William Holdens Joe Gillis helps a timid soul named Norma Desmond cross a crowded street on Paramounts back lot. Who didnt then? His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen. According to Billy Wilder, it was von Stroheim's idea to use a clip from Queen Kelly (1932) in Sunset Blvd. She lives in a crumbling old mansion with her butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). 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. But also much funnier. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. [49], His death was noted by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, whose 1987 song "Tom's Diner", about a sequence of events one morning in 1981, included a mention of reading a newspaper article about "an actor who had died while he was drinking". Swanson agreed to the audition, and won the role. Everyone had a good laugh, though the record doesn't reflect whether Marshall joined in. She is ever the star. Free Postage. But it wasn't a mistake. The investigation found that in the weeks just prior to his death, Taylor had been making some pretty delusional statements about his place in the world and some of his friends thought he had recently gone insane. ), a woman who trades on charms that have . Holden continued to work steadily for the next decade, but Hollywood often had no idea what to do with him. The Although a registered Republican, he never involved himself in politics. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork Western The Wild Bunch. [43] Capucine and Holden remained friends until his death in 1981. DeMille." Wilder was, well, the wilder of the two, often bawdy and crass, while Brackett was genteel. The actor got up and tried to staunch the blood pouring from his forehead but never called 911, which might have saved his life, per the biography. 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. [14], Holden made a third film with Wilder, Sabrina (1954), billed beneath Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. [39][46] He dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. and was "a loner," according to Edwards, who wasn't surprised that Holden's body went so long without being discovered. In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". At the end of her acceptance speech, she paid him a personal tribute: "I loved him very much, and I miss him. The plot element of Norma Desmond's obsession with writing a screenplay based on Salome as a vehicle for her comeback was obviously influenced by eccentric, aging actress Valeska Suratt, who had a brief film career (1915-1917) playing mostly vamp roles. )[19], He took third billing for The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, directed by George Seaton from a play by Clifford Odets. And so tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish". In 1973, Holden starred with Kay Lenz in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood called Breezy, which was considered a box-office flop. Eventually it wasn't Wilder who shouted "Cut!" The movie's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils. Swanson and von Stroheim are playing themselves in that scene. 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. 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. 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." We all are." Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. 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 2014 book by William J. Mann, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, names Ross Blackie Madsen Sheridan as the killer, based on a death bed confession from actress Margaret Gibson, who beat a 1917 rap on prostitution and opium dealing. It was George Cukor who suggested Gloria Swanson for the role of Norma Desmond. 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. After the. 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. 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. It was only natural that he should film several sequences on the studio's backlots. or "Boulevard"? No one wants to get caught by surprise anymore. The drugstore where Joe Gillis meets up with his old movie industry friends is Schwab's Pharmacy, then a real pharmacy/soda fountain at the intersection of Sunset Blvd. Director Billy Wilder Writers Charles Brackett Billy Wilder D.M. Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. He played Bogarts kid brother in Sabrina, Holdens third film with director Billy Wilder, in 1954. The body was found by Henry Peavey, who took over for convicted embezzler Edward F. Sands as Taylors valet. 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. The character of Norma Desmond is modeled on the fate of several leading actresses of the silent era. The structure in the film required a tennis court, or rather the ghost of a tennis court, with faded markings and a sagging net. 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. [30] Holden made a Western with Ryan O'Neal and Blake Edwards, Wild Rovers (1971). Throughout Hollywood history many film stars, and/or single films, were responsible for saving ailing studios. The black studs on Joe's shirt front were probably onyx, black opals, or even black pearls. In their scene together in Artie's bathroom Gillis mentions to Betty in his dramatic flirtation about having spent "12 years in the Burmese jungle", when coincidentally, just a few years later his character, Shears, finds himself lost there in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai. Norma Shearer turned down the role of Norma Desmond as she didn't want to come out of retirement and also found the part to be highly distasteful. Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for the role.[11]. Gloria Swanson's career was not revitalized by this film. At the time this movie was made, the incident was still quite recent. In 1989 the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress selected this as one of 25 landmark films of all time. Hollywood was known for its excesses long before Michael Jackson hit town. 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. Swanson supplemented many of the costumes with her own accessories and jewelry. [35] Holden starred in The Earthling,[36] as a loner dying of cancer at the Australian outback and accompanying an orphan boy (Ricky Schroder). The photos of the young Norma Desmond that decorate the house are all genuine publicity photos from Gloria Swanson's heyday. 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). In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch,[4] winning much acclaim. In the film Gloria is seen playing cards with three silent film stars: Buster Keaton, H.B. The film was the favorite of Sci-Fi author J.G. 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. 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. Although they don't have a scene together in this film, Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton had worked together in the 1932 comedy Speak Easily (1932), both were among the many stars appearing in the 1931 two-reeler The Stolen Jools (1931), and they both appeared in a 1958 episode of The Garry Moore Show (1958) that also featured Carol Burnett, who years later would spoof the Norma Desmond character regularly on her own variety show. H.B. . 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. taste bar and kitchen missouri city. 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. 