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"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Norma Desmond is a main character and femme fatale in Billy Wilder's film Sunset Boulevard. She was played on screen by Gloria Swanson, and in an Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical by Patti LuPone (in London's West End), Elaine Paige (in London's West End and on Broadway), Glenn Close (on Broadway), Betty Buckley (in London's West End and on Broadway), Rita Moreno (in London's West End), Diahann Carroll (in Toronto), Debra Byrne in the Australian production and Helen Schneider in the German version of the musical. Petula Clark, who appeared in the London production and took the show on a lengthy tour throughout the US, has played the role more often than any other actress, with more than 2500 performances to her credit.

An aging former star of silent movies, Desmond is recluse in her Gothic Beverly Hills mansion, off Sunset Boulevard nursing dreams of returning to stardom while her grip on reality grows ever more tenuous over the years. Her one companion is Max (Erich von Stroheim), her butler, former director and we later learn, first husband, who serves as her protector and shields from the outside world. Because he is still in love with her, he tells her she is still a star, and cuts her off from the news media (television, newspapers, etc) to keep her from realizing that she has been completely forgotten by her beloved public.

One day, a young, unemployed screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) arrives at Desmond's after being chased by two repo men after is 1946 Plymouth, with a flat tire. He parks the car inside the garage of the mansion when he is summoned by Norma to the front door. She confuses him for an undertaker for her just deceased pet monkey.

Norma finds out that Joe Gillis is in fact a writer and asks him to take a look at a manuscript she has been working for a while. It is the story of Salome, and she plans to star in it, though she is way past her prime.

Joe quickly sees a chance to milk money out of the delusional star; he promises to fix her a script for a star vehicle, and Norma agrees as she wants to send the manuscript to Paramount Pictures' famed director Cecil B. DeMille, with whom Desmond once worked. Desmond is elated; she sees in Gillis the chance to regain her youthful promise, and sets him up in style, buying his clothes and paying all his expenses. Max sees through Gillis immediately, but puts up with the charade because it makes his beloved "madame" happy. As time passes, however, Desmond becomes increasingly unstable when it becomes clear that there is no hit movie for her in the works, and increasingly jealous of and dependent upon Gillis. She professes her love for him at a New Year's Eve party, but he rejects her and leaves, quickly taking up with a young woman named Betty (Nancy Olson). Meanwhile, DeMille's office calls Max and asks if Desmond can meet with her old director so he can use her vintage car in a film; Max lies to her and tells her DeMille wants to work with her again, and DeMille himself takes pity on her and tells her what she wants to hear.

Feeling some remorse for taking advantage of Desmond, Gillis returns briefly to explain his actions, but Desmond misinterprets his actions as seduction and makes another pass at him. When Gillis rejects her again and tries to leave, Desmond snaps and shoots him to death, obliviously leaving his body floating in her pool. When the police arrive, she thinks they are merely her adoring fans and the production crew for her movie. Elegantly striding toward a news camera, she utters the iconic line, "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Joe: "I know you. You're Norma Desmond! You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big!"

Norma: "I am big! It's the pictures that got small!"

Norma (to newsreel cameras): "And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after 'Salome' we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Norma: "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!"