George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukorwas an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood?, A Bill of Divorcement, Our Betters, and Little Women. When Selznick moved to MGM in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eightand David Copperfieldfor Selznick and Romeo and Julietand Camillefor Irving Thalberg...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth7 July 1899
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I choose my actors well and get to know the quirks of their personalities - and, most of all, I share humor with them. Then I keep my eyes open when they rehearse and perform, because you never know where the next stimulation comes from.
So many directors say nothing beautifully, and so many others say great and profound things but have no idea how to read a light meter or arrange a shot.
You're just poor cornball provincial people, you critics; you just don't know what the hell you're talking about.
It never occurred to me that I could live in California. Now I can't imagine living anywhere else.
If I were very handsome, maybe I'd have been an actor.
I don't think you can teach people how to be funny. You can make suggestions about how to speak a line or get a laugh, but it has to be in them.
From the director's point of view, it's infinitely easier to do violence than to do a good dramatic scene.
As a professional, it pains me to watch a movie that is botched and amateurish. I prefer directors who have control of both their craft and their ideas.
Women's director! Well, I'm very pleased to be considered a master of anything, but remember, for every Jill there was a Jack. People like to pigeonhole you - it's a shortcut, I guess, but once they do, you're stuck with it.
I suppose they call me a woman's director because there were all these movie queens in the old days, and I directed most of them. But I also directed Jack Barrymore and Ronald Colman and James Stewart, to name a few.
We've all been tired and thought we wanted a long vacation when all we needed was a few days off, but didn't know it.
The truth is, a director wins an Oscar for a writer's script and actors' performances.
If she was a victim of any kind, she was a victim of her friends.
I work through the actors, and the more successful I am, the less my work is apparent.