While screening “Sombrero” (1953), which Cecil B. DeMille was using as a screen test for Nina Foch for her eventual role as Bithia in “The Ten Commandments” (1956), he spotted Yvonne De Carlo and reportedly said, “That’s the face I’ve been looking for as Moses’ wife.”
Even though “Sombrero” “was a picture far removed in theme from ‘The Ten Commandments’,” wrote DeMille, “I sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed and which she gave it.”
Anne Baxter and De Carlo, this movie’s two leading ladies, had always wanted to act in a DeMille movie.
Baxter became a DeMille fan after watching “Samson and Delilah” (1949), while De Carlo admired DeMille since the time he considered her for a supporting role in “The Story of Dr. Wassell” (1944). In their autobiographies, both said that they didn’t mind the small salary they were paid for their work on this movie.
All they wanted was the privilege to play a role in a DeMille movie.
DeMille and De Carlo became very good friends; he admired her acting talent and beauty, and she had always wanted to act in one of his movies.
DeMille cast her as the female lead in his next production, “The Buccaneer” (1958), but De Carlo declined because she was already pregnant with her second child.
He understood and they remained friends.
And, yes, before anyone accuses me of forgetting… Lily Munster. (IMDb/Wikipedia)
Happy Birthday, Yvonne De Carlo!