Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard, motion picture about an aging silent screen star who takes a young screenwriter as a lover. Released in 1950, the film stars Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, the tragic middle-aged actor. The movie earned Academy Awards for best writing, best art direction, and best musical score. Because of the transition from silent films to sound, Desmond lost work and retired from public life, but later she wants to make a big comeback. When a young writer (played by William Holden) pulls into Desmond’s driveway on Sunset Boulevard to evade bill collectors, she takes him in. Desmond convinces the writer to help her with a screenplay and pressures him to become her lover. Desmond’s butler (Erich von Stroheim), who was a prominent director during the silent era, sends her fake fan mail so that she will believe she is still a popular star. The writer threatens to leave Desmond, so she shoots him. When the police and reporters arrive, Desmond seems to have lost touch with reality, acting as though all the men are part of a movie crew and that she is being called for the first big scene in her comeback movie.

Director

• Billy Wilder

Cast

• William Holden (Joe Gillis)
• Gloria Swanson (Norma Desmond)
• Erich von Stroheim (Max von Mayerling)
• Nancy Olson (Betty Schaefer)
• Fred Clark (Sheldrake)
• Lloyd Gough (Morino)
• Jack Webb (Artie Green)
• Cecil B. DeMille (Himself)
• Hedda Hopper (Herself)
• Buster Keaton (Himself)
• Anna Q. Nilsson (Herself)
• H. B. Warner (Himself)
• Sidney Skolsky (Himself)
• Ray Evans (Himself)
• Jay Livingston (Himself)
• Bernice Mosk (Herself)
• Franklyn Farnum (Undertaker)
• Larry Blake (Finance man)
• Charles Dayton (Finance man)
• Eddie Dew (Assistant coroner)
• Roy Thompson (Shoeshine boy)
• Archie Twitchell (Salesman)
• Kenneth Gibson (Salesman)
• Peter Drynan (Tailor)
• Ruth Clifford (Sheldrake's secretary)
• Bert Moorhouse (Gordon Cole)
• E. Mason Hopper (Doctor, courtier)
• Yvette Vedder (Girl on telephone)
• Virginia Randolph (Courtier)
• Gertrude Astor (Courtier)
• Frank O'Connor (Courtier)
• Eva Novak (Courtier)
• Al Ferguson (Phone standby)
• Stan Johnson (First assistant director)
• Bill Sheehan (Second assistant director)
• Julia Faye (Hisham)
• Ralph Montgomery (Prop man)
• Joel Allen (Prop man)
• Gertrude Messinger (Hair dresser)
• John 'Skins' Miller (Hog Eye)
• John Cortay (Young police officer)
• Robert Emmett O'Connor (Jonesy)
• Gerry Ganzer (Connie)
• Tommy Ivo (Boy)
• Emmett Smith (Man)
• Ottola Nesmith (Woman)
• Jay Morley (Fat man)
• Howard Negley (Captain of police)
• Ken Christy (Captain of homicide)
• Len Hendry (Police sergeant)
• Arthur Lane (Camera operator)
• Archie R. Dalzell (Camera operator)
• James Hawley (Camera assistant)
• Edward Wahrman (Camera assistant)
• Sanford E. Greenwald (Newsreel cameraman)
• Howard Joslin (Police lieutenant)

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Writing—Story and Screenplay (1950): Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D. M. Marshman, Jr.
• Academy Award for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration—Black and White (1950): Hans Dreier—Art Direction, John Meehan—Art Direction, Sam Comer—Set Decoration, Ray Moyer—Set Decoration
• Academy Award for Best Music—Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (1950): Franz Waxman
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Drama (1951)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress—Drama (1951): Gloria Swanson
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Director (1951): Billy Wilder
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Score (1951): Franz Waxman
• Selected for Registry by the National Film Preservation Board (1989)

Trivia

• Like the character he plays in this movie, Erich von Stroheim was a prominent director during the silent era. His most famous film is Greed (1925). Gloria Swanson was a big star in silent movies.

Quotes

• Joe Gillis (the writer, when he first meets the star): “You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.”
• Norma Desmond: “I am big. It's the pictures that got small.”