his stage debut in 1900. For twelve years he was actor/manager of his mother's theatrical company. In 1913, Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and DeMille formed the Lasky Film Company (which years later evolved into Paramount Pictures), and the next year went west to California and produced the successful six reeler, The Squaw Man (1914), of historical significance as the first feature length film produced in Hollywood. He championed the switch from short to feature-length films and is often credited with making Hollywood the motion picture capital of the world. Rather than putting his money into known stars, he emphasized production values. He also developed stars, notably Gloria Swanson. He produced and directed 70 films and was involved in many more. Many of his films were romantic sexual comedies (he is supposed to have believed that Americans were curious only about money and sex). His best-known were biblical epics: The King of Kings (1927), The Ten Commandments (1923), and The Crusades (1935). From 1936 to 1945 he hosted and directed the hour-long "Lux Radio Theatre", which brought the actors and stories of many movies to the airwaves and further established him as the symbol of Hollywood. He appeared as himself in the classic Sunset Blvd. (1950) with his former star Gloria Swanson as the fictitious disturbed former silent film actress Norma Desmond. His niece Agnes de Mille was the acclaimed choreographer of both the original Broadway production and film version of Oklahoma! (1955). Show less «

The public is always right

[to his crew] You are here to please me. Nothing else on Earth matters.

Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture.

[on the set of North West Mounted Police (1940) when Chief John Big Tree's war whoops became too enthusiastic] Mr. Big Tree, please - if you...Show more »

[on the set of North West Mounted Police (1940) when Chief John Big Tree's war whoops became too enthusiastic] Mr. Big Tree, please - if you just moderate it a little. It's too harrowing. After all, this is only a massacre. Show less «

It was a theory that died very hard that the public would not stand for anyone dressed in clothes of another period... I got around this obj...Show more »

It was a theory that died very hard that the public would not stand for anyone dressed in clothes of another period... I got around this objection by staging what we call a vision. The poor working girl was dreaming of love and reading "Tristan and Isolde". The scene faded out, and scenes were depicted on the screen that the girl was supposed to be reading... Thus a bit of costume picture was put over on the man who bought the picture for his theater, and there was no protest from the public. Show less «

Every time I make a picture the critics' estimate of American public taste goes down ten percent.

A picture is made a success not on a set but over the drawing board.

I make my pictures for people, not for critics.

I didn't write the Bible and didn't invent sin.

[on "The Squaw Man"] I love this story so much that as long as I live I will make it every ten years.

[A week before his death, DeMille was asked what his future plans were] Another picture, I imagine... or, perhaps, another world.

Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for ...Show more »

Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. Show less «

The critics were less than kind to my selection for the other feminine lead, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri. I think the critics went farther wron...Show more »

The critics were less than kind to my selection for the other feminine lead, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri. I think the critics went farther wrong there even than they usually do; I think Anne Baxter's performance was very good. Perhaps the critics were too busy thinking what clever things they could write about our misspelling of Nefretiri's name. Show less «

For the roles of Samson and Delilah (1949), I selected two players quite deliberately because they embody in a large part of the public mind...Show more »

For the roles of Samson and Delilah (1949), I selected two players quite deliberately because they embody in a large part of the public mind the essence of maleness and attractive femininity, Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. That casting was risky. If it turned out that my two leads had nothing to give to the story but the appearance of male strength and female beauty, however superlatively they shone in those qualities, the real point of the story would be lost. But when I saw the rushes of the scene in the grist mill, of Samson mocked in agony and Delilah discovering that the man she has loved and betrayed is now blind, I knew, if I had not known before, that the talents of Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr are more than skin-deep. Show less «

I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called my attention to one scene she played in ...Show more »

I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called my attention to one scene she played in Sombrero (1953), which was a picture far removed in theme from The Ten Commandments (1956), I sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed, and which she gave it. Show less «

I am not one who would rail at the public if one of my pictures failed to "get across". The public knows art. I have never yet been connecte...Show more »

I am not one who would rail at the public if one of my pictures failed to "get across". The public knows art. I have never yet been connected with a failure, but, if I were, I would blame myself, not my audience. Show less «

The first star of a motion picture should be its story. If this star is properly cast - with drama turning upon drama in an ever-widening, a...Show more »

The first star of a motion picture should be its story. If this star is properly cast - with drama turning upon drama in an ever-widening, accelerating orbit - its spectacular production-value satellites fall logically into place. Once the course and character of this first-magnitude star have been charted, it should be surrounded by a galaxy of stars which fit properly into its field. If their brilliance adds lustre to the main star, so much the better. Show less «

[on why he chose to include a scene of a Roman bacchanal in Manslaughter (1922)] I wished to show that a nation that is addicted to speed an...Show more »

[on why he chose to include a scene of a Roman bacchanal in Manslaughter (1922)] I wished to show that a nation that is addicted to speed and drunkenness is riding for a fall. The best way to achieve this result was to picturize the greatest nation that ever suffered from these vices and show what happened to it. From this, it is easy to drawn a modern parallel. Show less «