Legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959) once lived on this private drive, named for him in 1926. Cecil Blount de Mille (“DeMille” was his professional spelling; who knows why street signs read “De Mille”?) was a struggling actor in New York when producers Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn tapped him to direct The Squaw Man in 1913-1914. It wasn’t just DeMille’s first film; it was the first feature made in Hollywood. DeMille ultimately helmed 70 features, his most famous being his last: 1956’s The Ten Commandments, a remake of his 1923 original. Along with showbiz dominance, DeMille was a big presence in local real estate and banking. He bought the late lumber baron Charles F. Perry’s mansion in the private Laughlin Park neighborhood in 1916; four years later, he acquired the mansion next door – known as the “Chaplin House” as it was briefly leased by Charlie Chaplin – and lived on the expanded property until his death. DeMille’s granddaughter Cecilia sold the estate in 1988 and it was famously purchased by actress Angelina Jolie in 2017. (The “Chaplin” portion of the grounds was separated out and sold in 1999.)
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