George Cukor's Birthday

On July 7, 1899 in New York, in the family of Jewish immigrants from Hungary, a son was born, who was named after the hero of the Spanish-American war, George Dewey. From early childhood, George became interested in theater, participating in amateur performances, and from 7 years old, together with his friend David Selznick, organized solo concerts.

George's dad, who worked as an assistant district attorney, dreamed that his son would follow his example and become a lawyer. For this aim, he gave his son to one of the most prestigious educational institutions in New York - the DeWitt Clinton High School. But the son often skipped classes in order to watch a theatrical production, and sometimes to take part in it himself.

George Dewey Cucor’s military service age coincided with the end of World War I, so his military service lasted only two months. After which Cukor completely immersed in theatrical activities. And, probably, George Cukor would be an outstanding theatrical figure, if not for technological progress. Progress in this case was expressed in the appearance of sound cinema in the late 1920s. In the era of silent cinema, actors and, accordingly, directors who own facial expressions and gestures were in demand. The sound in the movie required actors who knew how to own the word. (This collision is well shown in Michel Hazanavicius' 2011 film "The Artist"). And, of course, the demand for directors who know how to work with "talking" actors has sharply increased. Hollywood literally “recruited” George Cukor. Yes, he did not resist and in February 1929 he moved from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1930, the first film "Grumpy" was released on the screens of American cinemas, in the creation of which George Cukor participated. In just over a half-century career as a filmmaker, George Cukor shot 44 full-length feature films on his own, and another 18 films in collaboration with other directors. The reasons for this cooperation were very different. We talked about one of them in our publication dedicated to the film "Gone with the Wind."

Of the 62 films in which George Cukor took part, 5 entered the Golden Thousand. Based on this indicator, George Cukor is included in the list of 100 greatest world film directors, compiled by FilnGourmand.

Today, when 121 years have passed since the birth of this great director, we want to remind fans of his work frames from the best films included in the Golden Thousand.