Cecil B. DeMille Biography

Fast Facts

• Began his career as a stage director before he was hired by Jesse L
• Lasky for his Lasky Feature Play Company, which eventually evolved into Paramount Pictures
• Adopted son Richard is really his biological nephew; Richard was born out of wedlock to Cecil's brother, William
• One of the original founders of the Screen Directors Guild
• Had a cameo appearance in the film Sunset Boulevard; one of the film's most famous lines is "All right, Mr
• DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup
• " Defied convention by hiring actor Edward G
• Robinson and composer Elmer Bernstein, both part of the Communist blacklist of the 1950s, to work on the film The Ten Commandments
• Made four remakes of his own movies, including two of the same film, The Squaw Man