how old was william holden in sunset boulevardBlog

how old was william holden in sunset boulevard

Betty and Joe fall in love after they sneak off to the studio backlot by moonlight to collaborate on a screenplay. It was this astonishing footage that rekindled interest in the film. 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. Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. 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. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki (founded 1959) was popular with the international jet set. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as the writer but dropped out two weeks before the shoot. Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, son of Mary Blanche Beedle (ne Ball), a schoolteacher, and her husband William Franklin Beedle, an industrial chemist. 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. After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. She reportedly told Clift shed kill herself if he made the movie. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers: von Stroheim was replaced as director midway through after complaints from Swanson about the racy material and arguments with the producer (JFK's father!) Mrs. Getty's home had to be completely re-decorated to give it the oversized grandeur needed for the film. That's a reference to the traditional grey morning suit worn by the groom at a formal wedding. 10060 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA. Only 950 were made from 1924 to 1931. White, pink, or maybe bright flaming red. Billy Wilder was a friend of the danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen, and based the Norma Desmond caracter on her. For a number of years, exhibitors voted Holden among the most popular stars in the country: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). 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. Unsurprisingly, he was largely self taught, spending countless hours with instruction manuals and newspaper clips, playing all four hands simultaneously until he became an expert. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard took the tinsel out of Tinseltown, the gild off the golden boy, and the cover off a forgotten murder. The actor's second major breakthrough occurred when Wilder cast him in the lead of the. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. Bogart took the part hoping it would pair him back up with his wife Lauren Bacall. But in 1957, Paramount formally asked Desmond to stop, the studio bosses having decided not to grant permission after all. Or shall I call my servant? When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. She declined the offer. In one week, she received 17,000 fan letters. When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. On the Columbia lot is an assistant director and scout named Harold Winston. Neither was The Revengers (1972), another Western. Later he strangled himself with it. 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. Buscar Amazon.com.mx. 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". Here's some backstage information to enhance your experience the next time you visit the Paramount lot.. De Mille, and Max von Mayerling. 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. "No, don't let it be true. 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. Erich von Stroheim, who directed Swanson in Queen Kelly (1932), plays Max the butler, who serves as the projectionist in the scene. According to the DVD commentary by Wilder biographer Ed Sikov, this story was most likely invented/exaggerated by Billy Wilder. To everyone's surprise, Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar in 1951 for Born Yesterday (1950), beating Gloria Swanson in this film, and Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950). While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. A neglected house gets an unhappy look. This still goes on today. April 17, 2019 6:00AM. According to reports, Taylor went to the feds for help filing charges against Normands cocaine suppliers. Im not giving anything away here. This inter-positive was scanned at 2,000 lines of resolution and electronically restored for the 2002 DVD reissue. read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter. 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. but Holden's wife, Ardis (Brenda Marshall), who happened to be on set that day. Sands disappeared after the murder. They stayed that way even if the pictures got small. The princess in love with a holy man, she dances the dance of the seven veils. A classic film review of Sunset Boulevard (1950) starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson and Eric Von StroheimDirected by acclaimed film maker Billy Wilder (. 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. But before that happened, it appeared in Rebel Without a Cause as the abandoned mansion in which the kids hang out. Brackett was also a frequent collaborator with Billy Wilder, co-writing and producing a dozen movies with him (including The Lost Weekend) before Sunset Boulevard proved to be their last. 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. Being born on 17 April 1918, William Holden was 63 years old at the time of his death. But also much funnier. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Both Keaton and Hopper died the same day, on February 1, 1966, at the ages of 70 and 80 respectively, both in Los Angeles. Billy Wilder's terrifying valentine to Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard (1950), features one of the most indelible of all screen performances: Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Every character is jaded, except the oldest players. The film's narrative structure bears a marked resemblance to that of American Beauty (1999). in West Hollywood. 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. Sunset Boulevard is no. Kodak would discontinue to manufacture it altogether in 1953. His body was found four days later. Sad as this may sound, to the day he died, Holden insisted Bogart was a bastard. William Holden movies: 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best, include 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Network,' 'Stalag 17'. 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. 