Character Analysis
Every movie about the movie biz needs a movie maker, and in Sunset Boulevard, that's Sheldrake (Fred Clark). He's a producer at Paramount. Joe Gillis tries to pitch him a story for a movie about a star shortstop whom gangsters try to force to throw the World Series, but Betty (a script-reader for Paramount) bursts in without noticing Joe and tells Sheldrake that the script is terrible.
Joe and Betty have a testy, witty exchange, and Sheldrake (who seems to be suffering from an ulcer) adds in a few deadpan comments. For example, when Joe tells Betty she would've rejected Gone with the Wind, Sheldrake quips, "No that was me. I said, 'Who wants to see a Civil War picture?'"
Ultimately, Sheldrake isn't interested in Joe's script and tells him that there's no other work available for him sprucing up other people's scripts. And when Joe asks him to loan him three hundred bucks in order to keep his car, Sheldrake explains that he's having money problems himself, what with needing to mortgage his ranch and pay for life insurance.
He seems harmless enough as a person, though. And his rejection helps bring about the movie's main plot: Joe's relationship with Norma.