George Cukor

George Cukor (1899-1983), American motion-picture director, known for his comedies and adaptations of literary classics. He is sometimes regarded as a “women’s director” for his ability to elicit outstanding performances from female actors. This reputation irritated him because Jimmy Stewart, Ronald Colman, and Rex Harrison all won Academy Awards for best actor under his direction: Stewart for The Philadelphia Story (1940), Colman for A Double Life (1947), and Harrison for My Fair Lady (1964).

Born in New York City, Cukor began his career in the theater as a stage manager and was directing Broadway shows by the mid-1920s. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s, working initially as a dialogue coach for films, which had just begun using sound at the time. He began directing in 1930 and quickly achieved a reputation for his sophisticated, literate films, often adapted from novels or plays. These include Dinner at Eight (1933), with Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler; David Copperfield (1935), adapted from the novel by English author Charles Dickens, with W. C. Fields as Micawber; and Romeo and Juliet (1936), adapted from the play by English writer William Shakespeare, with Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet.

In 1932 Cukor directed American actor Katharine Hepburn in her motion-picture debut, A Bill of Divorcement. The two worked together in several more films, including Little Women (1933), adapted from the novel by American author Louisa May Alcott; Sylvia Scarlett (1935); Holiday (1938); The Philadelphia Story (1940); Adam’s Rib (1949); and the television movie The Corn Is Green (1979). Hired as the original director for Gone With the Wind (1939), Cukor was later fired by the film’s producers, causing heated speculation among the film community and moviegoers about feuding on the set between Cukor and the stars of the movie. His dismissal was a great disappointment to Cukor because he had prepared for the film in minute detail.

Cukor’s other notable films include Camille (1937), with Greta Garbo; Gaslight (1944), with Ingrid Bergman; Born Yesterday (1950), with Judy Holliday; Pat and Mike (1952), with Hepburn and Spencer Tracy; and A Star Is Born (1954), with Judy Garland. He was nominated for the Academy Award for best director four times and finally won for My Fair Lady (1964).