Huston, John

views updated May 29 2018

HUSTON, John


Nationality: Irish/American. Born: John Marcellus Huston, son of actor Walter, in Nevada, Missouri, 5 August 1906, became Irish citizen, 1964. Education: Attended boarding school in Los Angeles and at Lincoln High School, Los Angeles, 1923–24. Military Service: Served in Signal Corps, Army Pictorial Service, 1942–45, discharged at rank of major. Family: Married 1) Dorothy Jeanne Harvey, 1926 (divorced 1933); 2) Leslie Black, 1937 (divorced 1944); 3) Evelyn Keyes, 1946 (divorced 1950), one adopted son; 4) Ricki Soma, 1950 (died 1969), one son, two daughters including actress Anjelica; also son Daniel by Zoë Sallis; 5) Celeste Shane, 1972 (divorced 1977). Career: Doctors in St. Paul, Minnesota, diagnose Huston with enlarged heart and kidney disease; taken to California for cure, 1916; boxer in California, 1920s; actor in New York, 1924; competition horseman, Mexico, 1927; journalist in New York, 1928–30; scriptwriter and actor in Hollywood, 1930; worked for Gaumont-British, London, 1932; moved to Paris with intention of studying painting, 1933; returned to New York, editor Midweek Pictorial, stage actor, 1934; writer for Warner Bros., Hollywood, 1936; directed first film, The Maltese Falcon, 1941; with William Wyler and Philip Dunne, formed Committee for the 1st Amendment to counteract HUAC investigation, 1947; formed Horizon Pictures with Sam Spiegel, 1948; formed John Huston Productions for unrealized project Matador, 1952; moved to Ireland, 1955; narrator for TV, from mid-1960s; moved to Mexico, 1972. Awards: Legion of Merit, U.S. Armed Services, 1944; Oscar for Best Direction, for Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1947. Died: Of pneumonia, in Newport, Rhode Island, 28 August 1987.


Films as Director:

1941

The Maltese Falcon (+ sc)

1942

In This Our Life (+ co-sc, uncredited); Across the Pacific (co-d)

1943

Report from the Aleutians (+ sc); Tunisian Victory (Capra and Boulting; d some replacement scenes when footage lost, + co-commentary)

1945

San Pietro (The Battle of San Pietro) (+ sc, co-ph, narration)

1946

Let There Be Light (unreleased) (+ co-sc, co-ph); A MiracleCan Happen (On Our Merry Way) (King Vidor and Fenton; d some Henry Fonda/James Stewart sequences, uncredited)

1948

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (+ sc, bit role as man in white suit); Key Largo (+ co-sc)

1949

We Were Strangers (+ co-sc, bit role as bank clerk)

1950

The Asphalt Jungle (+ co-sc)

1951

The Red Badge of Courage (+ sc)

1952

The African Queen (+ co-sc)

1953

Moulin Rouge (+ pr, co-sc)

1954

Beat the Devil (+ co-pr, co-sc)

1956

Moby Dick (+ pr, co-sc)

1957

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (+ co-sc); A Farewell to Arms (Charles Vidor; d begun by Huston)

1958

The Barbarian and the Geisha; The Roots of Heaven

1960

The Unforgiven

1961

The Misfits

1963

Freud (Freud: The Secret Passion) (+ narration); The List ofAdrian Messenger (+ bit role as Lord Ashton)

1964

The Night of the Iguana (+ co-pr, co-sc)

1965

La bibbia (The Bible) (+ role, narration)

1967

Casino Royale (co-d, role); Reflections in a Golden Eye (+ voice heard at film's beginning)

1969

Sinful Davey; A Walk with Love and Death (+ role); De Sade (Enfield; d uncredited) (+ role as the Abbe)

1970

The Kremlin Letter (+ co-sc, role)

1971

The Last Run (Fleischer; d begun by Huston)

1972

Fat City (+ co-pr); The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (+ role as Grizzly Adams)

1973

The Mackintosh Man

1975

The Man Who Would Be King (+ co-sc)

1976

Independence (short)

1979

Wise Blood (+ role)

1980

Phobia

1981

Victory (Escape to Victory)

1982

Annie

1984

Under the Volcano

1985

Prizzi's Honor

1987

The Dead



Other Films:

