You used to be in silent pictures. On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. 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: April 17 marks the 100th birthday of William Holden, who is ranked No. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson. in West Hollywood. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. During Norma Desmond's New Years' Eve party, the band begin to play the song 'Diane', the theme of the 1927 film 7th Heaven (1927). William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. She worked closely with Gloria Swanson on Norma Desmond's wardrobe, as she figured Swanson would have had a better idea of what women of that time would have worn and what they would be wearing now. Erich von Stroheim dismissed his participation in this film, referring to it as "that butler role.". [42][citation needed]. 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. One of only 13 films to be nominated for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director. The same musical quote from "Salome" is used again as she descends the stairs, where Waxman segues into his own original musical statement of "The Dance of the Seven Veils". Sunset Boulevard now begins with police cars racing to Norma Desmond's house, where a dead body is floating in the pool. 1751 Vine is still a parking lot across the street from the landmark, Capitol Records building and is the address of both Billy's Wilder's and Barbara Stanwyck's "Hollywood Walk of Fame" stars that were dedicated in 1960. He loves Norma so much, he even forges thousands of pages of fan mail, just to feed her delusion. . A disagreement over the montage where Norma puts herself through hell getting thinner and younger for her comeback nearly resulted in physical violence: Brackett thought it was too mean, while Wilder felt it was necessary to show what lengths a desperate actor would go to in Hollywood. Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. After the completion of his film, Wilder shocked his longtime collaborator by announcing that he wished to dissolve their partnership; this was the result of a fierce quarrel over a montage scene in the film. For scenes in which he drove, the car was towed by another car. When Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond watch one of Norma's old silent movies, they are watching a scene from Queen Kelly (1932), starring a young Gloria Swanson. 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. ), a woman who trades on charms that have . In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. The two actors never worked together in another film. Nothing else! [40], Holden had a daughter born in 1937 from his relationship with actress Eva May Hoffman. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as Joe Gillis but quit the production two weeks before filming began because he had already played the kept man of a wealthy older woman in The Heiress (1949). Glenn Close, who portrayed Norma Desmond on stage, also played a character who dramatically cut her wrists over a man she was in love with in the film "Fatal Attraction. 12 Sep. WILLIAM HOLDEN: At some point, "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) played at The Silver Screen. See production, box office & company info. In real life, when Swanson and DeMille had worked together, that was what they always called each other. read more: Can The Biblical Epic be Resurrected? Newspapers printed love letters between 19-year-old former child star and screen idol Mary Miles Minter and Taylor. Was the inspiration for Metallica's 1997 song "The Memory Remains". Norma's "gondola bed" was originally white, and was featured in Twentieth Century (1934) with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore. Sunset Boulevard (DVD, 2017) UK Region 2 release with extras. Schwab's was torn down in 1988 to make way for a movie theater and a shopping center. 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). Hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) accidentally falls in with faded screen legend Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). 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. 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. Director Cecil B. DeMille, a pioneer of silent Hollywood who was still a top director when "Sunset Boulevard" was shot in 1949, also famously played himself. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard took the tinsel out of Tinseltown, the gild off the golden boy, and the cover off a forgotten murder. And so tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish". The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" was voted the #7 movie quote by the American Film Institute. But she fits it like a round peg in a square hole. Billy Wilder quickly offered the role to Fred MacMurray, who turned it down because he didn't want to play a gigolo. [10] RKO borrowed him for Rachel and the Stranger (1948) with Robert Mitchum and Loretta Young. "[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. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol. 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 his final film S.O.B., Holden declined to star in Jason Miller's film That Championship Season.[37]. 