Demille, Cecile

One of the leading figures of the golden age of Hollywood, Cecil Blount DeMille, was born on August 12, 1881, to Henry C. and Beatrice de Mille in Ashfield, Massachusetts. DeMille had an elder brother, William, and a sister, Agnes, who died in childhood. DeMille’s father taught at Columbia University and worked as an Episcopal lay minister. Henry de Mille obtained a job as a play reader for Madison Square Theater in New York. The elder de Mille began to write plays, eventually collaborating with David Belasco, often referred to as the Wizard of Broadway.

On the death of the family patriarch in February 1893, Beatrice opened an acting workshop for girls in the family home. Throughout his life, DeMille used the proper form of his ...