Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American
noir film directed and co-written by
Billy Wilder. It was named after the
boulevard that runs through
Los Angeles and
Beverly Hills, California.
The film stars
William Holden as down-on-his-luck
screenwriter Joe Gillis, and
Gloria Swanson as
Norma Desmond, a faded
movie star who draws Gillis into her fantasy world in which she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen.
Erich von Stroheim,
Nancy Olson,
Fred Clark,
Lloyd Gough and
Jack Webb play supporting roles. Director
Cecil B. DeMille and
gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes
cameo appearances by leading
silent film figures
Buster Keaton,
H. B. Warner and
Anna Q. Nilsson.
Praised by many
critics when first released,
Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven
Academy Awards and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited as one of the most noteworthy films of American cinema. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S.
Library of Congress in 1989,
Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number twelve on the
American Film Institute's list of the
100 best American films of the 20th century, and number 16 on their
10th Anniversary list in 2007.