Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille

Born: August 12, 1881
Died: January 21, 1959
in Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA
Cecil Blount DeMille was a founder of the Hollywood motion-picture industry, one of the most commercially successful producer-directors of his time, and one of the most influential filmmakers in history. Between 1914 and 1956, he made seventy feature films; all but seven were profitable. Cecil B. DeMille is synonymous with religious epics: The King of Kings, Samson and Delilah, and The Ten Commandments (1956). He blended spectacle, sex, and spellbinding narrative to convey a message of faith.

It was DeMille who created the image of the omnipotent director, megaphone in hand, wearing boots and a visored cap. DeMille gave Hollywood numerous stars: Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson, William (“Hopalong Cassidy”) Boyd, Claudette Colbert, Robert Preston, Jean Arthur, and Charlton Heston.

DeMille created the posts of studio story editor, art director, and concept artist. He was one of the first to use theatrical lighting on a movie set. In the late 1920s, when Hollywood converted to sound films, DeMille defied the sound experts, liberating the camera from a confining booth, and implementing the microphone boom.

DeMille’s authority extended beyond the confines of his studio. He was a power in aviation, banking, politics, and real estate. In the 1930s, his fame as a filmmaker was surpassed by his fame as a radio star.

He was a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an institution from which he eventually won two awards. In 1953 his film The Greatest Show on Earth won the Award for Best Picture of 1952; and he was presented with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

DeMille’s influence on world culture is incalculable, but there are estimates and milestones. His biography of Jesus Christ, The King of Kings, was a silent film, but because of a unique distribution arrangement, it was eventually seen by 800 million viewers. Samson and Delilah (1949) and The Ten Commandments (1956) are still listed with the top ten all-time box-office champions. They continue to generate revenue and provoke thought.

Movies for Cecil B. DeMille...