1929

The Shakedown (Wyler) (small role); Hell's Heroes (Wyler) (small role)

1930

The Storm (Wyler) (small role)

1931

A House Divided (Wyler) (dialogue, sc)

1932

Murders in the Rue Morgue (Florey) (dialogue, sc)

1935

It Started in Paris (Robert Wyler) (co-adapt, sc); DeathDrives Through (Cahn) (co-story, sc)

1938

Jezebel (Wyler) (co-sc); The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (Litvak) (co-sc)

1939

Juarez (Dieterle) (co-sc)

1940

The Story of Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (Dr. Ehrlich's MagicBullet) (Dieterle) (co-sc)

1941

High Sierra (Walsh) (co-sc); Sergeant York (Hawks) (co-sc)

1946

The Killers (Siodmak) (sc, uncredited); The Stranger (Welles) (co-sc, uncredited); Three Strangers (Negulesco) (co-sc)

1951

Quo Vadis (LeRoy) (pre-production work)

1963

The Cardinal (Preminger) (role as Cardinal Glennon); TheDirectors (pr: Greenblatt, short) (appearance)

1968

Candy (Marquand) (role as Dr. Dunlap); The Rocky Road toDublin (Lennon) (role as interviewee)

1970

Myra Breckenridge (Sarne) (role as Buck Loner)

1971

The Bridge in the Jungle (Kohner) (role as Sleigh); TheDeserter (Kennedy) (role as General Miles); Man in theWilderness (Sarafian) (role as Captain Henry)

1974

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (Thompson) (role as Law-giver); Chinatown (Polanski) (role as Noah Cross)

1975

Breakout (Gries) (role as Harris); The Wind and the Lion (Milius) (role as John Hay)

1976

Sherlock Holmes in New York (Sagal) (role as Professor Moriarty)

1977

Tentacles (Hellman) (role as Ned Turner); Il grande attacco (La battaglia di Mareth; The Biggest Battle) (Lenzi) (role); El triangulo diabolico de la Bermudas (Triangle: TheBermuda Mystery; The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle) (Cardona) (role); Angela (Sagal) (role)

1978

Il visitatore (The Visitor) (Paradisi) (role)

1979

Jaguar Lives (Pintoff) (role); Winter Kills (Richert) (role)

1980

Head On (Grant) (role); Agee (Spears) (role as interviewee)

1981

To the Western World (Kinmonth) (narrator)

1982

Cannery Row (Ward) (narrator)

1983

Lovesick (Brickman) (role as psychiatrist)



Publications


By HUSTON: books—

Frankie and Johnny, New York, 1930.

The Maltese Falcon, New York, 1974.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, edited by James Naremore, Madison, Wisconsin, 1979.

The Asphalt Jungle, with Ben Maddow, Carbondale, Illinois, 1980.

An Open Book, New York, 1980.

Juarez, with Aeneas Mackenzie and Wolfgang Reinhardt, Madison, Wisconsin, 1983.

Reflections in a Male Eye: John Huston and the American Experience, edited by Gaylyn Studlar and David Desser, Washington, 1993.


By HUSTON: articles—

Interview with Karel Reisz, in Sight and Sound (London), January/March 1952.

"How I Make Films," interview with Gideon Bachmann, in FilmQuarterly (Berkeley), Fall 1965.

"Huston!," interview with C. Taylor and G. O'Brien, in Inter/View (New York), September 1972.

"Talk with John Huston," with D. Ford, in Action (Los Angeles), September/October 1972.

"The Innocent Bystander," interview with D. Robinson, in Sight andSound (London), Winter 1972/73.

"Talking with John Huston," with Gene Phillips, in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1973.

Interview with D. Brandes, in Filmmakers Newsletter (Ward Hill, Massachusetts), July 1977.

Interview with P.S. Greenberg, in Rolling Stone (New York), June/July 1981.

"Dialogue on Film: John Huston," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), January/February 1984.

Interview with Michel Ciment and D. Allison, in Positif (Paris), October 1987.


On HUSTON: books—

Davay, Paul, John Huston, Paris, 1957.

Allais, Jean-Claude, John Huston, Paris, 1960.

Agee, James, Agee on Film: Five Film Scripts, foreword by John Huston, Boston, 1965.

Nolan, William, John Huston, King Rebel, Los Angeles, 1965.

