how old was william holden in sunset boulevard

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how old was william holden in sunset boulevard

She can be seen talking and giggling on the phone during the party. Without Norma Desmond, there wouldnt be any Paramount Pictures. This was the last major Hollywood feature film to be shot on nitrate stock. (1950), Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the film, directed H.B. Swanson herself reportedly asked him to do it. 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. It has to be an opera. The movie was previewed with this opening, in Illinois, Long Island (NY) and Poughkeepsie (NY). In a scene described by director Billy Wilder as one of the best he'd ever shot, the body of Joe Gillis is rolled into the morgue to join three dozen other corpses, some of whom--in voice-over--tell Gillis how they died. But it wasn't a mistake. On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. He did another Western at Columbia, Texas (1941) with Glenn Ford, and a musical comedy at Paramount, The Fleet's In (1942) with Eddie Bracken, Dorothy Lamour, and Betty Hutton.[9]. Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. The mansion was torn down in 1957, and a large office building for Getty Oil built on the site still stands on the spot. read more: Key Largo, Lauren Bacall, and the Definitive Post-War Film. Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. And if you find it a little odd to hear dead men telling their own tales via narration, it is less strange than hearing it from a bunch of corpses with toe-tags talking it over in the LA county morgue, which was the way the movie was originally shot. Holden never lost his stride as cinema changed. At one point, Norma decides the time is right to send Gillis script to DeMille because is a Leo. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Hola, identifcate . Marshman Jr. Sunset Boulevard was the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film. True to character, Von Stroheim refused to leave Paris to attend the Academy Awards ceremony, and declared that his nomination for best supporting actor should've been for best actor. Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. was voted #6 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by "Premiere" magazine in 2007. 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. He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork Western The Wild Bunch. Sunset Boulevard, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim 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 structure in the film required a tennis court, or rather the ghost of a tennis court, with faded markings and a sagging net. But it's also a love story, and the love keeps it from becoming simply a waxworks or a freak show. Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. Mae West rejected the role of Norma Desmond because she felt she was too young to play a silent-film star. Sands disappeared after the murder. in West Hollywood. His deal was considered one of the best ever for an actor at the time, with him receiving 10% of the gross, which earned him over $2.5 million, however, Holden stipulated that he should only receive a maximum of $50,000 per year from the film. For the cover photo of the very first issue, in April 1951, of what many consider the most important film magazine of all time, the Paris-based "Cahiers du Cinema, " the editors chose the image of Gloria Swanson and William Holden in her screening room. producer Music by Franz Waxman Cinematography by John F. Seitz . When the movie first dropped, Louis B. Mayer, the Mayer in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, told everyone who would listen that Wilder disgraced the industry that made him and fed him, and urged that he be tarred and feathered, and run out of Hollywood. Wilder, who had been feeding himself for quite some time, told Meyer to go fuck himself. Joe Gillis: Wait a minute, haven't I seen you before? "Waxwork" Buster Keaton was in reality an excellent bridge player, always in demand at Hollywood bridge parties. However, DeMille insisted that Lamarr be paid $25,000 for the privilege, so the idea was quickly dropped. The movie opens with a shot of a dead guy floating face down in a pool, and the dead man himself tells us that its Joe Gillis getting bloated in the chlorine. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). Next image (0) (0) Idealists can screw for fun and for power, because sex is good for business but love is a luxury Hollywood gals cant live without. Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival Special Award for Ensemble Acting, Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, "When Alcoholics drink themselves to death", "William Holden Dead at 63; Won Oscar for 'Stalag 17', "Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Award: 1982 Oscars", "The Screen Strand Shows 'Invisible Stripes', "30 Days, 30 Classics Day 17: Sabrina (1954) starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart", "Screen: Crosby Acts in 'Country Girl'; Film Based on Odets Drama Makes Bow", "The Screen in Review; 'Bridges at Toko-ri' Is Fine Film of War", "Han Suyin dies at 95; wrote 'Many-Splendored Thing', "13 Fascinating Facts About 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "The Towering Inferno Movie Review (1974)", "Network Movie Review & Film Summary (1976)", "William Holden Gave His All Even "When Time Ran Out", "William Holden's Unscripted Fall From Grace", The William Holden Wildlife Education Center, "West Holden: More than just the son of William Holden", Image of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1951, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Holden&oldid=1142631715, Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners, United Service Organizations entertainers, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple partners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, episode: "William Holden/Frances Bergen Show", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:28. 