Exhibition Label

Born Ashfield, Massachusetts

Director Cecil B. DeMille’s repertory boasts such classic films as Cleopatra (1934), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and The Ten Commandments (1956), but his significance began in the 1910s and 1920s when he helped found the Hollywood movie colony. He directed dozens of early movies—including The Squaw Man (1914), Carmen (1915), Male and Female (1919), The Ten Commandments (1923), and The King of Kings (1927)—and helped establish Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, and Paulette Goddard by casting them repeatedly in his pictures. DeMille later appeared as himself in Sunset Boulevard (1950), and the film ends with Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) famously saying, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up." This photograph, taken by his cinematographer Karl Struss, depicts DeMille in his ornate studio office.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

1919

Object number

NPG.98.177

Artist

Karl Struss, 30 Nov 1886 - Dec 1981

Sitter

Cecil Blount DeMille, 12 Aug 1881 - 21 Jan 1959

Topic

Interior\Office

Home Furnishings\Lighting Devices\Lamp

Equipment\Smoking Implements\Ashtray

Home Furnishings\Telephone

Home Furnishings\Clock

Weapon\Gun\Pistol

Costume\Jewelry\Watch\Wrist watch

Cecil Blount DeMille: Male

Cecil Blount DeMille: Performing Arts\Director\Motion Pictures

Cecil Blount DeMille: Performing Arts\Producer\Motion Pictures

Cecil Blount DeMille: Oscar

Cecil Blount DeMille: Legion of Honor

Portrait

Medium

Gelatin silver

Dimensions

Image/Sheet: 21.3 x 16.1cm (8 3/8 x 6 5/16")

Mount: 31.4 x 23cm (12 3/8 x 9 1/16")

Mat: 45.7 x 35.6cm (18 x 14")

National Portrait Gallery

Type

Photograph