how old was william holden in sunset boulevard

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. The murder made it to the late editions, radio, and television because one of the biggest old-time stars was involved. Sands had forged Taylors name on checks and wrecked his car the summer before and left footprints on Taylors bed after a burglary. This still goes on today. De Mille at Paramount, the director is shooting the film Samson and Delilah, which he was actually shooting at the time. This was a first for Gloria Swanson, but proved a big boon in helping her develop her character's descent into madness. This ushered in the peak years of Holden's stardom. Sunset Boulevard mixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking. They are singing a parody of their song "Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface (1948), for which they won an Oscar in 1949, the year this film was made. Was the inspiration for Metallica's 1997 song "The Memory Remains". 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. But it was too difficult to put a camera underwater to get the shot, so Wilder and cinematographer John Seitz came up with an ingenious solution: they put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection from above. In the movie, an aide tells Cecil B. DeMille "Gordon Cole has been trying to reach you". DeMille." An inventory of his prospects added up to exactly zero. Billy Wilder was a friend of the danish silent movie star Asta Nielsen, and based the Norma Desmond caracter on her. 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. 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. 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. In 1998 the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. 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. Sunset Boulevard is no has-been, though. [5][6], Next he starred with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the Warner Bros. gangster epic Invisible Stripes (1939), billed below Raft and above Bogart. 13 Close-Up Facts About Sunset Boulevard - Mental Floss Her Stockholm Syndrome is positively infectious. He made two more films with Olson: Force of Arms (1951) at Warner Bros. and Submarine Command (1951) at Paramount. It's probably just as well, since the darker, more nuanced story that eventually emerged was quite different from West's wheelhouse anyway. So funny that it took away from the rest of the picture. When Peavey heard the moans I am the ghost of William Desmond Taylor. "Sometimes he'd just get in his car and drive," the director told the AP. He starred in the 1953 . It was Erich von Stroheim who suggested the revelation that Max was writing all of Norma's fan mail. For this Lamarr wanted $25,000 (which would be about $250,000 in 2015 dollars). The musical version of the movie opened in London on July 12, 1993, and ran 1529 performances. Columbia teamed him with Lucille Ball for Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), and the sequel to Dear Ruth, Dear Wife (1949). (1950) in Australia? Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. When Gloria Swanson finished Norma's final scene, the mad staircase descent, she burst into tears and the crew applauded. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. The ocean?' Their partnership ended in a professional and gentlemanly mannerthere was no airing of any dirty laundrybut it did end.. 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. Blu-ray features and commentary [4] The film was made for Columbia, which negotiated a sharing agreement with Paramount for Holden's services. Sunset Boulevard, Clip, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, 1950 It was largely from his association with Wilder that Holden would enjoy the greatest acting successes of his career in the 1950s. It made him a true front ranked star after years of being an actor slogging through a series of largely forgottable films (and performances). 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. Norma Desmond says that she paid $28,000 for the Isotta-Fraschini car in 1929. That's the end.". Joes voice even starts to take on more and more of her theatrical flourish after too much exposure. Wilder asked how much shed charge just to shoot the chair and Lamarr said $10,000. [10] RKO borrowed him for Rachel and the Stranger (1948) with Robert Mitchum and Loretta Young. This is a nod to retired silent-movie star Clara Bow, whose husband Rex Bell, a former star of "B" westerns, was the president of the Nevada Chamber of Commerce, and later Lieutenant Governor of Nevada. Everyone had a good laugh, though the record doesn't reflect whether Marshall joined in. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! 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. She changed her professional name to Patricia Palmer and was working with Famous Players-Lasky, Taylors studio at the time of his death. Paramount always labeled that studio as its Long Island Studios. [41], Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce in 1971. 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. While in Italy in 1966, Holden was responsible for the death of another driver in a drunk-driving incident near Pisa. This was the last major Hollywood feature film to be shot on nitrate stock. 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.". His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three. Norma's "gondola bed" was originally white, and was featured in Twentieth Century (1934) with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore. "No, don't let it be true. Holden himself claimed that he, too, could picture his end. Westmore and director Billy Wilder agreed with this so William Holden was made up to look younger than he was. A week later she heard the news of Holden's death on her car radio. director of photography Film Editing by Arthur P. Schmidt . Kodak would discontinue to manufacture it altogether in 1953. According to both versions of the morgue prologue script, Gillis' body is admitted on 5/17/49 (as indicated by a toe tag). Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is one of his three or four masterpieces, a seminal Hollywood black comedy-satire, which unlike most films keeps improving with the passage of time.. Benfiting from a glorious and iconic cast, the film concerns a faded silent film star, played by Gloria Swanson (in a variation of her own onscreen persona), who lives in the past with her butler (and former . 