Indiana Jones: The Search for the Lost Golden Age
Title: Indiana Jones: The Search for the Lost Golden Age
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: May 7, 2021
Type: Movie
Hawaii, May 1977. After the success of Star Wars, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg meet to find a new project to work on together, the former as producer, the latter as director. The story of how the charismatic archaeologist Indiana Jones was born and how his first adventure, released in 1981, triumphed at box offices around the world.
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Yul Brynner, the Magnificent
Title: Yul Brynner, the Magnificent
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: December 2, 2020
Type: Movie
The incredible story of the mythical Russian-American actor and filmmaker Yul Brynner (1920-85), the most exotic sex-symbol since Rudolph Valentino; the story of the atypical destiny of an international nomad: from the Parisian cabarets to the stages of Broadway and the Hollywood studios. The rise to fame of a multidisciplinary genius who became a king of the screen.
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Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle II
Title: Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle II
Character: Self
Released: May 5, 2020
Type: Movie
THE RED SEA MIRACLE 2 continues to raise big questions about biblical miracles. Introducing the second film in a new two-part series by Patterns of Evidence’s award-winning filmmaker, Timothy Mahoney. How could thousands of feet of water be parted at the Red Sea? Or was the sea merely parted by the act of wind in nature, through a shallow Egyptian lake? Mahoney investigates these locations to see if any have a pattern of evidence matching the Bible. People of faith will be inspired and skeptics will have much to think about as Mahoney reveals two decades of documentary research including if divers found the remains of Pharaoh's army on the seafloor. This cinematic journey leads him to inquire… “Do miracles still happen today?”
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Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle
Title: Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle
Character: Self
Released: February 18, 2020
Type: Movie
Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle , is the first in a two-part film series by Patterns of Evidence’s award-winning filmmaker, Timothy Mahoney. In this investigation he examines the journey to the crossing location, looking at two competing views of the Red Sea Miracle. One he calls the “Egyptian Approach,” which looks near Egypt. The other he calls the “Hebrew Approach,” which looks far from Egypt to the Gulf of Aqaba where divers have been searching for the remains of Pharaoh’s army on the seafloor. The investigation raises giant questions about the real location for the crossing site and its implications on your view of God. The answers to these questions point to one of two very different realities.
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Hail Satan?
Title: Hail Satan?
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: April 17, 2019
Type: Movie
The story of The Satanic Temple, a controversial movement that combines religion and activism with the apparent purpose of questioning the basic foundations of US society.
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Sword-and-Sandal
Title: Sword-and-Sandal
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: April 14, 2019
Type: Movie
The silent cinema had already created colossal movies based on ancient civilizations, but it is in the 1950s when peplums reach their apogee in Hollywood. Then, peplums take root at Cinecittà studios, in Rome, where cheap cinema is produced with bodybuilders as heroes. The genre decays in the late 1960s, but rises again decades later, when a modern classic is released in 2000.
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The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille
Title: The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille
Character: Self
Released: February 11, 2016
Type: Movie
Filmmaker Peter Brosnan digs up the set of the 1923 film 'The Ten Commandments', long buried in the sands of California's Central Coast.
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And the Oscar Goes To...
Title: And the Oscar Goes To...
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: February 1, 2014
Type: Movie
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
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Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Title: Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: May 23, 2007
Type: Movie
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
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The Casting Couch
Title: The Casting Couch
Character: (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1995
Type: Movie
An unprecedented anthology of never-before-told true stories by and about some of Hollywood's most interesting stars, legends, and wannabes, and takes readers inside Hollywood's inner sanctum to show how casting decisions are made, who makes them, and who has the final word.
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Going Hollywood: The '30s
Title: Going Hollywood: The '30s
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1984
Type: Movie
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
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Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Title: Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: February 25, 1983
Type: Movie
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Title: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: August 6, 1975
Type: Movie
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
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Title: Spécial cinéma
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: September 25, 1974
Type: TV
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The Buster Keaton Story
Title: The Buster Keaton Story
Character: Cecil B. DeMille
Released: May 1, 1957
Type: Movie
An inaccurate retelling of the life of silent filmmaker and comedian Buster Keaton.
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The Ten Commandments
Title: The Ten Commandments
Character: Narrator (uncredited)
Released: October 5, 1956
Type: Movie
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
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Title: Cinépanorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1956
Type: TV
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Title: This Is Your Life
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1952
Type: TV
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience, including special guest appearances by colleagues, friends and family. Edwards revived the show in 1971-72, while Joseph Campanella hosted a version in 1983. Edwards returned for some specials in the late 1980s, before his death in 2005. The show originated as a radio show on NBC Radio airing from 1948 to 1952.
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Son of Paleface
Title: Son of Paleface
Character: Photographer (uncredited)
Released: July 14, 1952
Type: Movie
Peter Potter Jr. returns to claim his father's gold, which is nowhere to be found.
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The Greatest Show on Earth
Title: The Greatest Show on Earth
Character: Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Released: February 16, 1952
Type: Movie
To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.
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The Fallbrook Story
Title: The Fallbrook Story
Character: Self, Introduction
Released: January 1, 1952
Type: Movie
