Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B.

DeMille was an American film director and producer known for lavish biblical epics and historical spectacles.

His name evokes grandiose filmmaking—sweeping crowd scenes, elaborate sets, and dramatic excess.

To describe something as Cecil B. DeMille or DeMille-style is to suggest extravagant scale and theatrical bombast: The wedding was pure Cecil B. DeMille.

Academy AwardTop Hollywood honor
producerOne who makes things
filmmakerOne who makes movies
Golden AgeLegendary period of perfection
Paramount PicturesMajor Hollywood film studio

cast of thousands · costume drama · greatest show · director · motion picture · writer · silent era · silent film · feature film · Ten Commandments · William Holden · epic · Charlton Heston · Yul Brynner · early cinema · talkies · black and white · Sunset Boulevard

Opposites

filmmaking scale and spectacle

Cecil B. DeMillekitchen sink realism

Drama of everyday hardship

intimate drama · neorealism

commercial vs. artistic filmmaking priorities

Cecil B. DeMilleIngmar Bergman

art house cinema · experimental cinema

classical Hollywood studio system vs. independent/outsider filmmaking

Cecil B. DeMilleJohn Waters

guerrilla filmmaking

Family

Cecil, DeMille, mill, miller, milling, milled, mills

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Mostly American · Timeless · Concrete · Rated G