Cecil B. DeMille Biography
Born: August 12, 1881
Died: January 21, 1959
An actor and general manager with his mother's theatrical troupe since the mid-1900s, Cecil B. DeMille formed a filmmaking partnership in 1913 with vaudeville artist Jesse_L._Lasky and businessman Samuel_Goldfish (soon to be known as Samuel_Goldwyn). Their first venture was The_Squaw_Man (1914), which DeMille co-directed, co-wrote and co-produced with Oscar_Apfel. This successful and elaborate six-reeler launched DeMille on a lifelong career in films. His first solo effort was the Western The_Virginian (1914), which he also co-scripted. He edited and wrote (or co-wrote) almost all his successful films, with the notable exception of the popular melodrama The_Cheat (1915). Writer Jeanie_Macpherson began working for DeMille in 1914 with The_Captive (1915), and wrote most of his later silent films: hits that included witty romantic farces (Don't_Change_Your_Husband); epic morality tales that combined modern dramas with visions of history (Joan the Woman [1916]) or the Bible (The Ten Commandments [1923]); and perhaps DeMille's greatest artistic success, the handsome and moving life of Christ, The King of Kings (1927). Macpherson also wrote the director's first three talkies, ending their collaboration in 1930 with the bizarre comedy Madam_Satan (1930). DeMille continued to score hits in the '30s with epics (Sign of the Cross [1932], Cleopatra [1934]) and Westerns (The_Plainsman [1937], Union_Pacific [1939]). His output became more sporadic during the '40s, but he still pleased the public with his rugged action films Northwest_Mounted_Police (1940) and Reap the Wild Wind (1942). DeMille's last three films -- Samson and Delilah (1950), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and The Ten Commandments (1956), a remake of his 1923 movie of the same name -- were the most successful releases of their respective years. DeMille's final directorial effort, The Ten Commandments was also the decade's box-office champ. He died in 1959 at the age of 77; his memoir, -The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille, was published posthumously later that year. Rovi
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