George Cukor

Trivia

• Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Garden of Honor, unmarked. (Private area. Not accessible to the general public). Frances Goldwyn [Frances Howard], wife of mogul Samuel Goldwyn, is buried next to Cukor at her request because of her long, but unrequited love for him.
• He was replaced as director of Gone with the Wind (1939) because of constant disagreements with producer David O. Selznick over the script and direction (not as rumour had it because Clark Gable considered him better suited as a so-called woman's director).
• Worked as Broadway director before going into the film business with Grumpy (1930).
• He was famous for the parties he threw later in life for large groups of directors, many parties being attended by other directing legends such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Luis Buñuel, and George Stevens.
• He was famous as a sophisticated, witty personality but was also in the habit (mainly to be naughty) of blurting out unexpected profanities.
• Was voted the 18th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 163-172. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
• Did a few days work as intermediate director on The Wizard of Oz (1939) (although he never actually filmed any scenes) after original director Richard Thorpe had been dismissed. Victor Fleming was eventually hired to direct the picture. Coincidentally, Cukor's next film, Gone with the Wind (1939), also went on to be directed by Fleming after Cukor was fired due to disagreements with the film's producer, David O. Selznick.
• He did not make a musical, or fully direct a film in color, until A Star Is Born (1954).
• Directed 20 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Basil Rathbone, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, James Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, Ruth Hussey, Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Angela Lansbury, Ronald Colman, Deborah Kerr, Judy Holliday, James Mason, Judy Garland, Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Gladys Cooper and Maggie Smith. Stewart, Bergman, Colman, Holliday, and Harrison won Oscars for their performances in Cukor's movies.

Quotes

• "Garbo went through a great deal to get a scene right. She worked out every gesture in advance and learned every syllable of dialogue exactly as written. She never improvised and I respected her for that."
• "If I were very handsome, maybe I'd have been an actor".
• "I don't weep or anything, but there's always some part of me left bloody on the scene I've just directed".
• "You can always land on your feet if you know where the ground is."
• "Jack Lemmon is not one of those actors who'll bore you to death discussing acting. He'd rather bore you to death discussing golf."
• "Don't just do something, stand there!" [Favorite bit of direction he'd give to hyperactive actresses]
• "Give me a good script, and I'll be a hundred times better as a director."