In another story, DeMille welcomed a new assistant to his private bungalow on the Paramount lot. "This is an old building," he told the young man. "You'll notice the floor slants down and to the left. I'm placing you in the left side office at the end of the hall, so you can watch the heads as they roll by."
In still another story, DeMille was sitting in a Paramount executive's office, discussing a film he wanted to make. The climax of the film would be yet another huge battle sequence, requiring thousands of extras. When the studio executive complained that it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay all the extras needed for the battle, DeMille smiled wickedly. "I've got that covered," he said. "We'll use real bullets."
Interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, California, USA.
One of the 36 co-founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Only eldest daughter Cecilia de Mille was the DeMilles' natural child, daughter Katherine DeMille and sons John and Richard being adopted later.
Profiled in "American Classic Screen Profiles" by John C. Tibbets and James M. Welch. [2010]
Remade four of his own films.
Son of Beatrice DeMille, brother of director William C. de Mille, uncle of Agnes de Mille and Peggy George.
Stuntman Jack Montgomery, who played a Christian cavalryman in DeMille's The Crusades (1935), recalled in an interview the tension that existed between DeMille and the dozens of stuntmen hired to do the battle scenes. They resented what they saw as DeMille's cavalier attitude about safety, especially as several stuntmen had been injured, and several horses had been killed, because of what they perceived to be DeMille's indifference. At one point DeMille was standing on the parapets of the castle, yelling through his megaphone at the "combatants" gathered below. One of them, who had been hired for his expertise at archery, finally tired of DeMille's screaming at them, notched an arrow into his bow and fired it at DeMille's megaphone, the arrow embedding itself into the device just inches from DeMille's head. He quickly left the set and didn't come back that day. He came back the next day, but for the rest of the picture, DeMille never yelled at the stuntmen again.
The lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes) is named after him.
To promote The Ten Commandments (1956), he had stone plaques of the commandments posted at government buildings across the country. Many of them are still standing to this day, and some are now the subjects of First Amendment lawsuits.
Uncle-in-law of B.P. Fineman.
Was the original host of the popular "Lux Radio Theater," which presented one-hour radio adaptations of popular movies, often with the original stars, always with many of the biggest names in Hollywood. De Mille served as host/director of the series from its debut in 1936 until 1944, when a politically-oriented dispute with the American Federation of Radio Artists forced his suspension, and ultimate resignation, from the program. William Keighley succeeded him for the remainder of the program's run.