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. It was largely from his association with Wilder that Holden would enjoy the greatest acting successes of his career in the 1950s. Stanwyck went to bat for Holden when he was going to be replaced in Golden Boy (1939) and Wilder's collaboration with Holden in the 50s starting with Sunset Boulevard revitalized his career (including the Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17 (1953). ", 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.". . He called it "that goddamned butler role" for the remaining seven years of his life. Sunset Blvd. 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. Someone who said they were a doctor said Taylor died of a stomach hemorrhage and then disappeared. Although it can get chilly by the ocean, a light jacket or sweater would be plenty. On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. are shown stenciled on the curb of that street. "I knew he was off the wagon," she recalled in her memoir "One from the Hart." [4] He made a sex comedy with David Niven for Otto Preminger, The Moon Is Blue (1953), which was a huge hit, in part due to controversy over its content. Sunset Boulevard, one of Hollywood's most cruelly accurate depictions of itself, is now 65 years oldolder, even, than its main character, who's washed up at 50. Boulevard du crpuscule : Amazon.com.mx: Pelculas y Series de TV. But when Sondheim pitched the idea to Billy Wilder at a party, Wilder said, "You can't write a musical about Sunset Boulevard. Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. A modern-girl Jiminy Cricket, Betty asks, Dont you sometimes hate yourself? and Joe corrects her, Constantly.. As far as being a forgotten star, past her prime, Norma is only 50 in the movie, Swanson was 53 when she made it and was herself very busy on the then-new medium of television. Sunset Boulevard English audio 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,. She burst into tears upon completion of the scene. [40], Holden had a daughter born in 1937 from his relationship with actress Eva May Hoffman. This makes her the youngest of the cast members, excluding any extras. Although Sheldrake's musings on a film about the story of a female baseball player was seen as humorous, the movie "A League of Their Own" would do just that 42 years later. She was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. Gloria Swanson almost considered rejecting the role of Norma Desmond after Billy Wilder requested she do a screen test for the role. Test audiences at the time couldnt let go of the joke, which was why it was re-edited this way. The murder made it to the late editions, radio, and television because one of the biggest old-time stars was involved. Blu-ray features and commentary But it originally began in the L.A. county morgue, with toe-tagged corpsesincluding Joe'sspeaking to each other (in voiceover) about how they died. Garbo was once rumored to be engaged to the innovative Hollywood and Broadway director Rouben Mamoulian whose film Golden Boy (1939) made William Holden famous. Marlon Brando was considered, but the producers thought he was too much of an unknown as a film actor. The statuette on the telephone table at Artie Green's new years party is a model of the Philistine god, Dagon. It was only natural that he should film several sequences on the studio's backlots. I instantly fell in love - both with the movie itself and with its handsome 32-year old male lead, William Holden. When producer Sheldrake offers to turn Gillis' script into a Betty Hutton story, the desperately poor writer inexplicably turns him down. This promised to go the limit. The apartments, and the "Alto Nido" sign out front that is glimpsed briefly in the film, are still there. 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! 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. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter. According to Billy Wilder, it was von Stroheim's idea to use a clip from Queen Kelly (1932) in Sunset Blvd. Director Billy Wilder Writers Charles Brackett Billy Wilder D.M. His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. [26], He made another war film for a British director, The Key (1958) with Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren for director Carol Reed. Ultimately she retired completely from films, making only sporadic appearances, notably in Airport 1975 (1974). [32] Also in 1974, Holden starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the critically acclaimed disaster film The Towering Inferno,[33] which became a box-office smash and one of the highest-grossing films of Holden's career. But she fits it like a round peg in a square hole. While Hollywood Blvd. After the. This film is in the Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films on Letterboxd. He stayed true to his word. Billy Wilder's sixth film in a row for Paramount Pictures. [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". But who could play the silent film diva? Brenda Marshall, Holden's wife since 1941, was visiting the set when Holden and Nancy Olson had their kissing scene. It would go on to be one of his most successful movies. 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. Around this time he also appeared in 21 Hours at Munich (1976). Winston was one of those who discovered the Golden Boy newcomer and who renamed himin honor of his former spouse!"[3]. That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. 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. Gloria Swanson played her final descent on the staircase barefoot, as she was terrified of tripping in high heels. Normas waxworks card sharps were Swedish-born Anna Q. Nilsson, H. B. Warner and Buster Keaton. 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." 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 is a noir film and like many of the post-World War II dark classics, it is covered with a thick sheen of cynicism. [2] His brother Robert ("Bobbie") became a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and was killed in action in World War II, over New Ireland, a Japanese-occupied island in the South Pacific. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. Whether he was the washed up screenwriter of Sunset Boulevard or the reluctant hero of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Holden kept audiences engrossed. Eugene Walter was a prolific Hollywood screenwriter of the 1920s and 1930s. (1950), Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the film, directed H.B. 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. