William Holden - Wikipedia According to the DVD commentary by Wilder biographer Ed Sikov, this story was most likely invented/exaggerated by Billy Wilder. After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. ", After serving with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, he returned to Hollywood and in 1950 he got his first substantial role in Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard," per Britannica. On the night of November 12, 1981, Holden consumed somewhere between eight and 10 drinks in a short amount of time, according to "William Holden: A Biography." Born William Beedle Jr. on April 17, 1918, he was 21 when he got his first starring role as the classical fiddle playing boxer in Golden Boy in 1939. Erich von Stroheims Max von Mayerling is equally awestruck, still caught in the wake of Normas star dust. Boulevard du crpuscule : Amazon.com.mx: Pelculas y Series de TV. 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 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch,[4] winning much acclaim. Holden was reunited with Wilder in Stalag 17 (1953), for which Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor. This was the actual set of Samson and Delilah (1949), which de Mille was making at the time. Holdens last movie, Blake Edwardss S.O.B., was another masterpiece of Hollywood cynicism. She reportedly told Clift shed kill herself if he made the movie. The California license plate on Gillis' Plymouth, 4D R 116, appears to be a legal and current registration for 1949. About 28:00 in, when Max is playing the organ, it is the same chords that Captain Nemo (James Mason) plays on his organ aboard the Nautilus in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea." His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen veteran and one of the greatest actors of all time, coached and promoted Holden personally. Sometimes hetinkles the wheezing gothic ivories like Lurch in the original TV series The Addams Family, playing the recognizable strains of The Phantom of the Opera. The other line, "I am big! Holden acted in Executive Suite (1954), The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), and Picnic (1955). Co-writer D.M. Billy Wilder also used Sheldrake as the last name of Fred MacMurray's character in "The Apartment". Billy Wilder was actually friendlier with the other leading gossip columnist of the day, Louella Parsons. Well, they kissed, and kissed, and kept kissing, and the crew began to snicker, and finally Marshall's voice rang out: "Cut, dammit!" Wilder and Brackett told everyone at Paramount and the Production code that the screenplay was based on the story A Can of Beans by Wilder, Brackett, and D.M. The pool was used in its empty condition in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. This can be deduced from the fact that when he pulls one out of the pack he turns the bottom end up to his mouth. American actress Gloria Swanson in a promotional portrait for 'Sunset Boulevard', directed by Billy Wilder, 1950. Less popular was Satan Never Sleeps (1961), the last film of Clifton Webb and Leo McCarey; The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), his third film with Seaton; or The Lion (1962), with Trevor Howard and Capucine. The actor-turned-director-turned-actor-again, who had indeed been one of the great silent-filmmakers, winced at playing a character so self-referential and demeaning, but he needed the money. Clift was also wary of appearing in the film because he, like the character of Joe, was having an affair with a wealthy older former actress, Libby Holman. 25 on AFI's list of all-time great leading men. Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". Peavey died in a San Francisco asylum, where he was being treated for syphilis-related dementia, in 1931. [14], Holden made a third film with Wilder, Sabrina (1954), billed beneath Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. . Eventually it wasn't Wilder who shouted "Cut!" He became bitter about the throwaway roles Hollywood kept giving him. Betty and Joe fall in love after they sneak off to the studio backlot by moonlight to collaborate on a screenplay. But it wasn't a bullet from the gun of an aging movie queen that tragically ended his life, but rather, a rug, per The New York Times. Sunset Boulevard now begins with police cars racing to Norma Desmond's house, where a dead body is floating in the pool. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. Wilder changed the scene so that DeMille offered Lamarr's chair to Norma without Lamarr being present. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's 17th and final screenplay collaboration. It was widely known as a top Hollywood hangout for many actors, directors, writers and producers. Getty Mansion aka Norma Desmond's home in "Sunset Boulevard" midway And so tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish". was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. It's the pictures that got small" was #91. 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. Studs and cufflinks were inserted into the shirt holes to secure the garment. When Joe Gillis says, "They'll love it in Pomona," most people assume (correctly) that Pomona is intended to be representative of just about any average American town. White, pink, or maybe bright flaming red. It opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theater on November 17, 1994, ran for 977 performances and won the 1995 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Book and Score. She lives in a crumbling old mansion with her butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). Since her part required her to gaze at the newsreel cameramen and "fans" (the waiting police) gathered in the foyer below, she couldn't watch where she placed her feet. 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. The producer in the film was originally called Kaufman and was to be played by Joseph Calleia. Wilder, ever the merry prankster, told Holden and Olson to keep kissing until he called "cut": he was going to fade out at the end of the scene, and he needed to make sure the kiss didn't end prematurely. When Joe tells Betty that next time he will write "The Naked and the Dead", he is referring to the best-seller written by Norman Mailer and published in 1948. Among the many past associations embedded in Sunset Blvd. Her character's age was 22 but she was 21 at the time of filming. But Hollywood press has always had clout. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. His killer was never identified. When producer Sheldrake offers to turn Gillis' script into a Betty Hutton story, the desperately poor writer inexplicably turns him down. 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. It's probably just as well, since the darker, more nuanced story that eventually emerged was quite different from West's wheelhouse anyway. But trophies or not, Sunset Boulevard has stayed near the top of the list of great movies about moviemaking. Now I had two favorite movies - aside from "Gone With The Wind" of course - both from 1950, "Sunset Boulevard" and "All . She offered Peavey 10 dollars to identify Taylors grave in the Hollywood Park Cemetery and had someone wait there in a white sheet to scare it out of him. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. Gillis: "Well, I had a few extra holes in me, two in the chest and one in the stomach." Later in the film Max tells Gillis that he was the silent-movie director who discovered Norma and put her in films. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). Normands career never recovered after word of her addiction leaked out and she died of tuberculosis on Feb. 23, 1930. Neither did Toward the Unknown (1957), the one film Holden produced himself. Gillis: "No, swimming pool." He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight. Sunset Blvd. (1950) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb Art director John Meehan experimented until he came up with the idea to shoot the scene through a mirror at the bottom of the studio water tank. Both Keaton and Hopper died the same day, on February 1, 1966, at the ages of 70 and 80 respectively, both in Los Angeles. 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. William Holden: Golden Boy of Hollywood Starred in 'Sunset Boulevard The latter was shot in Africa and sparked Holden's fascination with the continent that was to last for the rest of his life. Haines, whose career had ended because of his homosexual off-screen life, was too happy in his new profession as an interior decorator to want to call attention to his past as an actor. Without Norma Desmond, there wouldnt be any Paramount Pictures. Every woman was in love with him. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. or "Boulevard"? 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. +10 More . Rudy's shoeshine stand at the parking lot where Gillis hides his car from the creditors was inspired by Oscar Smith's shoeshine stand located just inside the Bronson Gate at the old Paramount Studios, which was a popular hangout for gossip and socializing while Billy Wilder was building his career there. 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. Later he strangled himself with it. She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. . Also in 1969, Holden starred in director Terence Young's family film L'Arbre de Nol, co-starring Italian actress Virna Lisi and French actor Bourvil, based on the novel of the same name by Michel Bataille. [4] They had two sons, Peter and Scott. (1949), and "Father Is a Bachelor" (1950). 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. preppy-3 15 March 2008. Holman was reportedly worried the film would parody their relationship and told Clift she would commit suicide if he played the role. Betty is an idealist, more closely resembling Normas rose-colored outlook, but with darker shades she wants to bring to light. Wilder asked how much shed charge just to shoot the chair and Lamarr said $10,000. These actors were bigger than life. [45], According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden bled to death in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, on November 12, 1981, after lacerating his forehead from slipping on a rug while intoxicated and hitting a bedside table. Like most old things in L.A., the house has since been replaced by an office building. 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. The mansion belonged to the second Mrs. Jean Paul Getty, who rented it on condition that if she did not like the swimming pool the studio would have to add for the film, it would cover it over and restore the original landscaping. Words are as good as sex to two writers. 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." When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. For this Lamarr wanted $25,000 (which would be about $250,000 in 2015 dollars). The young actor also got to work with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the gangsters on parole movie,Invisible Stripes. The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." Sunset Blvd. (1950) - Photo Gallery - IMDb Norma Desmond says that she paid $28,000 for the Isotta-Fraschini car in 1929. Clift's biographers say it was because he had a strong following among older women, who wrote him letters describing how they'd like to mother him, and he didn't want to encourage such behavior. 12 Sep. WILLIAM HOLDEN: At some point, "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) played at The Silver Screen. Filtered cigarette packs always open at the filtered end, which meant he would've been lighting the filter otherwise. All I know is that she's meshuggah, that's all. Sunset Boulevard mixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. Gloria Swanson, meanwhile, was born on March 27, 1899. "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). Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), costarring Barbara Stanwyck, in which he played a violinist-turned-boxer. William Holden - Biography - IMDb 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. 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. The movie premiered in the days of restricted language, not so long after Rhett Butler controversially told Scarlett OHara he didnt give a damn what happened to her in Gone With the Wind, a classic Paramount passed on because who wanted to see Civil War picture? But the old guard thought Wilder and his co-writer Charles Brackett fashioned a rope that could strangle this business of show by writing words, words, and more words. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. of quiet desperation at the end of a relationship when nothing's really making sense and I sort of had the image of William Holden at the beginning of Sunset Blvd. 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.". On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. It's not possible to shoot through water and get a clear image beyond. She hates all of Joes writing except for about six pages. When Joe and Norma sit down to watch one of her old movies, Joe pulls out a cigarette and places the bottom end in his mouth. [17], Their relationship did not last much beyond the completion of the film. Ironically, the last films that Gloria Swanson made for Paramount were not at this famous facility. The exteriors of Norma Desmond's home on Sunset Boulevard were filmed at 641 South Irving Boulevard. The magnifying glass in Normas beauty makeover scene shows the skin of a young ingnue, not an aging crone. The British author's satirical The Loved One was published in 1948, after Waugh had spent time in Hollywood observing the film industry and, of all things, the funeral industry. Newspapers printed love letters between 19-year-old former child star and screen idol Mary Miles Minter and Taylor. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. 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 took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. 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. Read and download theDen of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazineright here! For the clip of the vintage film that Norma was watching Paramount couldn't find anything suitable so Gloria provided it from her own collection. Fat Man: "You were murdered?" Sunset Boulevard (1950): Billy Wilder's Darkly Humorous Masterpiece Warner (one of the four "Waxworks" at the bridge party) in The King of Kings (1927).
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