Cecil B. DeMille

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1881 age 0

   Born

2. 1923 age 42

   CreditThe Ten Commandmentsdirector

   CreditThe Ten Commandmentsproducer

3. 1934 age 53

   CreditCleopatradirector

   CreditCleopatraproducer

4. 1950 age 69

   CreditSunset Boulevard

5. 1952 age 71

   CreditThe Greatest Show on Earth

   CreditThe Greatest Show on Earthdirector

   CreditThe Greatest Show on Earthproducer

6. 1956 age 75

   CreditThe Ten Commandments

   CreditThe Ten Commandmentsdirector

   CreditThe Ten Commandmentsproducer

7. 1959 age 77

   Died

• JFJulia Faye4 titles
• HWHenry Wilcoxon4 titles
• ABAnne Bauchens4 titles
• FFFranklyn Farnum2 titles
• CHCharlton Heston2 titles
• EHEdith Head2 titles
• HWH. B. Warner2 titles
• FWFrank Wilcox2 titles
• DADorothy Adams2 titles
• JCJohn Carradine2 titles

• Partner

  • JFJulia Faye

Nothing recorded for: Spouse, Parents, Children, Siblings, Influenced by, Studied under, Taught.

• Motion pictures are the most important contribution to literature and art since the invention of fiction.

  Cecil B. DeMille, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Who can tell what the years of the future will bring to the art of the motion picture in view of the amazing progress of the past few years.

  Cecil B. DeMille, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Motion pictures are visualized thought! Do you grasp how different that is from any other of the great arts? The printed word is reserved to those only who can read the language of the publication; music is for the ear that appreciates harmony (not every ear does that), but motion pictures are the universal language, as comprehensive to the American as to the Japanese, as understandable to the African as to the man in the Arctic. Motion pictures are human nature picturized and human nature is the same the world over in every clime.

  Cecil B. DeMille, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Only those who day by day are in the midst of motion pictures can really appreciate the wonderful opportunities for extraordinary things which the camera permits, and although we are still more or less in the beginning of things (I do not like to think we have really touched the great springs of the art as yet) we are struggling, working, studying all the time to better the production.

  Cecil B. DeMille, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Joan the Woman was the most interesting undertaking from the point of view of the artists and the director in the history of the pictures, I believe. It is entirely different from the spectacle features, as it is essentially drama, with the story always first and most important and the spectacular features secondary, although many critics have more than praised the battles and scenes of pageantry.

  Cecil B. DeMille, CC BY-SA 4.0

• The phrases, "happy ending" and "unhappy ending" are misnomers. They belong to an era when the public demanded a saccharine finish to every picture, irrespective of whether or not it was logical. Film-goers of 1933 insist upon a new standard in their screen entertainment. They are not particularly concerned about the ending of a picture so long as it is truthful. Naturally, they do not want a preponderance of depressing themes, but I am firmly convinced that they would rather witness a tragic finish that is truthful and logical than a sugar-coated ending that is not. In The Sign of the Cross the problem of bringing the story to a close is one that would have been difficult a few years ago, when the sugary tradition ruled the film industry. But now that the words "happy" and "unhappy" have been deleted from cinema terminology, our task was simplified, and we gave an ending which appeals to logic and intelligence.

  Cecil B. DeMille, CC BY-SA 4.0

Nationalities

United States

Cause of death

heart failure

Languages

English

Years active

1899–1958

Education

American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Widener University