how old was william holden in sunset boulevard
In their scene together in Artie's bathroom Gillis mentions to Betty in his dramatic flirtation about having spent "12 years in the Burmese jungle", when coincidentally, just a few years later his character, Shears, finds himself lost there in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television miniseries The Blue Knight (1973). In one week, she received 17,000 fan letters. The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. Mrs. Getty divorced her millionaire husband and received custody of the house; it was she who rented it to Paramount for the filming. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. 25 on AFI's list of all-time great leading men. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. Norma's buying Joe a fine woolen topcoat would be mostly an affectation in sunny Los Angeles. In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of Life. They stayed that way even if the pictures got small. It gives them an opportunity to write really good acceptances speeches. "[18] Rumors at the time had it that Hepburn wanted a family, but when Holden told her that he had had a vasectomy and having children was impossible, she moved on. At Paramount, he was in a comedy with Ginger Rogers that was not particularly popular, Forever Female (1953). She turns out to be a multimillionaire silent screen icon played by the legendary Gloria Swanson and she leaves him all her money, which shes already spent, and face down in a pool. Wilder used real names like Darryl Zanuck, Tyrone Power, and Alan Ladd. His death certificate makes no mention of cancer. Reluctantly, Wilder met with William Holden, who hadn't done much after the great Hollywood innovator Rouben Mamoulian's Golden Boy (1939). Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. The others were Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951), and Submarine Command (1951). Normands career never recovered after word of her addiction leaked out and she died of tuberculosis on Feb. 23, 1930. Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". Also, the house didn't have a pool, so Paramount paid to have one installed on the condition that if Mrs. Getty didn't like it, they'd remove it after filming was over. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. He made two more films with Olson: Force of Arms (1951) at Warner Bros. and Submarine Command (1951) at Paramount. He became bitter about the throwaway roles Hollywood kept giving him. After the. Sands disappeared after the murder. When crew members asked Billy Wilder how he was going to shoot the burial of Norma's monkey, one of the film's most bizarre scenes, he just said, "You know, the usual monkey-funeral sequence.". Peavey reportedly wore flashy golf clothes but didnt own golf clubs and had been arrested for social vagrancy and booked on lewd and dissolute charges just a few nights before the murder. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. He earned an Oscar nomination for "Sunset Boulevard" and won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 for his role in "Stalag 17," per IMDb. After a private screening for Hollywood dignitaries, Barbara Stanwyck knelt in front of Gloria Swanson and kissed the hem of her skirt. Wilder was no fan of improvisation and was very protective of his words. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. The antique car used as Norma Desmond's limousine is an 1929 Isotta-Fraschini Tipo 8A, a luxury car made in Italy, and once belonged to 1920s socialite Peggy Hopkins Joyce. His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. Make-up designer Wally Westmore found that Gloria Swanson's face belied her age and wanted to make her look older. You see, this is my life, she promised. The musical version of the movie opened in London on July 12, 1993, and ran 1529 performances. De Mille at Paramount, the director is shooting the film Samson and Delilah, which he was actually shooting at the time. There were actually three mansions used during filming. director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . Billy Wilder's sixth film in a row for Paramount Pictures. The killing and the media circus that followed it hurt the industry. American actress Gloria Swanson in a promotional portrait for 'Sunset Boulevard', directed by Billy Wilder, 1950. Im not giving anything away here. Brenda Marshall, Holden's wife since 1941, was visiting the set when Holden and Nancy Olson had their kissing scene. Sunset Boulevard 1950, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, full movie Sunset Boulevard movie review (1950) | Roger Ebert "Lonely, alone, without dignity.". Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! After living in the home for a year he moved, and the house sat vacant for a little over a decade, earning the moniker "The Phantom House" in the process. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers after Joe Kennedy, JFKs dad who produced the film, replaced von Stroheim as director because Swanson complained about the racy material. As day breaks. In a case of life mirroring art, she outlived him. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. Previous image. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. Joe insists hes not a Hollywood whore, but he accepts Normas gifts, gold cigarette cases, a platinum watch, suits, shirts, and shoes that would impress Rudy. And like the title, Holden seemed to have the looks and muscular build Hollywood craved. So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture. . Sondheim respectfully stopped work on the project and, on the same grounds, later declined an offer to write the score for a proposed movie remake., Additional Sources: Perhaps one of the reasons Swanson got the job was because director George Cukor mentioned that the actress once lived in a mansion on Sunset Boulevard. The statuette on the telephone table at Artie Green's new years party is a model of the Philistine god, Dagon. April 17, 2019 6:00AM. Despite the 19 year gap in their ages, Holden and Swanson died just 2 years apart from each other- Holden in 1981 at age 63 and Swanson in 1983 at age 84. It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. Mary Pickford, Pola Negri, and Greta Garbo turned down the role. [39] On a trip to Africa, he fell in love with the wildlife and became increasingly concerned with the animal species that were beginning to decrease in population. After Salome, she planned to make another picture and another picture. Erich von Stroheim dismissed his participation in this film, referring to it as "that butler role.". in 1911 when the Nestor Film Company moved from New. Gene Kelly was then approached, but MGM refused to loan him out. Director Cecil B. DeMille, silent film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson played waxy versions of themselves. Holden was reunited with Wilder in Stalag 17 (1953), for which Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Sure she was a forgotten silent star, living in exile, screening her old movies and dreaming of a comeback. When Max picks up the discarded headpiece during the tango scene, his expression hints at concern for the mental issues Norma suffers from. New York-born novelist and screenwriter Brackett was head of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1930s, and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955. Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. On the last day of shooting, Swanson drove back to the house she, her mother and daughter shared during production, announcing "there were only three of us in it now, meaning that Norma Desmond had taken her leave.". [14], Holden made a third film with Wilder, Sabrina (1954), billed beneath Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. . As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. An out of work writer in Hollywood (Holden) randomly pulls into the driveway of a silent film star (Swanson) who can use the assistance of his writing talent. They had paired up in pictures since 1938. Gordon Cole was a real person in the art department for DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) and later in The Ten Commandments (1956). Its second owner was Jean Paul Getty, who purchased it for his second wife. The name "Norma Desmond" was chosen from a combination of silent-film star Norma Talmadge and silent movie director William Desmond Taylor, whose still-unsolved murder is one of the great scandals of Hollywood history. It was Erich von Stroheim who suggested the revelation that Max was writing all of Norma's fan mail. Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. Getty Mansion aka Norma Desmond's home in "Sunset Boulevard" midway According to Cameron Crowe, who shadowed Billy Wilder in his twilight years, a typical day in his office would consist of him answering numerous phone calls from people requesting to remake this film, and he would inform them that he didn't own the rights and promptly hang up. (She liked it.). For added meta-truthfulness, Wilder wanted to have that film's lead actress, Hedy Lamarr, be there too, so that DeMille could ask her to let Norma sit in her chair (you know, those behind-the-scenes chairs that have the star's name on them). Hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) accidentally falls in with faded screen legend Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Von Stroheim didnt know how to drive, and the scene where hes driving the exotic leopard-upholstered Isotta-Fraschini was shot as the car was being towed. William Holden: Golden Boy of Hollywood Starred in 'Sunset Boulevard [22] The golden run at the box office continued with Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), from a best-selling novel, with Jennifer Jones, and Picnic (1955), as a drifter, in an adaptation of the William Inge play with Kim Novak. Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr. Online Film & Television Association Awards, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." After returning from France, she shot her last Paramount films--Stage Struck (1925), The Untamed Lady (1926) and Fine Manners (1926)--at the studio's lot in Astoria, Queens, NY. 3.48. The forensics team rolled him over and saw he had been shot at least once in the back with a small-caliber pistol. Normand was the last person known to have seen Taylor alive and she was grilled by the Los Angeles Police Department as a result. But along with the accolades came a dependence on alcohol that would play a major role in his tragic end. In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. Billy Wilder was one of the ultimate Hollywood insiders and he grew with film. However, he knew that her arch-rival Hedda Hopper had trained as an actress and would therefore be more convincing onscreen. Although she had long before ruled out the possibility of a movie comeback, she was nevertheless highly intrigued when she got the offer to play the lead. Betty is engaged to be married to Jack Webbs character, Arthur Artie Green, who is such a good buddy to Joe that he offers to put him up on the couch for a few weeks. Prior to joining the Houston Chronicle, Gonzales worked as a night cops reporter at The. He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. Hedda Hopper: at the top of the stairwell as Norma descends toward the cameras. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. This is a reference to the now-mad Norma's final possession by the character of Salome, with whom she'd been so obsessed. She refuses to believe that she's no longer remembered and will never make another movie. The movie was previewed with this opening, in Illinois, Long Island (NY) and Poughkeepsie (NY). About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. Mrs. Getty's home had to be completely re-decorated to give it the oversized grandeur needed for the film. When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. Marshman was a journalist but both Wilder and Brackett had been impressed by the critique he had given of their earlier film, The Emperor Waltz (1948). William Holden returns to find that Gloria Swanson has tried to slash her wrists in 'Sunset Boulevard', directed by Billy Wilder. The movie featured the famed director Erich von Stroheim, who made photographs of Gloria Swanson move so beautifully the world was enthralled, as Max Von Mayerling, the director who made, married, and divorced the enthralling Norma Desmondand then gave up his career in film to be her slave in butlers clothing. Sunset Boulevard: The Original Hollywood Expose | Den of Geek The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden Grunge 2.14M subscribers Subscribe 486 18K views 3 weeks ago #Actor #Hollywood #SunsetBoulevard While Actor William Holden. The film and actors was excellent and lived up to our expectations. See, Bettys a message gal, not a virgin, and there are no whores in Hollywood. Boulevard du crpuscule : Amazon.com.mx: Pelculas y Series de TV. Mae West rejected the role of Norma Desmond because she felt she was too young to play a silent-film star. "Sometimes he'd just get in his car and drive," the director told the AP. Sunset Boulevard - General Discussions - TCM Message Boards The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. Normand made movies with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, and lived like life was one Wild Party. Hollywood was known for its excesses long before Michael Jackson hit town. Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969) and Network (1976). A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. An iconic sequence in that earlier film sees the character of Diane ascending a long staircase to a seventh-story apartment (hence the film's title). In an interview Wilder gave in 1996 he claimed that the film which eventually became SUNSET BOULEVARD began as a comedy for Mae West and Marlon Brando. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee of the year to be also nominated for Original Screenplay. Betty is an idealist, more closely resembling Normas rose-colored outlook, but with darker shades she wants to bring to light. Fred MacMurray and Gene Kelly both turned down the role of Joe Gillis. The veteran actress particularly wanted to see what Mary Pickford felt and was disappointed to see that she had left. [30] Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, Wild Rovers (1971). Gloria Swanson became so identified with the demanding, irascible Norma that later generations of fans were startled to discover her serene, easy-going, naturalist personality in real life.
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