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George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures when David O. Selznick, the studio's head of production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eight (1933) and David Copperfield (1935) for Selznick, and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Camille (1936) for Irving Thalberg.
He was replaced as one of the directors of Gone with the Wind (1939), but he went on to direct The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1944), Adam's Rib (1949), Born Yesterday (1950), A Star Is Born (1954), and Bhowani Junction (1956), and won the Academy Award for Best Director for My Fair Lady (1964), which was his fifth time nominated. He continued to work into the early 1980s.
As a child, Cukor appeared in several amateur plays and took dance lessons, and at the age of seven he performed in a recital with David O. Selznick, who in later years became a mentor and friend.McGilligan, p. 11. As a teenager, Cukor frequently was taken to the New York Hippodrome by his uncle. Infatuated with theatre, he often cut classes at DeWitt Clinton High School to attend afternoon matinees.Kipen, David. "Flawed look at career of blacklisted director", San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 2001. Accessed September 14, 2009. "The American 20th century went to high school at DeWitt Clinton High in the Bronx. Multicultural before there was a name for it – at least a polite one --Clinton nurtured such diverse and influential figures as Bill Graham, James Baldwin, George Cukor, Neil Simon and Abraham Lincoln Polonsky."McGilligan, p. 10. During his senior year, he worked as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, earning 50¢ per appearance, and $1 if he was required to perform in blackface.Levy, Emanuel, George Cukor: Master of Elegance. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc. 1994. , pp. 26–27.
Following his graduation in 1917, Cukor was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a career in law. He halfheartedly enrolled in the City College of New York, where he entered the Students Army Training Corps in October 1918. His military experience was limited; Germany surrendered in early November, and Cukor's duty ended after only two months. He left school shortly afterwards.McGilligan, p. 19.
For the next few years, Cukor alternated between Rochester in the summer months and Broadway in the winter. His direction of a 1926 stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby by Owen Davis brought him to the attention of the New York critics. Writing in the Brooklyn Eagle, drama critic Arthur Pollock called it "an unusual piece of work by a director not nearly so well known as he should be."McGilligan, p. 53. Cukor directed six more Broadway productions, then departed for Hollywood in 1929.
Cukor was then assigned to One Hour with You (1932), an operetta with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, when original director Ernst Lubitsch opted to concentrate on producing the film instead. At first the two men worked well together, but two weeks into filming Lubitsch began arriving on the set on a regular basis, and he soon began directing scenes with Cukor's consent. Upon the film's completion, Lubitsch approached Paramount general manager B.P. Schulberg and threatened to leave the studio if Cukor's name wasn't removed from the credits. When Schulberg asked him to cooperate, Cukor filed suit. He eventually settled for being billed as assistant director and then left Paramount to work with David O. Selznick at RKO Studios.McGilligan, pp. 69–71. Cukor quickly earned a reputation as a director who could coax great performances from actresses and he became known as a "woman's director", a title he resented. Despite this reputation, during his career, he oversaw more performances honored with the Academy Award for Best Actor than any other director: James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940), Ronald Colman in A Double Life (1947), and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964). One of Cukor's earlier ingenues was actress Katharine Hepburn, who debuted in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) and whose looks and personality left RKO officials at a loss as to how to use her. Cukor directed her in several films, both successful, such as Little Women (1933) and The Philadelphia Story (1940), and disastrous, such as Sylvia Scarlett (1935). Cukor and Hepburn became close friends off the set.
Cukor was hired to direct Gone with the Wind by Selznick in 1936, even before the book was published.McGilligan, p. 134. He spent the next two years involved with pre-production, including supervision of the numerous screen tests of actresses anxious to portray Scarlett O'Hara. Cukor favored Hepburn for the role, but Selznick, concerned about her reputation as "box office poison", would not consider her without a screen test, and the actress refused to film one. Of those who did, Cukor preferred Paulette Goddard, but her supposedly illicit relationship with Charlie Chaplin (they were, in fact, secretly married) concerned Selznick.McGilligan, pp. 137–38.
Between his Wind chores, the director assisted with other projects. He filmed the cave scene for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938),McGilligan, pp. 139–40. and, following the firing of its original director Richard Thorpe, Cukor spent a week on the set of The Wizard of Oz (1939). Although he filmed no footage, he made crucial changes to the look of Dorothy by eliminating Judy Garland's blonde wig and adjusting her makeup and costume, encouraging her to act in a more natural manner.McGilligan, p. 145. Additionally, Cukor softened the Scarecrow's makeup and gave Margaret Hamilton a different hairstyle for the Wicked Witch of the West, as well as altering her makeup and other facial features. Cukor also suggested that the studio cast Jack Haley, on loan from 20th Century Fox, as the Tin Man.
