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The Religious Affiliation of Actress
Katherine DeMille


Katherine DeMille was the daughter of famed film director Cecil B. DeMille, who was an Episcopalian with strong, fundamentalist Biblical beliefs. Although her father was famously connected to Biblical movie epics and had a strong belief in God, Katherine's family is not known to have been active churchgoers while she was growing up. It is unclear whether Katherine had any sort of Episcopalian self-identity.

About Anthony Quinn's wife Katherine DeMille ("Katie", the daughter of director Cecil B. DeMille). From: Anthony Quinn, The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait, Little, Brown and Company: Boston (1972), pages 296-297:

Her [Katherine DeMille's] bedroom was decorated completely different from the rest of the house. It was almost monastic. She had very few paintings on the walls. Those she had selected were pictures of saints and philosophers. On her night table beside her narrow bed she had photographs of the children and me when we'd all been young. The books beside her bed also were evidence of the world she'd retreated to; Gandhi, Krishnamurti and endless books on Moral Rearmament...

[Katherine and Anthony Quinn discussed his younger self.] "'And a child shall lead them . . .'" I quoted.

Katie laughed. "Certainly you don't think that boy has any similarity to the Bible?"

"Why not? He believed it. He tried to live by it. Why can't he be right? From what I've seen, age does not necessarily mean wisdom. Maybe children are closer to the truth."

Anthony Quinn's younger self and current self discuss his wedding to Katherine DeMille. From: Anthony Quinn, The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait, page 278:
BOY. Was that wedding your idea of reality?

MAN. I agree that was a slight mistake.

BOY. A slight mistake/ All that horse-sh-- with those limousines and the police escort. Guests sitting in the church, not because two people were promising to love and obey each other forever, but because it was their duty to make an appearance for the old man. Were all those photographers there to record love everlasting or merely to shower the country with pictures of the peasant who had married royalty?

Webpage created 13 July 2005. Last modified 13 July 2005.
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