---
name: "George Cukor"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/george-cukor"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "7 July 1899"
died: "24 January 1983"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T11:54:42.030115+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# George Cukor

Director. Born 7 July 1899 in Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Died 24 January 1983.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 7 July 1899, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
- **Died:** 24 January 1983
- **Also known as:** George Dewey Cukor, 조지 쿠커

## Fi1m on George Cukor

> George Cukor makes conversation worth watching by giving actors time to listen and react. We rate him highly, though the charm of *The Philadelphia Story* cannot excuse its lectures about how a woman ought to behave.

In *The Philadelphia Story* (1940), James Stewart's Mike Connor has objections to wealth and an inconvenient attraction to Katharine Hepburn's wealthy Tracy Lord. George Cukor gives him time to be funny about the contradiction without making the flirtation seem insincere. We laughed at Stewart's discomfort because he lets us see how badly attraction interferes with his principles. Cary Grant's relaxed Dexter Haven gives Hepburn someone quite different to push against. Cukor's skill is in letting these people respond to each other, so that listening becomes as interesting as speaking.

*Little Women* (1933) helped establish Cukor's reputation for literary adaptations and began a collaboration with Hepburn that would encompass nine films. His gift for conversation was not confined to people being amusing. The psychological thriller *Gaslight* (1944) and the musical drama *A Star Is Born* (1954), with Judy Garland at its centre, required different kinds of performance. Across those changes, he kept his attention on how people behaved towards one another.

The familiar description of him as a director of women, which he resented, leaves too much out. His use of long takes lets a conversation contain changes of feeling without cutting away from the actor making them. Hepburn is central to the appeal of *The Philadelphia Story*, but Grant's ease and Stewart's uncertainty help make her responses worth watching. Cukor does not ask the three actors to perform alike, and the comedy gains from the differences he gives them room to preserve.

The reservation is that such agreeable company can make an unfair lecture sound reasonable. In *The Philadelphia Story*, the men keep explaining how Tracy ought to behave, and the romance grows harder to embrace when forgiveness begins to sound compulsory. Hepburn gives her enough spirit to resist being settled by their opinions. That makes the film worth arguing with, though it does not make the lectures any less tiresome. Start there for Cukor's handling of actors, and feel no obligation to agree with the gentlemen.

## Biography

George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He concentrated primarily on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later at MGM, where he directed films including *What Price Hollywood?* (1932), *A Bill of Divorcement* (1932), *Dinner at Eight* (1933), *Little Women* (1933), *David Copperfield* (1935), *Romeo and Juliet* (1936) and *Camille* (1936).

He was replaced as a director of *Gone with the Wind* (1939), but went on to direct *The Philadelphia Story* (1940), *Gaslight* (1944), *Adam's Rib* (1949), *Born Yesterday* (1950), *A Star Is Born* (1954) and *My Fair Lady* (1964). He won the Academy Award for Best Director, as well as the British Academy Film Award and Golden Globe Award, for *My Fair Lady*. Cukor continued to work into the 1980s.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Philadelphia Story* (1940), Fi1m 84, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-philadelphia-story.md)

## Also known for

- *My Fair Lady* (1964), Director
- *Gaslight* (1944), Director
- *Adam's Rib* (1949), Director
- *A Star Is Born* (1954), Director
- *Holiday* (1938), Director
- *Born Yesterday* (1950), Director
- *Let's Make Love* (1960), Director
- *The Women* (1939), Director

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/george-cukor