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. [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. Now that we are getting closer to Awards Season in here in Hollywood, Im getting more and more interest from nominees and prospective nominees who want to know in advance if they are going home with the gold, Marie Bargas, known for years as the Hollywood Witch, told Den of Geek. Was the inspiration for Metallica's 1997 song "The Memory Remains". It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. Every time I go to L.A., which isn't too often, I look at these palm-bemused, once smart stucco facades, and wonder if a Norma Desmond from a later era might be hiding from the world inside them, buttressed by cable TV (AMC or TCM, no doubt), a poodle named FiFi or Sir Francis, walk-in closets full of leopard-print Capri pants that haven't fit in decades, and a world class liquor cabinet that has seen heads of state under the table on a good night. Norma Desmond: Get out! Holden had another good break when he was cast as Judy Holliday's love interest in the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway hit Born Yesterday (1950). "Variety" ran a front-page review, and this led to a belated release of Swanson's version in 1957 (the year of Stroheim's death). Despite that, von Stroheim "still managed to hit the gates, he had no co-ordination", said Billy Wilder in an interview for the book "Sunset Boulevard: From Movie to Musical". He loves Norma so much, he even forges thousands of pages of fan mail, just to feed her delusion. But also much funnier. Jay Livingston, Ray Evans: The Paramount songwriting duo is seen at the piano at Artie Green's New Year's Eve party. In accordance with his wishes, no funeral or memorial services were conducted. This parallel narrative--two perspectives from the same character, one omniscient, the other blissfully ignorant--that converge at the moment of Joe's death, are a major reason the film retains such dramatic and emotional power. When she received her Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony, Holden had died in an accident just a few months prior. Included among the 25 films on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling. 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. a mean old woman who looks and acts a little like Ma Bates if she'd been dead for several years but was somehow still just as talkative and feisty. 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. The character of Norma Desmond is modeled on the fate of several leading actresses of the silent era. The role of Norma Desmond was initially offered to Mae West (who rejected the part), Mary Pickford (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett realized when talking to her that her image as "America's Sweetheart" made her unsuitable for the part), and Pola Negri (Billy Wilder rejected her as her thick accent would cause too many problems) before being accepted by Gloria Swanson. The much sought after but highly finicky leading man accepted the role, then backed out. London Boulevard (2010) was based on the Ken Bruen novel that was inspired by Sunset Boulevard and features the same trope of an aging actress as the stranger caught in her web. This is an old film which has been made into a musical. It is also one of the most frequently misquoted movie lines, usually given as, "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. [26], He made another war film for a British director, The Key (1958) with Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren for director Carol Reed. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. These actors were bigger than life. In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. (as Arthur Schmidt) To get around the restrictions of the Breen Code, the script was submitted piecemeal, several pages at a time. "[13] And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. Sunset Boulevard is a noir film and like many of the post-World War II dark classics, it is covered with a thick sheen of cynicism. The older actor prided himself on needling people and he needled the shit out of Holden on the first movie, and the second movie was worse because Holden started dating Audrey Hepburn during filming. Bogart was not especially friendly toward Hepburn, who had little Hollywood experience, while Holden's reaction was the opposite, wrote biographer Michelangelo Capua. The film is openly referenced in Soapdish (1991), The Player (1992), Gods and Monsters (1998), Mulholland Drive (2001), Inland Empire (2006) and Be Cool (2005) while the closing scene of Cecil B. Demented (2000) is a direct parody of the final scene of the 1950 classic. It's kind of sweet, actually. Fat Man: "A husky fellow like you?" 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. To publicize the film, Paramount sent Gloria Swanson on a cross-country tour, paying her $1,000 a week for her services. Thirty-one years later, the actor who played Gillis, William Holden, met his end. Holden had his most widely recognized role as "Commander" Shears in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with Alec Guinness,[25] a huge commercial success. Norma Desmond returns to the Paramount lot and is overcome with nostalgia. Cecil B. DeMille appears in the film on a studio set. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. Neither was The Revengers (1972), another Western. Norma, the aging silent-movie star who ensnares down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), is the vamp become vampire (look at those clawlike hands! Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. on the corner of Crenshaw and Irving. [10] RKO borrowed him for Rachel and the Stranger (1948) with Robert Mitchum and Loretta Young. Oddly enough, the reclusive Greta Garbo granted permission to use her name, though when she saw the film itself she was sorry she had done so. Im not giving anything away here. The apartments, and the "Alto Nido" sign out front that is glimpsed briefly in the film, are still there. are shown stenciled on the curb of that street. Holden, just 63 when he died, had most recently appeared in the Blake Edwards' film "S.O.B." Marshman Jr. Stars William Holden Gloria Swanson Erich von Stroheim See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 701 User reviews 196 Critic reviews In fact, such was the buzz about the film during production that the viewing of the dailies became one of the hottest tickets on the lot. The directions given by the Paramount guard for Norma and Joe to go meet Cecil B. DeMille on "Stage 18" is accurate: this stage, one of the largest on the Paramount lot, was known for years as "The DeMille Stage" and now is called "The Star Trek Stage", as all the "Trek" movies and some scenes from the TV shows have been shot there (the TV series, from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) onward, had its main sets right across the studio street on Stages 8 and 9, which are right below the second-floor office occupied by Betty Schaefer in this film. It made him a true front ranked star after years of being an actor slogging through a series of largely forgottable films (and performances). Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious. The first-floor set of Norma Desmond's mansion was also used in the western comedy Fancy Pants (1950) starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, giving fans a chance to see it in full color. There were actually three mansions used during filming. Billy Wilder's sixth film in a row for Paramount Pictures. At Paramount, he did another Western, Streets of Laredo (1949). It's not possible to shoot through water and get a clear image beyond. The musical version of the movie opened in London on July 12, 1993, and ran 1529 performances. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. Sunset Boulevard Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. The great big white elephant of a mansion on Sunset Boulevard was actually on Wilshire Boulevard and would be used again as the abandoned mansion in the film Rebel Without a Cause. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. A neglected house gets an unhappy look. The whole place seemed to have been stricken with the kind of creeping paralysis, out of beat with the rest of the world, crumbling apart in slow motion. It's probably just as well, since the darker, more nuanced story that eventually emerged was quite different from West's wheelhouse anyway. Ironically, the last films that Gloria Swanson made for Paramount were not at this famous facility. The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils. 'Sunset Blvd.': 15 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About - Moviefone Montgomery Clift was originally cast as the writer but dropped out two weeks before the shoot. Sunset Boulevard (styled in the main title on-screen as SUNSET BLVD.) Florabel Muir, the New York Daily News Hollywood correspondent, thought Peavey was the murderer and tried to ambush him into a confession. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. William Holden - Wikipedia The two actors never worked together in another film. Billy Wilder was frustrated with people assuming that the ending was meant to be ambiguous and asking him what happens to Norma after the final dissolve. After the. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. According to both versions of the morgue prologue script, Gillis' body is admitted on 5/17/49 (as indicated by a toe tag). Episode 68 - William Holden-Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radi 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. He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). Its second owner was Jean Paul Getty, who purchased it for his second wife. Youre killing yourself for an empty house. De Mille at Paramount, the director is shooting the film Samson and Delilah, which he was actually shooting at the time. It was largely from his association with Wilder that Holden would enjoy the greatest acting successes of his career in the 1950s. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. After all, it's about a dethroned queen." He followed it with Damien: Omen II (1978) and had a cameo in Escape to Athena (1978), which co-starred his real-life love interest Stefanie Powers. When Norma visits DeMille at Paramount, he's in the midst of shooting Samson and Delilah, which really is what he was up to at the time. He was Judy Hollidays tutor in Born Yesterday (1950) and played a war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). I think that Sunset Boulevard was the most important film of William Holden's career. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard took the tinsel out of Tinseltown, the gild off the golden boy, and the cover off a forgotten murder. Cecil B. DeMille agreed to do his cameo for a $10,000 fee and a brand-new Cadillac. Test audiences at the time couldnt let go of the joke, which was why it was re-edited this way. Our friendship never waned. Confess, Peavey, he laughed in the ghosts face. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. Before he became a kept man for Norma Desmond, he was thinking of wrapping up the whole Hollywood deal and trying to get his old job back as a newspaperman in Dayton, Ohio. At Paramount, he was in a comedy with Ginger Rogers that was not particularly popular, Forever Female (1953). The home was built in 1923 for businessman William O. Jenkins. Some speculated it was because he was dating an older woman at the time (actress Libby Holman, 16 years his senior) and didn't want people to think the movie was a parody of that relationship. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. They had to have the ears of the old place, too. The others were Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951), and Submarine Command (1951). Who didnt then? Highly unusual at the time, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder had Joe Gillis narrate, from beyond the grave, the sad tale of the final months of his life, while the film simultaneously depicts the still living Gillis experiencing those events unaware of the fate his dead self already knows. They eventually worked together on several films and became close friends. 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. What is the streaming release date of Sunset Blvd. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. 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. Please, don't let it be true, it must be some mistake," per her memoir. It said so on the chart from her astrologer, who read DeMilles horoscope. William Holden says his birthday is December 21st. Holden had a supporting role in Ashanti (1979) and was third-billed in another disaster film, When Time Ran Out (1980), which was a flop. Sunset Blvd. (1950) - Photo Gallery - IMDb He had made Swanson a star by. The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden. Now I had two favorite movies - aside from "Gone With The Wind" of course - both from 1950, "Sunset Boulevard" and "All . In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. SUNSET BOULEVARD: The Making of the Billy Wilder Classic 25 on AFI's list of all-time great leading men. [41], Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. William Haines, along with fellow silent screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, was approached to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." (She liked it.). Gloria Swanson brings sunshine into every room as silent screen idol Norma Desmond. William Holden, original name William Franklin Beedle, Jr., (born April 17, 1918, O'Fallon, Illinois, U.S.found dead November 16, 1981, Santa Monica, California), American film star who perfected the role of the cynic who acts heroically in spite of his scorn or pessimism. 13 Close-Up Facts About Sunset Boulevard - Mental Floss Warner (one of the four "Waxworks" at the bridge party) in The King of Kings (1927). Salome was a wonderful part for Norma Desmonds celluloid comeback. This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. They stayed that way even if the pictures got small. [27] He played an American Civil War military surgeon in John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, which was a box-office disappointment. Since he had classic good looks, an expressive voice, and was an excelle Sunset Boulevard (DVD, 2017) UK Region 2 release with extras. Westmore and director Billy Wilder agreed with this so William Holden was made up to look younger than he was. Sunset Boulevard (1950) 1950, 1h 50min - Drama Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, an aging silent-film queen, and William Holden, as the struggling young screenwriter who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in "Sunset Boulevard." Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the Top 100 Greatest American Movies. Norma's buying Joe a fine woolen topcoat would be mostly an affectation in sunny Los Angeles. Minters mother Charlotte Shelby was a manipulative stage mother who owned a rare .38 caliber pistol that fired unusual bullets very similar to ones found inside Taylor. When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. Billy Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. An ending for the film was cobbled together, but the movie was never shown in the U.S. Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), costarring Barbara Stanwyck, in which he played a violinist-turned-boxer. All I know is that she's meshuggah, that's all. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (19541958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema. In the scene where Norma is showing Joe her silent movies, one of them is Queen Kelly (1932), which was filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, NY. The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue. Here's some backstage information to enhance your experience the next time you visit the Paramount lot.. The name was then changed to Millman and finally to Sheldrake and was played by Fred Clark. It was like that old woman in Great Expectations, Miss Havisham in her rotting wedding dress and her torn veil, taking it out on the world because shed been given the go-by. Only 950 were made from 1924 to 1931. Suratt believed that DeMille's epic, "The King of Kings" (released in 1927) was based on her screenplay and filed a $1,000,000 plagiarism suit which was settled out of court in 1930. Fred MacMurray and Gene Kelly both turned down the role of Joe Gillis. Nothing else! Columbia put Holden in a Western with Jean Arthur, Arizona (1940), then at Paramount he was in a hugely popular war film, I Wanted Wings (1941) with Ray Milland and Veronica Lake. In fact, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett even went to Pickfair to pitch the story to Pickford, but her horrified reaction as the story progressed made them stop halfway through and apologize to her.

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