Benayoun, Robert, John Huston, Paris, 1966; revised edition, 1985.

Cecchini, Riccardo, John Huston, 1969.

Tozzi, Romano, John Huston, A Picture Treasury of His Films, New York, 1971.

Kaminsky, Stuart, John Huston: Maker of Magic, London, 1978.

Madsen, Axel, John Huston, New York, 1978.

Giannetti, Louis D., Masters of the American Cinema, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1981.

Hammen, Scott, John Huston, Boston, 1985.

Ciment, Gilles, editor, John Huston, Paris, 1987.

McCarty, John, The Films of John Huston, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1987.

Grobel, Lawrence, The Hustons, New York, 1989; updated, 2000.

Studlar, Gaylyn, and David Desser, editors, Reflections in a MaleEye: John Huston and the American Experience, Washington, D.C., 1993.

Cooper, Stephen, editor, Perspectives on John Huston, New York, 1994.

Luhr, William, editor, The Maltese Falcon: John Huston, Director, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1995.

Brill, Lesley, John Huston's Filmmaking, Cambridge and New York, 1997.

Cohen, Allen, and Harry Lawton, John Huston: A Guide to References and Resources, New York, 1997.


On HUSTON: articles—

"Huston Issues" of Positif (Paris), August 1952 and January 1957.

Mage, David, "The Way John Huston Works," in Films in Review (New York), October 1952.

Laurot, Edouard, "An Encounter with John Huston," in Film Culture (New York), no. 8, 1956.

Archer, Eugene, "John Huston—The Hemingway Tradition in American Film," in Film Culture (New York), no. 19, 1959.

"John Huston, The Bible and James Bond," in Cahiers du Cinéma inEnglish (New York), no. 5, 1966.

Koningsberger, Hans, "From Book to Film—via John Huston," in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Spring 1969.

"Huston Issue" of Film Comment (New York), May/June 1973.

Bachmann, Gideon, "Watching Huston," in Film Comment (New York), January/February 1976.

Jameson, R.T., "John Huston," in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1980.

Drew, B., "John Huston: At 74 No Formulas," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), September 1980.

Millar, G., "John Huston," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1981.

"John Huston," in Film Dope (London), January 1983.

Hachem, S., "Under the Volcano," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), October 1984.

Combs, Richard, "The Man Who Would Be Ahab: The Myths and Masks of John Huston," in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), December 1985.

"Huston Issue" of Positif (Paris), January 1986.

Taylor, John Russell, "John Huston: The Filmmaker as Dandy," in Films and Filming (London), August 1986.

Edgerton, G., "Revisiting the Recordings of Wars Past: Remembering the Documentary Trilogy of John Huston," in Journal ofPopular Film and TV (Washington, D.C.), Spring 1987.

McCarthy, T., obituary, in Variety (New York), 2 September 1987.

Schulz-Keil, W., and B. Walker, "Huston," in Film Comment (New York), September/October 1987.

Buckley, M., obituary in Films in Review (New York), November 1987.

Combs, Richard, "John Huston: An Account of One Man Dead," in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), December 1987.

Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury, Maryland), vol. 17, nos. 2 and 4, 1989.

American Film (Washington, D.C.), June 1989.

Grobel, L., "Talent to Burn," in Movieline, March 1990.

Denby, D., "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," in Premiere, July 1990.

Richards, Peter, "Huston's Killer Comedy," in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1991.

Hagen, W.M., "Under Huston's 'Volcano,"' in Literature/FilmQuarterly (Salisbury, Maryland), vol. 19, no. 3, 1991.

James, C., "John Huston: The Director as Monster," in New YorkTimes, 9 August 1992.

Edelman, Lee, "Plasticity, Paternity, Perversity: Freud's 'Falcon,' Huston's 'Freud,"' in American Imago, Spring 1994.

Magny, Joël, "Huston et les mythes," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), no. 495, October 1995.


On HUSTON: films—

Kronick, William, On Location: The Night of the Iguana, for TV, U.S., 1964.

Graef, Roger, The Life and Times of John Huston, Esquire, Great Britain, 1967.

Joyce, Paul, Ride This Way Grey Horse, Great Britain, 1970.

Huston, Danny, The Making of The Dead, U.S., 1989.