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). The footage we see is from Queen Kelly (1929), which starred Gloria Swanson and was directed by Max himself, Erich von Stroheim. Cecil B. DeMille appears in the film on a studio set. Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York CitysVampyr Theatreand the rock operaAssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Holden's career took off again in 1950 when Billy Wilder tapped him to play a down-at-heel screenwriter taken in by a faded silent film actress (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard. Normand made movies with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, and lived like life was one Wild Party. She felt that Wilder used her name in a past-tense context, and she was offended. 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. Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. William Holden says his birthday is December 21st. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. The name "Norma Desmond" was chosen from a combination of silent-film star Norma Talmadge and silent movie director William Desmond Taylor, whose still-unsolved murder is one of the great scandals of Hollywood history. We were close friends for many years. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. He directed classic films like Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, The Apartment, The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, Sabrina, and Some Like It Hot. When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. She liked Holden and went out of her way to help him succeed, devoting her personal time to coaching and encouraging him, which made them into lifelong friends. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film Apartment for Peggy (1948). According to Gloria Swanson's daughter, Michelle Amon, her mother stayed in character throughout the entire shoot, even speaking like Norma Desmond when she arrived home in the evening after filming. You used to be big. The interiors of Norma's decaying mansion were actually a set at Paramount Studios. It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. When Billy Wilder went back to him later to secure a close-up, DeMille charged him another $10,000. In fact,Bob Thomas, Holden's biographer, said that the actor's addiction counselor predicted his demise. 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. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. Getting the role was a lucky break for Holden, as Montgomery Clift was initially cast but backed out of his contract. 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. Or shall I call my servant? It's kind of sweet, actually. The forensics team rolled him over and saw he had been shot at least once in the back with a small-caliber pistol. For the first industry screening, Paramount executives invited several silent-film stars. The four films were released between August 1950 and November 1951. 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. 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). Billy Wilder had worked on a script for a Swanson picture years earlier called "Music in the Air (1934)" and had forgotten about it. 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. Billy Wilder's 1978 Flop Fedora is less a worthy follow up to Sunset Boulevard than a sorry footnote. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." 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. Someone who said they were a doctor said Taylor died of a stomach hemorrhage and then disappeared. Norma's butler, Max, who used to be one of her directors is played by Erich von Stroheim, who directed Swanson in the movie Queen Kelly (1932), clips from which are used in the scene where Norma and Joe watch one of her old films. Norma is at the edge of insanity through the whole movie, but that doesnt mean shes not fun. 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. [12] Swanson later said, "Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. (A few months later, Hepburn met Mel Ferrer, whom she later married and with whom she had a son Sean Hepburn Ferrer. 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". It is also one of the most frequently misquoted movie lines, usually given as, "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Gloria Swanson worked closely with Edith Head on Norma's clothes to achieve just the right look: grandly expensive but slightly out of date. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. Her friend George Cukor, who initially recommended her for the part, told her, "If they want you to do ten screen tests, do ten screen tests. director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter. Neither was The Revengers (1972), another Western. Wilder's version is the one they went with (he was the director, after all), but the argument marked a turning point for him, and he decided never to work with Brackett again. In reality, Gloria Swanson never worked with Normand and worked only once with Prevost in a 1916 short. 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. She was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. Every woman was in love with him. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. (The book is about a failed screenwriter who works for a cemetery and lives with a forgotten silent-film star.) ", The scene of Max playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" at the organ might well have been an inspiration for Lurch at the harpsichord in the TV series "The Addams Family.". Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of Life. . Co-writer D.M. In the fall of 1981, the television actor Stefanie Powers, who was dating William Holden, was in Hawaii filming the ABC show "Hart to Hart" when Holden stopped answering his phone. Taylor had $78 in his wallet, a silver cigarette case, a Waltham pocket watch, and a two-carat diamond ring on his finger when his body was found, so cops quickly ruled out robbery as the motive. Set non-holiday all-time house record of $166,000 at New York's Radio City Music Hall when it opened. Yeah. It was largely from his association with Wilder that Holden would enjoy the greatest acting successes of his career in the 1950s. This car has been on display at the National Automobile Museum in Turin, Italy since 1972. 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Warner (one of the four "Waxworks" at the bridge party) in The King of Kings (1927). "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). To help promote the film, Gloria Swanson did a three-month tour of 36 cities in America and Canada. As a practical joke, during the scene where William Holden and Nancy Olson kiss for the first time, Billy Wilder let them carry on for minutes without yelling "Cut!" Realizing that former actress Hopper would easily dominate the scene, Parsons declined, even though she and Wilder were friends. . When Norma is telling Joe about how rich she is, she mentions a beach house and downtown real estate. In his place, Wilder hired Buster Keaton. In subsequent years, two lawsuits have been filed against Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, claiming that Sunset Blvd. X. You murdered me. For added meta-truthfulness, Wilder wanted to have that film's lead actress, Hedy Lamarr, be there too, so that DeMille could ask her to let Norma sit in her chair (you know, those behind-the-scenes chairs that have the star's name on them). And like the title, Holden seemed to have the looks and muscular build Hollywood craved.