Cukor spent many hours coaching Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland before the start of filming Wind, but Clark Gable resisted his efforts to get him to master a Southern accent. However, despite rumors about Gable being uncomfortable with Cukor on the set, nothing in the internal memos of David O. Selznick indicates or suggests that Clark Gable had anything to do with Cukor's dismissal from the film. Rather, they show Selznick's mounting dissatisfaction with Cukor's slow pace and quality of work. From a private letter from journalist Susan Myrick to Margaret Mitchell in February 1939: "George Cukor finally told me all about it. He hated leaving very much he said but he could not do otherwise. In effect he said he is an honest craftsman and he cannot do a job unless he knows it is a good job and he feels the present job is not right. For days, he told me he has looked at the rushes and felt he was failing...the things did not click as it should. Gradually he became convinced that the script was the trouble...So George just told David he would not work any longer if the script was not better and he wanted the Sidney Howard script back...he would not let his name go out over a lousy picture...and bull-headed David said 'OK get out!'"Myrick, Susan White (1986), Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the Gwtw Sets, Mercer University Press.
Selznick had already been unhappy with Cukor ("a very expensive luxury") for not being more receptive to directing other Selznick assignments, even though Cukor had remained on salary since early 1937; and in a confidential memo written in September 1938, four months before principal photography began, Selznick flirted with the idea of replacing him with Victor Fleming. "I think the biggest black mark against our management to date is the Cukor situation and we can no longer be sentimental about it...We are a business concern and not patrons of the arts." Cukor was relieved of his duties, but he continued to work with Leigh and Olivia de Havilland off the set. Various rumors about the reasons behind his dismissal circulated throughout Hollywood. Selznick's friendship with Cukor had crumbled slightly when the director refused other assignments, including A Star Is Born (1937) and Intermezzo (1939).McGilligan, p. 139. Given that Gable and Cukor had worked together before (on Manhattan Melodrama, 1934) and Gable had no objection to working with him then, and given Selznick's desperation to get Gable for Rhett Butler, if Gable had any objections to Cukor, certainly they would have been expressed before he signed his contract for the film. Hollywood Studio Magazine, "The Great Directors" September 1986. Yet, writer Gore Vidal, in his autobiography Point to Point Navigation, recounted that Gable demanded that Cukor be fired off Wind because, according to Vidal, the young Gable had been a male hustler and Cukor had been one of his johns. This has been confirmed by Hollywood biographer E.J. Fleming, who has recounted that, during a particularly difficult scene, Gable erupted publicly, screaming: "I can't go on with this picture. I won't be directed by a fairy. I have to work with a real man."
Cukor's dismissal from Wind freed him to direct The Women (1939), which has an all-female cast, followed by The Philadelphia Story (1940). He also directed Greta Garbo, another of his favorite actresses, in Two-Faced Woman (1941), her last film before she retired from the screen.
In 1942, at the age of 43, Cukor enlisted in the Signal Corps. Following basic training at Fort Monmouth, he was assigned to the old Paramount studios in Astoria, Queens (where he had directed three films in the early 1930s), although he was permitted to lodge at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan. Working with Irwin Shaw, John Cheever and William Saroyan, among others, Cukor produced training and instructional films for army personnel. Because he lacked an officer's commission, he found it difficult to give orders and directions to his superiors. Despite his efforts to rise above the rank of private—he even called upon Frank Capra to intercede on his behalf—he never achieved officer's status or any commendations during his six months of service. In later years, Cukor suspected his homosexuality impeded him from receiving any advances or honors,McGilligan, pp. 171–75. although rumors to that effect could not be confirmed.Levy, p. 150.
The remainder of the decade was a series of hits and misses for Cukor. Both Two-Faced Woman and Her Cardboard Lover (1942) were commercial failures. More successful were A Woman's Face (1941) with Joan Crawford and Gaslight (1944) about a woman suffering from suspicion with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. During this era, Cukor forged an alliance with screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, who had met in Cukor's home in 1939 and married three years later. Over the course of seven years, the trio collaborated on seven films, including A Double Life (1947) starring Ronald Colman, Adam's Rib (1949), Born Yesterday (1950), The Marrying Kind (1952), and It Should Happen to You (1954), all featuring Judy Holliday, another Cukor favorite, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Born Yesterday.
