100 Years of Movie Posters: Cecil B. DeMille

Monday, 2 December 2013

Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil Blount DeMille (1881–1959) was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, he was an American film producer and director in both silent and sound films.

DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved on to writing and directing stage productions. He directed his first film The Squaw Man in 1914 and would go on to direct dozens of silent films before crossing to sound films in 1929.

DeMille was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies. Among his best-known films are Cleopatra (1934); Samson and Delilah (1949); The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture; and The Ten Commandments (1956), which was the last film he directed and also his most successful. In addition to his Academy Award win, he was also awarded an Academy Honorary Award for his film contributions, the Palme d'Or, a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is named in his honor.

During on-location filming in Egypt of the Exodus sequence for 1956's The Ten Commandments, the then-75-year-old DeMille climbed a 107-foot ladder to the top of the massive Per Rameses set and suffered a near-fatal heart attack. Against his doctor's orders, DeMille was back directing the film within a week.

Though DeMille completed the film, it proved to be his last for he never fully recovered. His doctor made a house call to him on the evening of January 20, 1959 and recommended he go to the hospital, and again did not follow his doctor's orders. He died of a heart attack on January 21, 1959. (Wikipedia)