“The Fallbrook Story,” is a 20-minute film of Cold War-era uneasiness in which director Frank Capra rails against what he calls the evils of Big Bureaucracy. In 1951, Capra lived in Fallbrook, California on his 1,000-acre Red Mountain Ranch farm filled with olive groves. The federal government, which had purchased the old Rancho Santa Margarita land in 1941 to build Camp Pendleton, was concerned that ranchers upstream would take or pollute the Santa Margarita River, which ran through Camp Pendleton. Capra’s film documents how Fallbrook residents fought back against the federal government.
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Sunset Boulevard
Title: Sunset Boulevard
Character: Cecil B. DeMille
Released: August 10, 1950
Type: Movie
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
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Title: What's My Line?
Character: Self - Mystery Guest
Released: February 2, 1950
Type: TV
Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.
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Samson and Delilah
Title: Samson and Delilah
Character: Narrator (uncredited)
Released: December 21, 1949
Type: Movie
When strongman Samson rejects the love of the beautiful Philistine woman Delilah, she seeks vengeance that brings horrible consequences they both regret.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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Unconquered
Title: Unconquered
Character: Self - Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Released: October 10, 1947
Type: Movie
England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to escape the gallows, to serve fourteen years as a slave in the colony of Virginia, whose inhabitants begin to hear and fear the sinister song of the threatening drums of war that resound in the wild Ohio valley.
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Variety Girl
Title: Variety Girl
Character: Cecil B. DeMille
Released: August 29, 1947
Type: Movie
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.
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Jens Mons in America
Title: Jens Mons in America
Character: Self (uncredited)
Released: March 24, 1947
Type: Movie
Jens Månsson has big financial problems and realizes that he probably has to leave his dear Skåne farm Gåsabo. But suddenly, he inherits a fortune from his brother John in America.
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Screen Snapshots (Series 25, No. 1): 25th Anniversary
Title: Screen Snapshots (Series 25, No. 1): 25th Anniversary
Character: Self
Released: September 6, 1945
Type: Movie
A look back at 25 years of Columbia's series of newsreels chronicling the film industry and the lives of Hollywood stars. Clips from earlier films in the series are featured, along with a montage of film greats who have passed away in the intervening years.
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The Story of Dr. Wassell
Title: The Story of Dr. Wassell
Character: Voice of Narrator (uncredited)
Released: July 4, 1944
Type: Movie
As the Japanese sweep through the East Indies during World War II, Dr. Wassell is determined to escape from Java with some crewmen of the cruiser Marblehead. Based on a true story of how Dr. Wassell saved a dozen or so wounded sailors who were left behind when able bodied men were evacuated to Australia.
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Reap the Wild Wind
Title: Reap the Wild Wind
Character: Prologue Speaker (voice) (uncredited)
Released: March 26, 1942
Type: Movie
The Florida Keys in 1840, where the implacable hurricanes of the Caribbean scream, where the salvagers of Key West, like the intrepid and beautiful Loxi Claiborne and her crew, reap, aboard frail schooners, the harvest of the wild wind, facing the shark teeth of the reefs to rescue the sailors and the cargo from the shipwrecks caused by the scavengers of the sea.
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Star Spangled Rhythm
Title: Star Spangled Rhythm
Character: Cecil B. DeMille
Released: March 5, 1942
Type: Movie
Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.
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Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Title: Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1942
Type: Movie
The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.
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North West Mounted Police
Title: North West Mounted Police
Character: Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Released: October 22, 1940
Type: Movie
Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)
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The Movies March On
Title: The Movies March On
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: July 3, 1939
Type: Movie
A "March of Time" presentation of the evolution of movies compiled primarily from film clips of silent movies through the early sound pictures to the present (1939) date. Industry executives such as Jack and Harry Warner, Walt Disney, Cecil B. DeMille, et al are seen taking bows in the live (non-archive) footage.
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Hollywood Extra Girl
Title: Hollywood Extra Girl
Character: Cecil B. DeMille
Released: August 22, 1935
Type: Movie
A short semi-documentary about a "typical extra girl" on a DeMille film.
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The Hollywood You Never See
Title: The Hollywood You Never See
Character: Self
Released: January 20, 1934
Type: Movie
The making of Cleopatra (1934), showing pre-production, DeMille directing a scene, and the addition of music to the soundtrack.
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Hollywood on Parade No. B-5
Title: Hollywood on Parade No. B-5
Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: December 1, 1933
Type: Movie
Comedian Lloyd Hamilton escorts a group of beauty contest winners to various Hollywood night spots.
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Madam Satan
Title: Madam Satan
Character: Radio Newscaster (voice) (uncredited)
Released: September 20, 1930
Type: Movie
A socialite masquerades as a notorious femme fatale to win back her straying husband during a costume party aboard a doomed dirigible.
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Estrellados
Title: Estrellados
Character: Self (Guest Appearance)
Released: July 7, 1930
Type: Movie
A matinée idol and a bumbling manager fight for the love of a would-be starlet. Estrellados is the Spanish version of Free and Easy (1930) with Hispanic/Spanish-speaking actors.
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Free and Easy
Title: Free and Easy
Character: Director Cecil B. DeMille (uncredited)
Released: March 22, 1930
Type: Movie
Gopher City Kansas hosts a beauty contest. The winner, Elvira Plunkett, and her mother go to Hollywood. The Chamber of Commerce also provides Elvira with an agent, Gopher City's own Elmer J. Butz. Elmer likes Elvira and the shy Elvira likes him, but Mrs. Plunkett, a formidable woman, has little use for hapless Elmer. On the train west, they meet movie star Larry Mitchell, who takes a shine to Elvira and helps her meet MGM directors once they get to Tinsel Town. Elmer, meanwhile, wants to help Elvira with her career and he also wants to be her man. Movie stardom does come to the Gopher City entourage, but to whom is a surprise. And who will win the lovely Elvira's hand?
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The Circus: Premiere
Title: The Circus: Premiere
Character: Self
Released: January 13, 1928
Type: Movie
Footage from the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film 'The Circus'.
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Life in Hollywood No. 1
Title: Life in Hollywood No. 1
Character: Self
Released: August 25, 1927
Type: Movie
Part of a 7-part series exploring all aspects of Hollywood.
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Hollywood
Title: Hollywood
Character: Cecil B. DeMille
Released: August 19, 1923
Type: Movie
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
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A Trip to Paramountown
Title: A Trip to Paramountown
Character: Self
Released: July 10, 1922
Type: Movie
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.