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. In the scene where Norma is showing Joe her silent movies, one of them is Queen Kelly (1932), which was filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, NY. The next decade saw Holden's career flourish. "I am big. Neither was The Revengers (1972), another Western. Swanson supplemented many of the costumes with her own accessories and jewelry. They had to have the ears of the old place, too. Marlon Brando was considered, but the producers thought he was too much of an unknown as a film actor. Was Oscar-nominated in all the major categories--Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay--but only won in the last category. taste bar and kitchen missouri city. The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list. There once was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world. (he'd already gotten the shot he needed on the first take). 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. Next image (0) (0) Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". Both suits were dismissed. The finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach, and Wilder and Brackett rewrote the story as adrama. Holden had another hit with The World of Suzie Wong (1960) with Nancy Kwan, which was shot in Hong Kong. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz . He called it "that goddamned butler role" for the remaining seven years of his life. Darryl F. Zanuck, Olivia de Havilland, Tyrone Power and Samuel Goldwyn all refused to allow their names to be used in the film, but Billy Wilder decided to use Zanuck's and Power's names anyway. William Holden 15 greatest films ranked: 'Sunset Boulevard' and more If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Not long ago, he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. 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. After his final film S.O.B., Holden declined to star in Jason Miller's film That Championship Season.[37]. 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. 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. Holden was still an unknown actor when he made Golden Boy, while Stanwyck was already a film star. Now that we are getting closer to Awards Season in here in Hollywood, Im getting more and more interest from nominees and prospective nominees who want to know in advance if they are going home with the gold, Marie Bargas, known for years as the Hollywood Witch, told Den of Geek. 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. The car with the massive chrome grill that the repo men drive is a 1948 DeSoto Custom Club Coupe. Movie audiences in the nave early days of film sometimes didnt know that somebody had to sit down and write a movie. 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. In July 1941, he married 25-year old actress Brenda Marshall, who commanded five times his income. Billy Wilder wanted Hedy Lamarr to appear in a cameo in the scene where Norma and Joe visit Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount. With the help of his partners, he created the Mount Kenya Game Ranch and inspired the creation of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation. That should make the young blond Paramount actress-turned-script reader Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson) the virgin in the virgin/whore dynamic that film noir so often (and happily) deals in. The script (which was to be a vehicle for her comeback) was submitted to Cecil B. DeMille who sent it back. Holden did a sports film at Columbia, Boots Malone (1952), then returned to Paramount for The Turning Point (1952). The address of Norma Desmond's house is given as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard (1950) 1950, 1h 50min - Drama 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, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in "Sunset Boulevard." From the right angle, the camera could shoot the reflected image in the mirror without ever going underwater itself. Wilder told the actors to kibbutz and let him shuffle. A few years later, Stephen Sondheim became interested in writing a musical version of his own, working with writer Burt Shevelove (with whom he ended up writing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). 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). 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. So speaking of funerals, heres the great real life murder mystery we teased in the opening. Holden's first film back from the services was Blaze of Noon (1947), an aviator picture at Paramount directed by John Farrow. Even though it wasn't the last scene filmed, Billy Wilder threw a party for her as soon as the shot was finished. In reality, Gloria Swanson never worked with Normand and worked only once with Prevost in a 1916 short. . That movie, however, departs from the trope by making both actress and stranger much younger. Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969) and Network (1976). The restoration was performed at Lowry Digital by Barry Allen and Steve Elkin. In addition to the famous swimming pool, the studio also built sets to exactly duplicate Schwab's Drug Store in Hollywood and the Los Angeles County Morgue. Sunset Boulevard Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images When he drives Norma to Paramount Pictures at the studio gates, the car was pulled with a rope by off-camera grips. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. "I know how it's going to be," Holden said (per The Huntsville Item). [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. It is one of the most indelible films you will ever see. 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." [46] Rumors existed that he was suffering from lung cancer, which Holden had denied at a 1980 press conference. [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. In fact, a pivotal plot point in the Showtime limited series of Twin Peaks (2017) includes a scene from "Sunset Boulevard" in which the character's name is mentioned. These towns were favored because they were on the way to Palm Springs where, after collecting the audience reaction cards, studio personnel would then go to relax and determine what changes should be made to the previewed films. [39] On a trip to Africa, he fell in love with the wildlife and became increasingly concerned with the animal species that were beginning to decrease in population. The last name of the studio executive played by Fred Clark is Sheldrake. You see, this is my life, she promised. According to a statement director King Vidor made in 1968, the Los Angeles police detective who was assigned to the case was told to lay off about a week into the investigation. 