Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, in 1881 and dying in Hollywood in 1959, Cecil B. DeMille co-founded Paramount Pictures and directed the first feature shot in Hollywood, The Squaw Man (1914). In the silent era he made sex comedies and morality plays, then biblical epics such as The Ten Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927). He shaped the idea of the Hollywood spectacle, with large casts and sets. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) won the Oscar for best picture, and his last film, a remake of The Ten Commandments (1956), was one of the highest-grossing films of its time.
Filmography
- The Squaw Man (1914)
- The Ten Commandments (1923) (1923)
- The King of Kings (1927)
- The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
- The Ten Commandments (1956)