Over the next 10 years, Cukor directed a handful of films with varying success. Les Girls (1957) won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Wild Is the Wind (also 1957) earned Oscar nominations for Anna Magnani and Anthony Quinn, but neither Heller in Pink Tights nor Let's Make Love (both 1960) were box-office hits. Another project during this period was the ill-fated Something's Got to Give, an updated remake of the comedy My Favorite Wife (1940). Cukor liked leading lady Marilyn Monroe but found it difficult to deal with her erratic work habits, frequent absences from the set, and the constant presence of Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg. It was reported at the time that after 32 days of shooting, the director had only 7½ minutes of usable film.Levy, p. 271. Footage would be discovered in the 1990s that showed at least 37 minutes of total footage had survived. Then Monroe travelled to New York to appear at a birthday celebration for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, where she serenaded Kennedy. Studio documents released after Monroe's death confirmed that her appearance at the political fundraising event was approved by Fox executives. The production came to a halt when Cukor had filmed every scene not involving Monroe and the actress remained unavailable. 20th Century Fox executive Peter Levathes fired her and hired Lee Remick to replace her, prompting co-star Dean Martin to quit because his contract guaranteed he would be playing opposite Monroe.McGilligan, p. 272. It was also reported at the time that with the production already $2 million over budget and everyone back at the starting gate, the studio pulled the plug on the project. However, Monroe successfully renegotiated her contract from $100,000 to $500,000 with a bonus should the film be completed on time. Cukor was to be replaced by Jean Negulesco. There was limited press at the time about the project restarting and even less on Cukor being replaced. When Monroe was found dead in her home in the beginning of August, Cukor would give a high-profile interview discussing Monroe's many reported problems.
Two years later, Cukor achieved one of his greatest successes with My Fair Lady (1964). Throughout filming, there were mounting tensions between the director and designer Cecil Beaton; Cukor was thrilled with leading lady Audrey Hepburn, but the crew was less enchanted with her diva-like demands.Levy, p. 289. Although several reviews were critical of the film – Pauline Kael said it "staggers along" and Stanley Kauffmann thought Cukor's direction was like "a rich gravy poured over everything, not remotely as delicately rich as in the Anthony Asquith–Howard 1937 sic Pygmalion"—Levy, p. 293. the film was a box-office hit which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and the Directors Guild of America Award after having been nominated for each several times.
Following My Fair Lady, Cukor became less active. He directed Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt (1972) and helmed the critical and commercial flop The Blue Bird (1976), the first joint Soviet-American production. He reunited twice with Katharine Hepburn for the television movies Love Among the Ruins (1975) and The Corn Is Green (1979). At the age of 82, Cukor directed his final film, Rich and Famous for MGM in 1981, starring Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen.
In 1970, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
Cukor wanted the Academy to host a film festival in Los Angeles however the plan did not materialize and Cukor ended up being co-founder of the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (Filmex) in 1970.
In 1976, Cukor was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. The George Eastman Award
By the mid-1930s, Cukor was not only established as a prominent director, but also socially as an unofficial head of Hollywood's gay subculture. His home, redecorated in 1935 by gay actor-turned-interior designer William Haines with gardens designed by Florence Yoch and Lucile Council, was the scene of many gatherings for the industry's homosexuals. The close-knit group reputedly included Haines and his partner Jimmie Shields, writer W. Somerset Maugham, director James Vincent, screenwriter Rowland Leigh, costume designers Orry-Kelly and Robert Le Maire, and actors John Darrow, Anderson Lawler, Grady Sutton, Robert Seiter, and Tom Douglas. Frank Horn, secretary to Cary Grant, was also a frequent guest.Mann, William J.; Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's first Openly Gay Star; New York: Viking, 1998; pp. 253, 255, 256.
Cukor's friends were of paramount importance to him and he kept his home filled with their photographs. Regular attendees at his soirées included Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, actor Richard Cromwell, Stanley Holloway, Judy Garland, Gene Tierney, Noël Coward, Cole Porter, director James Whale, costume designer Edith Head, and Norma Shearer, especially after the death of her first husband Irving Thalberg. He often entertained literary figures like Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, Hugh Walpole, Aldous Huxley, and Ferenc Molnár.McGilligan, pp. 124–25.
Frances Goldwyn, second wife and widow of studio mogul Sam Goldwyn, long considered Cukor to be the love of her life, but their relationship remained Platonic love. According to biographer A. Scott Berg, Frances even arranged for Cukor's burial to be adjacent to her own plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
The PBS series American Masters produced a comprehensive documentary about his life and work titled On Cukor directed by Robert Trachtenberg in 2000.
