Cecil B. DeMille
Birthday: 12 August 1881, Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA
Birth Name: Cecil Blount DeMille
Height: 178 cm
His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too youn ...Show More
[on the set of North West Mounted Police (1940) when Chief John Big Tree's war whoops became too ent Show more
[on the set of North West Mounted Police (1940) when Chief John Big Tree's war whoops became too enthusiastic] Mr. Big Tree, please - if you just moderate it a little. It's too harrowing. After all, this is only a massacre. Hide
It was a theory that died very hard that the public would not stand for anyone dressed in clothes of Show more
It was a theory that died very hard that the public would not stand for anyone dressed in clothes of another period... I got around this objection by staging what we call a vision. The poor working girl was dreaming of love and reading "Tristan and Isolde". The scene faded out, and scenes were depicted on the screen that the girl was supposed to be reading... Thus a bit of costume picture was put over on the man who bought the picture for his theater, and there was no protest from the public. Hide
Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one Show more
Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. Hide
I am not one who would rail at the public if one of my pictures failed to "get across". The public k Show more
I am not one who would rail at the public if one of my pictures failed to "get across". The public knows art. I have never yet been connected with a failure, but, if I were, I would blame myself, not my audience. Hide
[to his crew] You are here to please me. Nothing else on Earth matters.
[to his crew] You are here to please me. Nothing else on Earth matters.
Every time I make a picture the critics' estimate of American public taste goes down ten percent.
Every time I make a picture the critics' estimate of American public taste goes down ten percent.
[A week before his death, DeMille was asked what his future plans were] Another picture, I imagine.. Show more
[A week before his death, DeMille was asked what his future plans were] Another picture, I imagine... or, perhaps, another world. Hide
[on "The Squaw Man"] I love this story so much that as long as I live I will make it every ten years Show more
[on "The Squaw Man"] I love this story so much that as long as I live I will make it every ten years. Hide
[on why he chose to include a scene of a Roman bacchanal in Manslaughter (1922)] I wished to show th Show more
[on why he chose to include a scene of a Roman bacchanal in Manslaughter (1922)] I wished to show that a nation that is addicted to speed and drunkenness is riding for a fall. The best way to achieve this result was to picturize the greatest nation that ever suffered from these vices and show what happened to it. From this, it is easy to drawn a modern parallel. Hide
I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called Show more
I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called my attention to one scene she played in Sombrero (1953), which was a picture far removed in theme from The Ten Commandments (1956), I sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed, and which she gave it. Hide
The critics were less than kind to my selection for the other feminine lead, Anne Baxter as Nefretir Show more
The critics were less than kind to my selection for the other feminine lead, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri. I think the critics went farther wrong there even than they usually do; I think Anne Baxter's performance was very good. Perhaps the critics were too busy thinking what clever things they could write about our misspelling of Nefretiri's name. Hide
The public is always right
The public is always right
Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture.
Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture.
A picture is made a success not on a set but over the drawing board.
A picture is made a success not on a set but over the drawing board.
The first star of a motion picture should be its story. If this star is properly cast - with drama t Show more
The first star of a motion picture should be its story. If this star is properly cast - with drama turning upon drama in an ever-widening, accelerating orbit - its spectacular production-value satellites fall logically into place. Once the course and character of this first-magnitude star have been charted, it should be surrounded by a galaxy of stars which fit properly into its field. If their brilliance adds lustre to the main star, so much the better. Hide
I didn't write the Bible and didn't invent sin.
I didn't write the Bible and didn't invent sin.
For the roles of Samson and Delilah (1949), I selected two players quite deliberately because they e Show more
For the roles of Samson and Delilah (1949), I selected two players quite deliberately because they embody in a large part of the public mind the essence of maleness and attractive femininity, Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. That casting was risky. If it turned out that my two leads had nothing to give to the story but the appearance of male strength and female beauty, however superlatively they shone in those qualities, the real point of the story would be lost. But when I saw the rushes of the scene in the grist mill, of Samson mocked in agony and Delilah discovering that the man she has loved and betrayed is now blind, I knew, if I had not known before, that the talents of Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr are more than skin-deep. Hide
I make my pictures for people, not for critics.
I make my pictures for people, not for critics.
Cecil B. DeMille's FILMOGRAPHY
All
as Actor (13)
as Director (3)
Cecil B. DeMille'S roles
Cecil B. DeMille
