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IMDbPro

George Cukor(1899-1983)

  • Director
  • Additional Crew
  • Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
George Cukor
Trailer for the classic musical drama starring Judy Garland and James Mason.
Play trailer4:21
A Star Is Born (1954)
1 Video
80 Photos
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.

In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. His parents were assistant district attorney Viktor Cukor and Helén Ilona Gross. His middle name "Dewey" honored Admiral George Dewey who was considered a war hero for his victory in the Battle of Manila Bay, in 1898.

As a child, Cukor received dancing lessons, and soon fell in love with the theater, appearing in several amateur plays. In 1906, he performed in a recital with David O. Selznick (1902-1965), who would later become a close friend.

As a teenager, Cukor often visited the New York Hippodrome, a well-known Manhattan theater. He often cut classes while attending high school, in order to attend afternoon matinees. He later took a job as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, and at times performed there in black-face.

Cukor graduated from the DeWitt Clinton High School in 1917. His father wanted him to follow a legal career, and had his son enrolled City College of New York. Cukor lost interest in his studies and dropped out of college in 1918. He then took a job as an assistant stage manager and bit player for a touring production of the British musical "The Better 'Ole". The musical was an adaptation of the then-popular British comic strip "Old Bill" by Bruce Bairnsfather (1887-1959).

In 1920, Cukor became the stage manager of the Knickerbocker Players, a theatrical troupe. In 1921, Cukor became the general manager of the Lyceum Players, a summer stock company. In 1925, Cukor was one of the co-founders the C.F. and Z. Production Company. With this theatrical company, Cukor started working as a theatrical director. He made his Broadway debut as a director with the play "Antonia" by Melchior Lengyel (1880-1974).

The C.F. and Z. Production Company was eventually renamed the Cukor-Kondolf Stock Company, and started recruiting up-and-coming theatrical talents. Cukor's theatrical troupe included at various times Louis Calhern, Ilka Chase, Bette Davis, Douglass Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, Elizabeth Patterson, and Phyllis Povah.

Cukor attained great critical acclaim in 1926 for directing "The Great Gatsby", an adaptation of a then-popular novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). He directed six more Broadway productions until 1929. At the time, Hollywood film studios were recruiting New York theater talent for sound films, and Cukor was hired by Paramount Pictures. He started as an apprentice director before the studio lent him to Universal Pictures. His first notable film work was serving as a dialogue director for "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930).

After returning to Paramount Pictures, he worked as aco-director. His first solo directorial effort was "Tarnished Lady" (1931), and at that time he earned a weekly salary of $1500. Cukor co-directed the film "One Hour with You" (1932) with Ernst Lubitsch, but Lubitsch demanded sole directorial credit. Cukor filed a legal suit but eventually had to settle for a credit as the film's assistant director. He left Paramount in protest, and took a new job with RKO Studios.

During the 1930s, Cukor was entrusted with directing films for RKO's leading actresses. He worked often with Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), although not always with box-office success. He did direct such box office hits as "Little Women" (1933) and "Holiday" (1938), but also notable flops such as "Sylvia Scarlett" (1935).

In 1936, Cukor was assigned to work on the film adaptation of the blockbuster novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. He spent the next two years preoccupied with the film's pre-production, and with supervising screen tests for actresses seeking to play leading character Scarlett O'Hara. Cukor reportedly favored casting either Katharine Hepburn or Paulette Goddard for the role. Producer David O. Selznick refused to cast either one, since Hepburn was coming off a string of flops and was viewed as "box office poison," while Goddard was rumored to have had a scandalous affair with Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) and her reputation suffered for it.

Cukor did not get to direct "Gone with the Wind", as Selznick decided to assign the directing duties to Victor Fleming (1889-1949). Cukor's involvement with the film was limited to coaching actresses Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) and Olivia de Havilland (1916-). Similarly, the very same year, Cukor also failed to receive a directing credit for "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), though he was responsible for several casting and costuming decisions for this iconic classic.

