Gloria Swanson brings sunshine into every room as silent screen idol Norma Desmond. "Waxwork" Buster Keaton was in reality an excellent bridge player, always in demand at Hollywood bridge parties. (1950), Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the film, directed H.B. April 17, 2019 6:00AM. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling. Film debut (uncredited) of Yvette Vickers. (Gloria Swanson's TV star - she has one for TV and one for film - is very near by at 6301 Hollywood Blvd). Not everyone felt the same way, however. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. 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. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. Part of the dialogue goes: Fat Man: "Where did you drown? For scenes in which he drove, the car was towed by another car. This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 22:44. The two actors never worked together in another film. His killer was never identified. On the morning of February 1, 1922, Taylor--who had been romantically involved with her-- was shot and killed in his Hollywood bungalow. You probably know about the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of Sunset Boulevard that premiered in London in 1993 and headed to Broadway in 1994 with Glenn Close in the lead role. She reads everyone and everything in Hollywood, except Joes script. Like most old things in L.A., the house has since been replaced by an office building. Sunset Boulevard told an old familiar story. The look of pain sustained two fine films 'The Wild Bunch' and 'Network' so that we rubbed our eyes to recall the fresh-faced enthusiast from Golden Boy. This inter-positive was scanned at 2,000 lines of resolution and electronically restored for the 2002 DVD reissue. 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. The character of Max Von Mayerling as a washed up silent film director was an homage paid by Wilder to Erich von Stroheim, who was an inspiration to Billy in his glory days as a notorious silent film director himself. He just didnt have what it takes. [15] Holden and Hepburn became romantically involved during the filming, unbeknownst to Wilder: "People on the set told me later that Bill and Audrey were having an affair, and everybody knew. The 49-year-old film directors body was found on the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments in Westlake, Los Angeles. read file from blob storage c#; ted dwane and isabel soden; best seats at belk theater charlotte; my rabbit ate ibuprofen The statuette on the telephone table at Artie Green's new years party is a model of the Philistine god, Dagon. It was a big hit, as was The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a Korean War drama with Kelly.[20][21]. And that young man who was found floating in the pool of her mansion, with two shots in his back and one in his stomach, was nobody important, really. 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. and Crescent Heights Blvd. 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. Mary Pickford lived in seclusion, away from the public eye, while both Mae Murray and Clara Bow had well documented struggles with mental illness. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. "[13] Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). We were close friends for many years. With unofficial permission from Paramount, she worked for a few years with writer Dickson Hughes and actor Richard Stapley developing a show called Starring Norma Desmond (later changed to Boulevard). When Norma Desmond says to the guard at the "Paramount Studio" gates, "Without me there wouldn't be any 'Paramount Studio'" the words could apply to Gloria Swanson herself, as she was the studio's top star for six years running. It has to be an opera. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. As the camera cranes up into the apartment, we can see it's the Alto Nido. Who didnt then? Ballard, who used to impersonate Norma descending the stairs. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. 25 on AFI's list of all-time great leading men. 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. Gene Kelly was then approached, but MGM refused to loan him out. Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". Florabel Muir, the New York Daily News Hollywood correspondent, thought Peavey was the murderer and tried to ambush him into a confession. The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue. Vega subsequently confirmed that this was a reference to Holden.[50]. 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. He starred in the 1953 . She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. Swanson made the transition to talkies with The Trespasser in 1929. Cecil B. DeMille agreed to do his cameo for a $10,000 fee and a brand-new Cadillac. 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! Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. Billy Wilder originally wanted another silent star, Pola Negri, to take the part of Norma Desmond. was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. But attempts to turn the movie into a stage musical began almost immediately, spearheaded by none other than Gloria Swanson. The truth of the matter was that Bing Crosby was one of the very few actors to whom Billy Wilder had borne a grudge, mainly because Crosby had done the unthinkable during filming of The Emperor Waltz (1948), and ad-libbed dialog, something he and Bob Hope had done for years as standard operating procedure in their breezy "Road" pictures. "[13]:174 The interactions between Bogart, Hepburn and Holden made shooting less than pleasant, as Bogart had wanted his wife, Lauren Bacall, to play Sabrina. Holden continued to work steadily for the next decade, but Hollywood often had no idea what to do with him. The much sought after but highly finicky leading man accepted the role, then backed out. Both Keaton and Hopper died the same day, on February 1, 1966, at the ages of 70 and 80 respectively, both in Los Angeles. "I left countless messages but received no answer." In her private screening room, with butler Max running the projector, Norma cuddles up with Joe to watch one of her own films. There once was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world. Seitz had used a similar technique on Double Indemnity (1944). He worked on dramas like The Key (1958), Westerns like John Fords The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, and comedies like The Moon is Blue which so famously challenged the Production Code in 1953 that Hawkeye and BJ insisted it get shown at M*A*S*H 4077 to break the monotony of the Korean War. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. +10 More . Norma is perceived as the evil force, even if she uses a white phone while Betty is relegated to a poor black phone. preppy-3 15 March 2008. The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. 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. He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. He was Judy Hollidays tutor in Born Yesterday (1950) and played a war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. 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. Erich von Stroheim, who made the masterpiece Greed in 1924, directed Swanson in Queen Kelly (1928), the flick Holdens character cuddles up with Norma to watch in the dark screening room of the dark mansion. Words are as good as sex to two writers. Wilder changed the scene so that DeMille offered Lamarr's chair to Norma without Lamarr being present. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[1]. The California license plate on Gillis' Plymouth, 4D R 116, appears to be a legal and current registration for 1949. 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. 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. [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. Just us and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! Norma Desmond didnt need dialogue, she can say whatever she wants with her eyes. The body was found by Henry Peavey, who took over for convicted embezzler Edward F. Sands as Taylors valet. Swanson agreed to the audition, and won the role. It's the pictures that got small," was voted #24, out of 100. Besides Tyrone Power, other stars mentioned when Joe Gillis is pitching his "baseball" picture to the producer are Alan Ladd, William Demarest and Betty Hutton. The first of four films in which William Holden and Nancy Olson appeared. The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. Dont bother with a rewrite, man, take it direct! Free Postage. Holden was still an unknown actor when he made Golden Boy, while Stanwyck was already a film star. The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. He rejects her. The interiors of Norma's decaying mansion were actually a set at Paramount Studios. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson. The death was just one of many infamous Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, which included the Roscoe Arbuckle bottle rape trial, the death of Olive Thomas, the mysterious death of Thomas H. Ince, and the drug-related deaths of Wallace Reid, Barbara La Marr, and Jeanne Eagels. His death certificate makes no mention of cancer. A Western at MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) did much better, and the all-star Executive Suite (1954) was a notable success. Strange? Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. Salome was a wonderful part for Norma Desmonds celluloid comeback. Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. It gives them an opportunity to write really good acceptances speeches. After Salome, she planned to make another picture and another picture. 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. The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. The Academy Award-winning actor William Holden, born William Beedle Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, began his career with 1939s "Golden Boy," per Britannica. With the help of his partners, he created the Mount Kenya Game Ranch and inspired the creation of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation. 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. Without Norma Desmond, there wouldnt be any Paramount Pictures. But Joe wouldnt have fallen so hard if he werent so shackled. On the advice of Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift, who had signed to play the part of Joe Gillis, broke his contract just two weeks prior to the start of shooting. However, he knew that her arch-rival Hedda Hopper had trained as an actress and would therefore be more convincing onscreen. X. Norma is at the edge of insanity through the whole movie, but that doesnt mean shes not fun. Originally Billy Wilder wanted both of Hollywood's top gossip columnists--Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons--reporting from Norma's mansion at the end and fighting over the phone. His characters were always angling for something, whether it was silk stockings in a POW Camp in Stalag 17 from 1953, which won him a Best Actor Oscar, or to clear impersonation charges in in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with Alec Guinness. As the band plays 'Diane', we also see Desmond ascending her staircase. Previous image. 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. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe youd like to hear the facts, the whole truth. [41], Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. The undertaker, who appears for a few seconds early on with the white casket for Norma's deceased pet chimp, was veteran actor Franklyn Farnum, who played extras in over 1,000 films during his lengthy but unsung career. Sands disappeared after the murder. According to both versions of the morgue prologue script, Gillis' body is admitted on 5/17/49 (as indicated by a toe tag).