Cecil B. DeMille Christian and Jewish heritage to convey a message of tolerance. "The Crusades" was the first film to show accord between Christians and Muslims. DeMille received more than a dozen awards from Jewish religious and cultural groups, including B’nai B’rith. In 1954, he was seeking approval for a lavish remake of his 1923 silent film "The Ten Commandments". He went before the Paramount board of directors, which was mostly Jewish-American. The members rejected his proposal, even though his last two films, "Samson and Delilah" and "The Greatest Show on Earth", had been record-breaking hits. Adolph Zukor, the chairman of the board,
Cecil B. DeMille for "Union Pacific", a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which was later named in his honor. There are several variants of his surname. His family's Dutch surname was originally spelled "de Mil" and then became "de Mille". As an adult, he adopted the spelling "DeMille" for professional purposes but continued to use "de Mille" in private life. The family name "de Mille" was used by his children Cecilia, John, Richard, and Katherine. DeMille's brother, William, and his daughters, Margaret