Cecil B.

Cecil B. DeMille. Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959), American motion-picture director and producer, a consummate showman known for his spectacular historical epics and biblical film extravaganzas. Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, of a family with strong theatrical interests, DeMille was educated at the Pennsylvania Military College and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. From 1900 to 1913 he worked in theater--acting, managing, and writing (in collaboration with his brother William, an established playwright). In 1913 DeMille joined with Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldfish (later Samuel Goldwyn), who were hoping to make their fortunes in the fledgling movie industry, to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. As director general of the company, DeMille produced and codirected the first feature film made in the tiny township of Hollywood, California, The Squaw Man (1914). In 1916 the Lasky company merged with Adolf Zukor's Famous Players to form the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (the nucleus of what would soon become Paramount Pictures), and in 1921 DeMille formed his own production unit, Cecil B. DeMille Productions, Inc., which would operate under the aegis of Paramount for most of the rest of his career. Meanwhile he had made a number of distinctive silent films--including The Warrens of Virginia (1915), Joan the Woman (1916), and The Whispering Chorus (1918)--and had defined with his own persona the dashing image of the Hollywood director that prevailed for many decades. An ambitious self-promoter, DeMille made his name a household word long before directors became prominent with the public. From 1919 to 1922 he concentrated on a series of social comedies that portrayed a liberated sexual morality, while never failing to endorse traditional values. In 1923, while attempting to help redeem the Hollywood film industry from charges of promoting immorality, DeMille stumbled upon the genre that would serve him best for the remainder of his career: that of the pious epic, often biblically based, and studded with overblown spectacle and sexual titillation. The first two examples of his output in this genre, The Ten Commandments (1923; silent version) and The King of Kings (1927), if less flamboyant than his subsequent films, contained the germ of his mature formula and were immediately successful at the box office. In 1925 DeMille left Paramount to form the Cinema Corporation of America, but this was a short-lived alliance, and in 1928 he took his staff to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where he made three early sound films that were not successful. His career seemingly stalled, DeMille asked to rejoin Paramount, which he did in 1931. There he made a comeback with his lavish spectacle The Sign of the Cross (1932), following it with the exotic Cleopatra (1934; see Cleopatra) and The Crusades (1935; see Crusades). From that time on, his association with larger-than-life, big-budget films became legendary as he created the string of pictures that include The Plainsman (1936), The Buccaneer (1938), Union Pacific (1939), Northwest Mounted Police (1940), Reap the Wild Wind (1942), Samson and Delilah (1949; see Samson), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and a massive remake of The Ten Commandments (1956). DeMille both directed and produced all of his 70 films, and in the course of his career he worked in nearly every conceivable genre. Above all, however, he was a master of entertainment, a gifted storyteller who could mold public taste to fit his own strengths. In 1949 he received a special Academy Award for "37 years of brilliant showmanship." In 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth won the Academy Award for best picture, and DeMille was honored with the Irving Thalberg Award. He made one memorable appearance on film, playing himself in the satirical comedy Sunset Boulevard (1950) by Billy Wilder. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.