was born on this date in 1881.
Producer/director DeMille won the Best Picture Oscar in 1953 for The Greatest Show on Earth, a wonderful, if melodramatic film about circus life in the days of the big top. It starred Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour, James Stewart (always in clown makeup) and actual circus performers. DeMille was nominated, but did not win the Oscar for director for the movie.
DeMille’s was also nominated for Best Picture in 1957, for The Ten Commandments.