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. "I'm not surprised that this could have happened.". Norma is Scorpio, and Mars had been transiting Jupiter for weeks and that was the day of greatest conjunction. The only addition was the swimming pool, which wasn't equipped with a means of circulating the water so it was useless after filming. She puts on a show playing a Max Sennett bathing girl and Charlie Chaplins Tramp character, though Maxs bad timing is a little too on the nose. The writers feared that Hollywood would react unfavorably to such a damning portrait of the film industry, so the film was code-named "A Can of Beans" while in production. The film and actors was excellent and lived up to our expectations. . When Artie Green introduces Joe to other guests at his New Year's Eve party, he jokingly refers to him as "the well-known screenwriter, uranium smuggler and Black Dahlia suspect", a reference to the infamous unsolved L.A. murder case in 1947 of an aspiring actress known as The Black Dahlia, who was found murdered and dismembered on a street in Los Angeles. Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. 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. The mundane accident that took the Hollywood actor's life was made even worse by the fact that nobody found his body for a week afterward, according to the Associated Press. X. For the opening shot of Joe Gillis floating face-down in the swimming pool, Billy Wilder wanted a shot from below that would show both the body and the police and photographers standing at the pool's edge looking down. He was also one of many stars in Feldman's Casino Royale (1967). Holman was 16 years older than him and was afraid people would think the movie was a parody of their relationship. 25 on AFI's list of all-time great leading men. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Sunset Boulevard DVD Special Collector's Edition William Holden Gloria Swanson at the best online prices at eBay! 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). Marshman Jr. was hired to help batten down a script that was giving Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett great difficulty. William Holden had a similar trajectory as a young artist in Hollywood. The writer was almost all washed up, one step ahead of the finance company, parking his car in a lot behind the shoeshine parlor run by Rudy, a guy who never asked any questions about finances because he could just look at the peoplesr heels and know the score. Prior to joining the Houston Chronicle, Gonzales worked as a night cops reporter at The. He was just a movie writer with a couple of B-pictures to his credit. Among the many past associations embedded in Sunset Blvd. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. 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. But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork Western The Wild Bunch. 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. Set designer Hans Dreier had in fact been the interior designer for the homes of former silent stars Bebe Daniels, Norma Shearer and Pola Negri. But it could just as well have been Joes headquarters, Schwabs Drug Store, a kind of combination office, coffee clutch, and waiting room where actors and writers wait for the gravy train. It also alludes to the fact that Pomona was one of three towns in California's Inland Empire region (Riverside and San Bernardino were the others) that were frequently used during Hollywood's Golden Age for testing preview audiences' reactions to unreleased films. The silent comedian had a reputation as one of Hollywoods best bridge players. The others were Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951), and Submarine Command (1951). The building manager found the body of the legendary actor who starred in 70 films and was a good friend of President Ronald Reagan nearly a week later, per The Washington Post. It was meant to be slightly humorous in a morbid way, but the audience at the first test screening found it flat-out hysterical, setting the wrong mood for the rest of the picture. Holden, who was at this point dependent on alcohol, said, "I really was in love with Audrey, but she wouldn't marry me. [48] He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. 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). I know your face. But who could play the silent film diva? Seleccionar el departamento en el que deseas buscar. 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. To shoot Joe and Norma dancing together at her New Year's Eve party, cameraman John F. Seitz used a dance dolly---a wheeled platform attached to the camera. So in that scene, William Holden is driving over the future locations of Walk of Fame stars dedicated to the two people arguably most responsible for his success in Hollywood. Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. [38], Holden maintained a home in Switzerland and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner in an animal preserve in Africa. At the end, they stood and cheered for Gloria Swanson's return. Brackett and Wilder worked together on more than a dozen movies including The Lost Weekend. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. William Holden says his birthday is December 21st. Swanson argued that a woman like Norma would have been obsessed with her appearance and would have done her utmost not to look old. In the opening scene of the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard," the cynical screenwriter turned gigolo Joe Gillis lies floating in a swimming pool, blood seeping from his lifeless body. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. . [16] Holden recalls their romance:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Before I even met her, I had a crush on her, and after I met her, just a day later, I felt as if we were old friends, and I was rather fiercely protective of her, though not in a possessive way. [14], Holden made a third film with Wilder, Sabrina (1954), billed beneath Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. The film's narrative structure bears a marked resemblance to that of American Beauty (1999). Gloria Swanson, meanwhile, was born on March 27, 1899. In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop.