History Made Every Day™

Director, producer, and screenwriter Cecil B. De Mille, one of the most influential filmmakers of his day, is born on this day in 1881. Among his many accomplishments, he helped found Paramount studios and served as the creative force behind the company's films.

De Mille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, into a family with a strong background in theater. After studying drama at the Pennsylvania Military College and New York's Academy of Dramatic Arts, De Mille acted in and later became general manager of a theatrical company founded by his mother. He also collaborated with his brother William, an established playwright, to write for the theater. In 1913, he co-founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company with Jesse Lasky and glove salesman Samuel Goldfish (who later changed his last name to Goldwyn).

The company's first film, The Squaw Man, (1914), became a critical and financial success. The first feature film made in the tiny town of Hollywood, The Squaw Man tells the story of an English aristocrat who comes to America and marries a Native American.

The company, which later became filmmaking giant Paramount Pictures, made several distinctive silent films, including Joan the Woman and The Whispering Chorus.

De Mille liked to focus on social comedies portraying sexual liberation while still endorsing traditional values. In 1921, he formed his own company, Cecil B. De Mille Productions Inc., and started making Bible-based films to defuse the public perception that Hollywood promoted immorality. His silent versions of The Ten Commandments in 1923 and The King of Kings, chronicling the life of Jesus Christ, in 1927 were immediately successful.

De Mille left Paramount in 1925 and formed the Cinema Corporation of America. Three years later, he and his staff joined the crew at MGM but headed back to Paramount in 1931. His comeback film, which he made in 1932, was The Sign of the Cross, an account of Christians seeking religious freedom under the Roman Emperor Nero. His expensive, extravagant, and flamboyant films also included Cleopatra, The Crusades, and a massive remake of The Ten Commandments. De Mille directed and produced all 70 of his films, and he hosted a radio show from 1936 to 1945. He won a special Academy Award for showmanship in 1949, and in 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth--featuring big-top entertainment and a circus clown with a mysterious past--won an Academy Award for Best Picture. De Mille also won the Irving Thalberg Award that year. He died in 1959 at the age of 78.