Cecil Blount DeMille (August 12, 1881 – January 22, 1959) was a successful Academy Award-winning American filmmaker in the first half of the 20th century, known for the flamboyance and showsmanship of his movies.
His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille wrote plays. Henry died when he was 12 and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too young to enlist in the Spanish-American War he followed his brother William to the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, making his stage debut in 1900. For twelve years he was actor/manager of his mother's company. In 1913 he, Jesse L. Lasky and Sam Goldwyn formed the Lasky (Paramount) film company and, the next year, produced the successful six reeler, "The Squaw Man" their first Hollywood film. He championed the switch from short to feature-length films and is often credited with making Hollywood the motion picture capital of the world. Rather than putting his money into known stars he emphasized production values. He also developed stars, notably Gloria Swanson. He produced and directed 70 films and was involved in many more. Many of his films were romantic sexual comedies (he is supposed to have believed that Americans were curious only about money and sex). His best-known were biblical epics: King of Kings, The Ten Commandments, The (1923) Crusades. From 1936 to 1945 he hosted and directed the hour-long "Lux Radio Theatre", which brought the actors and stories of many movies to the airwaves and further established him as the symbol of Hollywood. He appeared as himself in Sunset Blvd. (1950) with his own long-ago star Gloria Swanson playing the has-been Norma Desmond.
