Cecil Blount DeMille was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. His silent films included social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants. He was an active Freemason and member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York City.
The year 1914 in film involved some significant events, including the debut of Cecil B. DeMille as a director.
The Hollywood Heritage Museum, also known as the "Hollywood Studio Museum," is located on Highland Ave. in Hollywood, California, United States.
The Squaw Man is a 1914 American silent Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar C. Apfel, and starring Dustin Farnum. It was DeMille's directorial debut and one of the first feature films to be shot in what is now Hollywood.
Leatrice Joy was an American actress most prolific during the silent film era.
Abbie Jean MacPherson was an American silent actress, writer and director. She is known for her collaborations with directors D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, and was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Man on the Box is a 1914 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Oscar Apfel and co-directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It was based on the 1904 novel of the same name by Harold MacGrath and stars Horace B. Carpenter.
Dynamite is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, and Julia Faye. Written by Jeanie MacPherson, John Howard Lawson, and Gladys Unger, the film is about a convicted murderer scheduled to be executed, whom a socialite marries simply to satisfy a condition of her grandfather's will. Mitchell Leisen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.
The Man from Home is a 1914 American drama film based on a play written by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In 1922, the story was remade in the UK by George Fitzmaurice as The Man From Home, and released by Famous Players–Lasky. The stage play was a big hit for actor William Hodge in the role of Pike in the 1908 Broadway season.
The Girl of the Golden West is a surviving 1915 American Western silent black-and-white film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It was based on the 1905 play The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco. Prints of the film survive in the Library of Congress film archive. It was the first of four film adaptations that have been made of the play.
Joan the Woman is a 1916 American epic silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc. The film premiered on Christmas Day in 1916. This was DeMille's first historical drama. The screenplay is based on Friedrich Schiller's 1801 play Die Jungfrau von Orleans. This film was considered to be the "first cinematic spectacle about Joan of Arc."
We Can't Have Everything was a 1918 American silent drama film directed and written by Cecil B. DeMille based upon a novel by Rupert Hughes. The film is considered to be lost.
The Squaw Man is a 1918 American silent Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is a remake of DeMille's 1914 film of the same name, which is based upon a 1905 play by Edwin Milton Royle. The film was reportedly made as an experiment to prove DeMille's theory that a good film is based on a good story. It cost $40,000 to make and grossed $350,000. It would be remade again by DeMille in 1931. The 1918 The Squaw Man is a lost film with only the last reel extant.
Don't Change Your Husband is a 1919 American silent comedy film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gloria Swanson. The film was the third of six "marriage films" directed by DeMille and the first DeMille film starring Gloria Swanson. A print of the film is stored at the George Eastman House. The film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment with The Golden Chance. A Chinese silent film, Don't Change Your Husband (1929), used the same English title, and a similar plot arc.
Forbidden Fruit is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Agnes Ayres, Forrest Stanley, Clarence Burton, and Kathlyn Williams. It is a remake of the 1915 film The Golden Chance, which was also directed by DeMille. The film survives in prints at George Eastman House and the Library of Congress.
Saturday Night is a 1922 American silent romantic comedy film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Leatrice Joy, Conrad Nagel, and Edith Roberts. It was Leatrice Joy's first film with DeMille.
The Golden Bed is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is based on the novel Tomorrow's Bread by Wallace Irwin. Jeanie MacPherson wrote the screenplay.
The Road to Yesterday is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film is significant because it was Cecil B. DeMille's first release from his new production company, DeMille Pictures Corporation. It was also upcoming actor William Boyd's first starring role. In DeMille's next picture, The Volga Boatman, which was a tremendous success, he cast Boyd as the solo leading man.
Wilfred Buckland was an American art director. Buckland worked as an art director with Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky, and later with Alan Dwan, from 1914 to 1927. He was Hollywood's first "art director" and is credited with a number of advancements in filmmaking, including the advances in lighting techniques, the development of architectural sets, and the use of miniature sets. In 1924, he was named one of the ten individuals who had contributed the most to the advancement of the motion picture industry since the time of its inception. A 1980 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London advanced the argument that "everything we know as 'Hollywood' traces to Wilfred Buckland." Buckland was among the first inductees in the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame.
American actor and producer Michael Douglas began his film career with a brief uncredited role in Cast a Giant Shadow (1966). In the same year he played a small role in the play Bedford Forrest. His performance in Hail, Hero! (1969) earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer. He won the 1971 Theatre World Award for Pinkville. During 1972–76, he played the lead role in the TV series The Streets of San Francisco. In 1975, Douglas produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Golden Globe for Best Picture and BAFTA Award for Best Film.