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. GLAMOROUS MEN: WILLIAM HOLDEN: At some point, "Sunset Boulevard" Cecil B. DeMille agreed to do his cameo for a $10,000 fee and a brand-new Cadillac. (1950), as a way of "art imitating life." His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen. The young actor also got to work with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the gangsters on parole movie,Invisible Stripes. [12] Swanson later said, "Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. He followed it with a romantic comedy, Dear Ruth (1947) and he was one of many cameos in Variety Girl (1947). Holden paid it forward, becoming Hepburns guardian angel.. After working on Sunset Boulevard, Swanson remarked, Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. Throughout Hollywood history many film stars, and/or single films, were responsible for saving ailing studios. and Crescent Heights Blvd. The Pharmacy was filmed only 500 feet (150 meters) from a scene in Armed and Dangerous (1986) & Falling Down (1993), The parking lot behind Rudy's Shoeshine where Joe Gillis pulls his car out of is 1751 Vine Street - about a half a block North of Hollywood Blvd (you can tell by the scene's POV of the Taft building that sits on the corner of Hollywood and Vine). Location scenes at Norma Desmond's mansion were shot not on Sunset Boulevard but on Wilshire Boulevard. This makes her the youngest of the cast members, excluding any extras. Only 950 were made from 1924 to 1931. (1954). Sands disappeared after the murder. Like most old things in L.A., the house has since been replaced by an office building. Included among the 25 films on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. It was named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, the center of the American film industry . But who could play the silent film diva? on the corner of Crenshaw and Irving. Wilder was, well, the wilder of the two, often bawdy and crass, while Brackett was genteel. 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). Other actresses considered for Norma Desmond were Mae West (who wanted to rewrite the dialogue), Mae Murray, and Mary Pickford. 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. 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. Jay Livingston, Ray Evans: The Paramount songwriting duo is seen at the piano at Artie Green's New Year's Eve party. Sunset Boulevard DVD (2007) William Holden, Wilder (DIR) cert PG Amazing Value. When Norma visits DeMille at Paramount, he's in the midst of shooting Samson and Delilah, which really is what he was up to at the time. On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. Watch 'Sunset Boulevard (1950)' Online Streaming (Full Movie) | PlayPilot As day breaks. Warner (one of the four "Waxworks" at the bridge party) in The King of Kings (1927). She declined the offer. Set non-holiday all-time house record of $166,000 at New York's Radio City Music Hall when it opened. Dont bother with a rewrite, man, take it direct! The Homicide Squad, complete with detectives and newspapermen, are responding to a call about a murder from one of those great big houses in the ten thousand block of Sunset Boulevard, a 22-mile block that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean. The "Desmond mansion" was located not on Sunset Blvd. But trophies or not, Sunset Boulevard has stayed near the top of the list of great movies about moviemaking. The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. Words are as good as sex to two writers. Suratt was reportedly obsessed with the fact that she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and after her career ended commissioned the leader of the U.S. Reform Bah' Movement to co-write a script on the life of Mary Magdalene. Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented but Mae Murray also found the film offensive. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. "[4], For his contribution to the film industry, Holden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1651 Vine Street. Gillis: "No, swimming pool." The stars read the stars. But as commentator Steve Sailer points out, more than one contemporary source mentions it as an inspiration. If Gillis is accurate in stating that his meeting with Norma occurred some six months prior, the action of the film takes place between mid-November 1948 and mid- May 1949. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee of the year to be also nominated for Original Screenplay. 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. The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. 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. Betty and Joe fall in love after they sneak off to the studio backlot by moonlight to collaborate on a screenplay. Marshman Jr. Sunset Boulevard was the last time Brackett and Wilder collaborated on a film. And like the title, Holden seemed to have the looks and muscular build Hollywood craved. Since he had classic good looks, an expressive voice, and was an excelle He always wished that I would get an Oscar. Because all three audiences inappropriately found the morgue scene hilarious, the film's release was delayed six months so that a new beginning could be shot. Now I had two favorite movies - aside from "Gone With The Wind" of course - both from 1950, "Sunset Boulevard" and "All . A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. was better known as the seat of the film industry in 1950, the Los Angeles film industry actually began on Sunset Blvd. The butler stonewalls Joe from the outside world until hes rolling up twenties tight enough snort through to deal with even the shortest withdrawal from the big empty house. . Sure she was a forgotten silent star, living in exile, screening her old movies and dreaming of a comeback. 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. The studio needed an actor who the audience could believe wrote a story about Okies in the Dust Bowl that played on a torpedo boat by the time it hit the screen. Sunset Boulevard now begins with police cars racing to Norma Desmond's house, where a dead body is floating in the pool. Talk! After returning from France, she shot her last Paramount films--Stage Struck (1925), The Untamed Lady (1926) and Fine Manners (1926)--at the studio's lot in Astoria, Queens, NY. Zach Laws, Chris Beachum. They thought the actors made it up as they went along. Around this time he also appeared in 21 Hours at Munich (1976). When crew members asked Billy Wilder how he was going to shoot the burial of Norma's monkey, one of the film's most bizarre scenes, he just said, "You know, the usual monkey-funeral sequence.". Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). You used to be in silent pictures. 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. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene suggested that he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. Gloria Swanson brings sunshine into every room as silent screen idol Norma Desmond. 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. The film's narrative structure bears a marked resemblance to that of American Beauty (1999). Peavey reportedly wore flashy golf clothes but didnt own golf clubs and had been arrested for social vagrancy and booked on lewd and dissolute charges just a few nights before the murder. 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".