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, Holden attended Pasadena Junior College, where he became involved in local radio plays. In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". At one point, Norma decides the time is right to send Gillis script to DeMille because is a Leo. He was Judy Hollidays tutor in Born Yesterday (1950) and played a war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). But like so many of the female actors of the era, Holden soon realized it was his physical attributes and not his acting ability that the studio cared about. In 1998 the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list. She produced and starred in Sadie Thompson and The Love of Sunya. X. The veteran actress particularly wanted to see what Mary Pickford felt and was disappointed to see that she had left. 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. Free Postage. Joe Gillis: Wait a minute, haven't I seen you before? Movie audiences in the nave early days of film sometimes didnt know that somebody had to sit down and write a movie. Gloria Swanson worked closely with Edith Head on Norma's clothes to achieve just the right look: grandly expensive but slightly out of date. Other actresses considered for Norma Desmond were Mae West (who wanted to rewrite the dialogue), Mae Murray, and Mary Pickford. The stars read the stars. 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 "Desmond mansion" was located not on Sunset Blvd. Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. It was a gift from her lover, automobile magnate Walter Chrysler. 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. In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch,[4] winning much acclaim. Watch Sunset Boulevard: Centennial Collection, 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, When Max is telling Joe about directing Madam's first pictures, there is a bad dub of the word "sixteen". 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. [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. The movie begins about five oclock in the morning, left coast time. At Paramount, he was in a comedy with Ginger Rogers that was not particularly popular, Forever Female (1953). The old movies needed neither color nor dialogue. LAS COSAS DEL QUERER", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunset_Boulevard_(film)&oldid=1142173541, Best Overall New Extra Features Library Release. It has to be an opera. 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. Gillis: "Yes I was murdered." 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. He starred in Sam Peckinpahs masterwork Western The Wild Bunch. It was Erich von Stroheim who suggested the revelation that Max was writing all of Norma's fan mail. Confess, Peavey, he laughed in the ghosts face. Queen Kelly nearly ruined both of their careers after Joe Kennedy, JFKs dad who produced the film, replaced von Stroheim as director because Swanson complained about the racy material. [41], Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. 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. Well, in the end, he got himself a poolonly the price turned out to be a little high, so Paramount paid to have one installed on the condition that if Mrs. Getty didnt like it, theyd remove it after filming was over. David Lynch is an avid fan of the movie, having referenced it in films such as Inland Empire (2006), Mulholland Drive (2001)--which has a similar title and theme about the misfortunes of aspiring artists in Hollywood--and the television show Twin Peaks (1990), where Lynch himself played an FBI Bureau Chief named Gordon Cole. Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. He played Rafts kid brother, who was following in his gangster footsteps and needed to be set straight. Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" is the portrait of a forgotten silent star, living in exile in her grotesque mansion, screening her old films, dreaming of a comeback. Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. [48] He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Holden was best man at the wedding of his friend Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis in 1952. Make-up designer Wally Westmore found that Gloria Swanson's face belied her age and wanted to make her look older. 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. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. Cecil B. DeMille appears in the film on a studio set. 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. There are several references to Gloria Swanson's actual career in the film. What is the correct title - "Blvd." [2] He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle and Richard Porter Beedle. For purposes of authenticity Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson wore their own clothes in the film. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." [17], Their relationship did not last much beyond the completion of the film. "[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. Neither did Toward the Unknown (1957), the one film Holden produced himself. It was a the kind of a place crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s. Carol Burnett spoofed the film several times on her TV variety show. (1950) was plagiarized from other scripts. The film and actors was excellent and lived up to our expectations. Throughout Hollywood history many film stars, and/or single films, were responsible for saving ailing studios. 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. 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]. Like most old things in L.A., the house has since been replaced by an office building. He starred in the 1953 . The California license plate on Gillis' Plymouth, 4D R 116, appears to be a legal and current registration for 1949. In the movie when a cop tries to call in to the coroners office, he cant get an open line because Hedda Hopper is on the phone in Normas room, talking to the Times City Desk and that is more important. Sunset Boulevards cinematographer John Seitz said Wilder had wanted to do The Loved One, but couldnt obtain the rights. British author Evelyn Waughs satirical 1948 novel was about a failed screenwriter who lives with a silent film star and works in a cemetery. director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . Set non-holiday all-time house record of $166,000 at New York's Radio City Music Hall when it opened. I know your face. She refuses to believe that she's no longer remembered and will never make another movie. William Haines turned down an offer to appear in the film but attended the Hollywood premiere with Joan Crawford. 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.

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