In this same period, Cukor did direct an all-female cast in "The Women" (1939), as well as Greta Garbo's final motion picture performance in "Two-Faced Woman" (1941). Then his film career was interrupted by World War II, as he joined the Signal Corps in 1942. Given his experience as a film director, Cukor was soon assigned to producing training and instructional films for army personnel. He wanted to gain an officer's commission, but was denied promotion above the rank of private. Cukor suspected that rumors of his homosexuality were the reason he never received the promotion.

During the 1940s, Cukor had a number of box-office hits, such "A Woman's Face" (1941) and "Gaslight" (1944). He forged a working alliance with screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, and the trio collaborated on seven films between 1947-1954.

Until the early 1950s, most of his Cukor's films were in black-and-white, and his first film in Technicolor was "A Star Is Born" (1954), with Judy Garland as the leading actress. Casting the male lead for the film proved difficult, as several major stars were either not interested in the role or were considered unsuitable by the studio. Cukor had to settle for James Mason as the male lead, but the film was highly successful and received 6 Academy Award nominations. But Cukor was not nominated for directing.

He had a handful of critical successes over the following years, such as Les Girls (1957) and "Wild Is the Wind" (1957), and also helmed the unfinished "Something's Got to Give" (1962), which had a troubled production and went at least $2 million over budget before it was terminated.

Cukor had a comeback with the critically and commercially successful "My Fair Lady," one of the highlights of his career., for which he won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, along with the Directors Guild of America Award. However, his career very quickly slowed down, and the aging Cukor was infrequently involved with new projects.

Cukor's most notable film in the 1970s was the fantasy The Blue Bird (1976) , which was the first joint Soviet-American production. It was a box-office flop, though it received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and was groundbreaking for its time. Cukor's swan song was "Rich and Famous" (1981), depicting the relationship of two women over a period of several decades., played by co-stars Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen, Cukor's final pair of leading ladies.

He retired as a director at the age of 82, and died a year later of a heart attack in 1983. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated to be $2,377,720. He was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA. Cukor was buried next to his long-time platonic friend Frances Howard (1903-1976), the wife of legendary studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn.
BornJuly 7, 1899
DiedJanuary 24, 1983(83)
BornJuly 7, 1899
DiedJanuary 24, 1983(83)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Won 1 Oscar
    • 14 wins & 24 nominations total

Photos80

George Cukor
Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Billy Wilder, George Cukor, Jean-Claude Carrière, Rouben Mamoulian, Robert Mulligan, Serge Silberman, George Stevens, Robert Wise, and William Wyler
George Cukor in My Fair Lady (1964)
Jean Harlow, George Cukor, David O. Selznick, and Edmund Lowe in Dinner at Eight (1933)
Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke, Jean Harlow, George Cukor, Marie Dressler, Madge Evans, Phillips Holmes, Edmund Lowe, Elizabeth Patterson, and May Robson in Dinner at Eight (1933)
Joan Crawford, George Cukor, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Florence Nash, Phyllis Povah, Rosalind Russell, and Norma Shearer in The Women (1939)
Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and George Cukor in Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, George Cukor, and John Howard in The Philadelphia Story (1940)
"Dinner at Eight" Director George Cukor, Billie Burke 1933 MGM
Elizabeth Taylor and George Cukor circa 1978
"Gaslight" Joseph Cotton, Director Goerge Cukor, Ingrid Bergman 1944 MGM
"My Fair Lady" (Premiere) Jack L. Warner and George Cukor

Known for

My Fair Lady (1964)
My Fair Lady
7.8
  • Director
  • 1964
Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, and Joseph Cotten in Gaslight (1944)
Gaslight
7.8
  • Director
  • 1944
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Philadelphia Story
7.9
  • Director
  • 1940
Les Girls (1957)
Les Girls
6.6
  • Director
  • 1957

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Director

  • Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset in Rich and Famous (1981)
    Rich and Famous
    • Director
    • 1981
  • The Corn Is Green (1979)
    The Corn Is Green
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 1979
  • The Blue Bird (1976)
    The Blue Bird
    • Director
    • 1976
  • Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier in Love Among the Ruins (1975)
    Love Among the Ruins
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 1975
  • Travels with My Aunt (1972)
    Travels with My Aunt
    • Director
    • 1972
  • Anouk Aimée, Robert Forster, Michael York, and Dirk Bogarde in Justine (1969)
    Justine
    • Director
    • 1969
  • My Fair Lady (1964)
    My Fair Lady
    • Director
    • 1964
  • Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Wally Cox, and Tom Tryon in Something's Got to Give (1962)
    Something's Got to Give
    • Director
    • Short
    • 1962
  • Jane Fonda, Shelley Winters, Claire Bloom, and Glynis Johns in The Chapman Report (1962)
    The Chapman Report
    • Director
    • 1962
  • Let's Make Love (1960)
    Let's Make Love
    • Director
    • 1960
  • Capucine, Dirk Bogarde, and Geneviève Page in Song Without End (1960)
    Song Without End
    • Director (finished after Vidor's death, uncredited)
    • 1960
  • Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, and Steve Forrest in Heller in Pink Tights (1960)
    Heller in Pink Tights
    • Director
    • 1960
  • Anthony Quinn and Valerie Allen in Hot Spell (1958)
    Hot Spell
    • Director (uncredited)
    • 1958
  • Wild Is the Wind (1957)
    Wild Is the Wind
    • Director
    • 1957
  • Les Girls (1957)
    Les Girls
    • Director
    • 1957

Additional Crew

  • Gregory Peck and Greer Garson in The Valley of Decision (1945)
    The Valley of Decision
    • fill-in director (uncredited)
    • 1945
  • Robert Taylor and Norma Shearer in Escape (1940)
    Escape
    • director: additional scenes (uncredited)
    • 1940
  • Carole Lombard and Chester Morris in Sinners in the Sun (1932)
    Sinners in the Sun
    • pre-production director (uncredited)
    • 1932
  • Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in One Hour with You (1932)
    One Hour with You
    • dialogue director: after Lubitsch took over as the director
    • 1932
  • All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
    All Quiet on the Western Front
    • dialogue director (uncredited)
    • 1930
  • Percy Haswell and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers in The River of Romance (1929)
    The River of Romance
    • dialogue director (uncredited)
    • 1929

Second Unit or Assistant Director

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    • director: retakes (uncredited)
    • 1938
  • The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
    The Prisoner of Zenda
    • director: reshoots (uncredited)
    • 1937

Videos1

A Star is Born
Trailer 4:21
A Star is Born

Personal details

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  • Height
    • 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
  • Born
    • July 7, 1899
    • Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
  • Died
    • January 24, 1983
    • Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA(heart failure)
  • Parents
      Victor Cukor
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following productions:
  • Publicity listings
    • 2 Biographical Movies
    • 7 Print Biographies
    • 7 Portrayals
    • 2 Interviews
    • 14 Articles
    • 1 Pictorial

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    He was largely responsible for the ultimate look of the characters in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939). Richard Thorpe, the film's first director, had decided on how the makeup should look, and had made some rather catastrophic decisions (see Buddy Ebsen). He was eventually fired, and during a stopover at the film's set, Cukor gave some directorial suggestions (such as removing Judy Garland's blonde wig), which ultimately were used in the finished film.
  • Quotes
    . . . you direct a couple of successful pictures with women stars, so you become a "woman's director" . . . Direct a sentimental little picture and all you get is sob stuff. I know I've been in and out of those little compartments. Heaven knows everyone has limitations. But why make them narrower than they are?
  • Trademarks
      Directed many adaptations of books and plays and was known to be particularly skilled at interpreting stage plays for the screen.
  • Salaries
      My Fair Lady
      (1964)
      $300,000

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