Today is the 123rd birthday of George Cukor. He is responsible for almost all of my favorite classic films: Holiday, The Women, Gone With The Wind, The Philadelphia Story, Adam’s Rib, Born Yesterday, It Should Happen To You, etc. His teaming with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Judy Holliday, Clark Gable, Jack Lemmon, and Joan Crawford made countless of hours of perfection. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.
NAME: George D. Cukor
OCCUPATION: Director
BIRTH DATE: July 7, 1899
DEATH DATE: January 24, 1983
EDUCATION: De Witt Clinton High School
PLACE OF BIRTH: New York, New York
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
REMAINS: Buried, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA
OSCAR: for Best Director 1965 for My Fair Lady
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 6378 Hollywood Blvd (motion pictures)
BEST KNOWN FOR: Director George D. Cukor made films for 50 years. He was a dialogue director in the early days of films with sound, and received an Academy Award in 1964 for My Fair Lady.
Born in New York City on July 7, 1899, George Dewey Cukor became one of the top film directors of the 20th century. He developed a love for the theater growing up, even resorting to skipping school to go see shows on Broadway. After graduating from De Witt Clinton High School, Cukor went to work behind the scenes in the theater. He held numerous positions, including stage manager, before becoming a successful stage director.
In 1926, Cukor directed a theatrical production of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. He also worked with Melvyn Douglas in A Free Soul two years later. Also in 1928, Cukor directed Dorothy Gish and James Rennie in the comedy Young Love. Before long, Cukor was invited to Hollywood. His first major film project was working as a dialogue director on the 1930 war drama All Quiet on the Western Front. He landed a few co-directing jobs as well, including The Royal Family of Broadway with Cyril Gardner.
George D. Cukor soon became a director on the rise, directing Tallulah Bankhead in her film debut, 1931’s Tarnished Lady, and helping to discover Katharine Hepburn when he fought with the studio to cast her in 1932’s A Bill of Divorcement with John Barrymore. The following year proved to be a time of professional prosperity, with a string of well-received films: He reunited with Katharine Hepburn for the adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women—his first major success—and with Jean Harlow in the high-society comedy Dinner at Eight.
Continuing to work with some of film’s top stars, Cukor directed the legendary Greta Garbo in Camille (1936). He also worked with Hepburn and Cary Grant on Holiday (1938) and on The Philadelphia Story (1940)—both sophisticated romantic comedies. Another classic Cukor film from this time was the dramatic comedy The Women (1939) with Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell. Around this time, the director suffered a career setback after being fired from the epic Civil War drama Gone with the Wind.
Cukor became known as a women’s director, based on his ability to get great performances from so many leading female actresses. He hated this label, once telling The New York Times, “I think it’s stupid. If you work over my work, in every picture there’s a man, and usually he did a pretty good job.” He also showed himself to be more versatile than some gave him credit for. He did an excellent job creating suspense in the 1944 thriller Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. That same year, his war drama Winged Victory hit the big screen.
More impressive work soon followed. Cukor directed the Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy classic Adam’s Rib (1949). Around this same time, he worked with Judy Holliday and William Holden on the film Born Yesterday. He then tackled the movie musical genre with 1954’s A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland and James Mason.
By the 1960s, George D. Cukor was making few films, but he still possessed tremendous talent. He won his one and only Academy Award for directing the musical My Fair Lady (1964), starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. On the small screen, he directed Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier in the 1975 television movie Love Among the Ruins. He received an Emmy Award for his work on the project.
Rich and Famous (1981) proved to be Cukor’s last film. Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen star in this tale of a competitive friendship between two writers. Two years later, on January 24, 1983, George D. Cukor died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 83. He was interred in an unmarked grave at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.Records in probate court indicated his net worth at the time of his death was $2,377,720.
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Rich and Famous (23-Sep-1981)
The Corn Is Green (29-Jan-1979)
The Blue Bird (5-Apr-1976)
Love Among the Ruins (6-Mar-1975)
Travels with My Aunt (17-Dec-1972)
Justine (6-Aug-1969)
My Fair Lady (21-Oct-1964)
The Chapman Report (5-Oct-1962)
Something’s Got to Give (1962)
Let’s Make Love (8-Sep-1960)
Heller in Pink Tights (29-Feb-1960)
Wild is the Wind (11-Dec-1957)
Les Girls (3-Oct-1957)
Bhowani Junction (1-May-1956)
A Star Is Born (29-Sep-1954)
It Should Happen to You (15-Jan-1954)
The Actress (25-Sep-1953)
Pat and Mike (13-Jun-1952)
The Marrying Kind (1952)
The Model and the Marriage Broker (Nov-1951)
Born Yesterday (26-Dec-1950)
A Life of Her Own (1-Sep-1950)
Adam’s Rib (18-Nov-1949)
Edward, My Son (2-Jun-1949)
A Double Life (25-Dec-1947)
Winged Victory (20-Dec-1944)
Gaslight (4-May-1944)
Keeper of the Flame (Dec-1942)
Her Cardboard Lover (Jun-1942)
Two-Faced Woman (Nov-1941)
A Woman’s Face (15-May-1941)
The Philadelphia Story (1-Dec-1940)
Susan and God (7-Jun-1940)
The Women (1-Sep-1939)
Zaza (29-Dec-1938)
Holiday (15-Jun-1938)
Camille (12-Dec-1936)
Romeo and Juliet (20-Aug-1936)
Sylvia Scarlett (12-Dec-1935)
David Copperfield (8-Jan-1935)
Little Women (16-Nov-1933)
Dinner at Eight (29-Aug-1933)
Our Betters (23-Feb-1933)
Rockabye (25-Nov-1932)
A Bill of Divorcement (30-Sep-1932)
What Price Hollywood? (24-Jun-1932)
Girls About Town (7-Nov-1931)
Tarnished Lady (2-May-1931)
The Royal Family of Broadway (22-Dec-1930)
The Virtuous Sin (24-Oct-1930)
Waldina 