Page "Cecil B. DeMille" Paragraph 1

DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts while his parents were vacationing there, and grew up in Washington, North Carolina.

While he is known as DeMille ( his nom d ' oeuvre ), his family name was Dutch and is usually spelled " de Mil ".

His father, Henry Churchill de Mille ( 1853 – 1893 ), was a North Carolina-born dramatist and lay reader in the Episcopal Church, who had earlier begun a career as a playwright, writing his first play at age 15.

His mother was Matilda Beatrice DeMille ( née Samuel ), whose parents were both of German Jewish heritage.

She emigrated from England with her parents in 1871 when she was 18, where they settled in Brooklyn, New York.

According to biographer Carol Easton, Beatrice grew up in a middle-class English household.