GEORGE CUKOR
George Cukor
- (George Cukor, c1935)
Biography
BIO
George Cukor was born George Dewey Cukor in New York City, in 1899. His father, a lawyer, was an assistant district attorney.
After graduating from high school, Cukor dodged family plans for him to become a lawyer and secured positions as a stage manager for several regional stock theatres. He performed on Broadway in 1919, at the age of 20, and subsequently either staged or directed eight plays through 1929. Several of these productions were later made into films, although not by Cukor:
- Antonia (1925) was adapted into a 1935 motion picture starring Marcelle Chantal;
- The Great Gatsby (1926) was adapted into a film later that year starring Warner Baxter.
- The Furies (1928) was adapted into a motion picture released in 1930 and starring Lois Wilson.
Cukor began his Hollywood career for Paramount Pictures as a dialogue director in 1929. By the next year, he was directing. Ernst Lubitsch, who was making his third musical, One Hour with You (1932) starring Maurice Chevalier, decided to step back from directorial duties and focus on producing the film. He was assigned Cukor as director. Lubitsch was not happy with his work and Cukor was demoted. He soon left Paramount Pictures to work with David O. Selznick who was then at MGM.
The two remained close and Selznick later tapped Cukor to direct Gone with the Wind (1939). Unfortunately, Cukor was not up to the task and was replaced by Victor Fleming.
After receiving four nominations for a Director Academy Award, Cukor finally won the Oscar for his direction of My Fair Lady (1964).
He directed more than 50 feature films over a five decade career. His last motion picture was released in 1981.
Cukor died of heart failure in Los Angeles, in 1983, at the age age of 83.
Additional Broadway stage history is available at: 
Additional biographical information is available at: 