In 1983, the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, considered by many to be his greatest picture, was restored to its original runtime of 181 minutes. In 1954, the film had premiered at a length of 181 minutes and received enormous critical and box office success. However, finding that the length restricted the number of daily showings, the studio cut the movie to 154 minutes, losing some musical numbers and important scenes. Cukor believed this studio alteration had "butchered" the gradual development of the Garland–Mason relationship.
In 2013, The Film Society of Lincoln Center presented a comprehensive weeks-long retrospective of his work titled "The Discreet Charm of George Cukor".
In 2019, Cukor's film Gaslight was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
| The Virtuous Sin | Paramount Pictures | Drama | Kay Francis, Walter Huston, Kenneth MacKenna | Co-directed with Louis J. Gasnier |
| The Royal Family of Broadway | Paramount Pictures | Comedy | Fredric March, Ina Claire | Co-directed with Cyril Gardner |
| Girls About Town | Paramount Pictures | Comedy | Kay Francis, Lilyan Tashman, Joel McCrea | |
| A Bill of Divorcement | RKO Radio Pictures | Drama | Katharine Hepburn, John Barrymore, Billie Burke | |
| Rockabye | RKO Radio Pictures | Drama | Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Lukas | Reworked the film in two weeks of retakes and was given credit over original director George Fitzmaurice |
| Dinner at Eight | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Drama | John Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke, Wallace Beery | |
| Little Women | RKO Radio Pictures | Drama | Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, Douglass Montgomery | |
| Sylvia Scarlett | RKO Radio Pictures | Comedy | Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Brian Aherne | |
| Camille | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Romance | Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore | |
| Zaza | Paramount Pictures | Drama | Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall | |
| The Philadelphia Story | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Comedy | Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart | Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture |
| Two-Faced Woman | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Comedy | Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett | |
| Winged Victory | 20th Century-Fox, U.S. Army Air Forces | Drama | Lon McCallister, Jeanne Crain, Red Buttons, Don Taylor | |
| Adam's Rib | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Comedy | Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday | |
| Born Yesterday | Columbia Pictures | Comedy | Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden | Nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture |
| Pat and Mike | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Comedy | Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray | |
| A Star Is Born | Warner Bros., Transcona Enterprises | Drama | Judy Garland, James Mason | Partially lost film |
| Wild Is the Wind | Paramount Pictures | Drama | Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn | |
| Song Without End | William Goetz | Drama | Dirk Bogarde, Capucine, Geneviève Page | Completed the film when Charles Vidor died during production |
| Let's Make Love | The Company of Artists | Musical | Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Tony Randall | |
| The Animal Kingdom | RKO Radio Pictures | Drama | Leslie Howard, Ann Harding, Myrna Loy | Uncredited |
| The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Selznick International Pictures | Adventure | Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran | Shot some retakes after production completed |
!Year !Category !Film !Result !Lost to | ||||
| 1932/33 | Academy Award for Best Director | Little Women | Frank Lloyd for Cavalcade | |
| 1940 | The Philadelphia Story | John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath | ||
| 1947 | A Double Life | Elia Kazan for Gentleman's Agreement | ||
| 1950 | Born Yesterday | Joseph L. Mankiewicz for All About Eve | ||
| 1964 | My Fair Lady | |||
| 1950 | Golden Globe Award for Best Director | Born Yesterday | Billy Wilder for Sunset Boulevard | |
| 1962 | The Chapman Report | David Lean for Lawrence of Arabia | ||
| 1964 | My Fair Lady |
| 1931 | Fredric March | The Royal Family of Broadway | |
| 1941 | James Stewart | The Philadelphia Story | |
| 1945 | Charles Boyer | Gaslight | |
| 1948 | Ronald Colman | A Double Life | |
| 1955 | James Mason | A Star Is Born | |
| 1958 | Anthony Quinn | Wild Is the Wind | |
| 1965 | Rex Harrison | My Fair Lady | |
| 1937 | Norma Shearer | Romeo and Juliet | |
| 1941 | Katharine Hepburn | The Philadelphia Story | |
| 1938 | Greta Garbo | Camille | |
| 1945 | Ingrid Bergman | Gaslight | |
| 1950 | Deborah Kerr | Edward, My Son | |
| 1955 | Judy Garland | A Star Is Born | |
| 1951 | Judy Holliday | Born Yesterday | |
| 1958 | Anna Magnani | Wild Is the Wind | |
| 1973 | Maggie Smith | Travels with My Aunt | |
| 1937 | Basil Rathbone | Romeo and Juliet | |
| 1965 | Stanley Holloway | My Fair Lady | |
| 1941 | Ruth Hussey | The Philadelphia Story | |
| 1945 | Angela Lansbury | Gaslight | |
| 1965 | Gladys Cooper | My Fair Lady | |
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