* * *

Few directors have been as interested in the relationship of film to painting as has John Huston and, perhaps, none has been given as little credit for this interest. This lack of recognition is not completely surprising. Criticism of film, despite the form's visual nature, has tended to be derived primarily from literature and not from painting or, as might be more reasonable, a combination of the traditions of literature, painting, theater, and the unique forms of film itself.

In a 1931 profile in The American Mercury that accompanied a short story by John Huston, the future director said that he wanted to write a book on the lives of French painters. The following year, unable to or dissatisfied with work as a film writer in London, Huston moved to Paris to become a painter. He studied for a year and a half, making money by painting portraits on street corners and singing for pennies. Even after he became an established film director, Huston continued to indulge his interest in painting, "retiring" from filmmaking from time to time to concentrate on his painting.

Each of Huston's films has reflected this prime interest in the image, the moving portrait, and the use of color—as well as the poetic possibilities of natural dialogue. Each film has been a moving canvas on which Huston explores his main subject: the effect of the individual ego on the group and the possibility of the individual's survival.

Huston began exploring his style of framing in his first film, The Maltese Falcon. Following his sketches, he set up shots like the canvases of paintings he had studied. Specifically, Huston showed an interest in characters appearing in the foreground of a shot, with their faces often covering half the screen. Frequently, too, the person whose face half fills the screen is not talking, but listening. The person reacting thus becomes more important than the one speaking or moving.

Huston's first film as a director presented situations he would return to again and again. Sam Spade is the obsessed professional, a man who will adhere to pride and dedication, to principle unto death. Women are a threat, temptations that can only sway the hero from his professional commitment. They may be willfully trying to deceive, as with Brigid and Iva, or they may, as in later Huston films, be the unwitting cause of the protagonist's defeat or near-defeat. In The Asphalt Jungle, for example, the women in the film are not evil; it is the men's obsession with them that causes disaster.

Even with changes and cuts, a film like The Red Badge of Courage reflects Huston's thematic and visual interests. Again, the film features a group with a quest that may result in death. These soldiers argue, support each other, pretend they are not frightened, brag, and, in some cases, die. In the course of the action, both the youth and the audience discover that the taking of an isolated field is not as important as the ability of the young men to face death without fear. Also, as in other Huston films, the two central figures in The Red Badge of Courage, the youth and Wilson, lie about their attitudes. Their friendship solidifies only when both confess that they have been afraid during the battle and have fled.

Visually, Huston continued to explore an important aspect of his style: the placement of characters in a frame so that their size and position reflect what they are saying and doing. He developed this technique with Bogart, Holt, and Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin in The Red Badge of Courage. Early in The African Queen, for instance, after Rosie's brother dies, there is a scene in which Rosie is seated on the front porch of the mission. Charlie, in the foreground, dominates the screen while Rosie, in the background, is small. As Charlie takes control of the situation and tells Rosie what must be done, he raises his hand to the rail and his arm covers our view of her. Charlie is in command.

Thematically, Moulin Rouge was a return to Huston's pessimism and exploration of futility. The director identified with the character of Lautrec who, like Huston, was given to late hours, ironic views of himself, performing for others, sardonic wit, and a frequent bitterness toward women. Lautrec, like Huston, loved horses, and frequently painted pictures of them.

The narrative as developed by Huston and Ray Bradbury in Moby Dick is in keeping with the director's preoccupation with failed quests. Only one man, Ishmael, survives. All the other men of the Pequod go down in Ahab's futile attempt to destroy the whale. But Huston sees Ahab in his actions and his final gesture as a noble creature who has chosen to go down fighting.

The Roots of Heaven is yet another example of Huston's exploration of an apparently doomed quest by a group of vastly different people, led by a man obsessed. In spite of the odds, the group persists in its mission and some of its members die. As in many Huston films, the quest is not a total failure; there is the likelihood of continuation, if not success, but the price that must be paid in human lives is high.

Huston's The Misfits again featured a group on a sad and fruitless quest. The group, on a search for horses, find far fewer than they had expected. The expedition becomes a bust and the trio of friends are at odds over a woman, Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe), who opposes the killing and capturing of the horses.

With the exception of Guido, the characters represent the least masked or disguised group in Huston's films. Perhaps it is this very element of never-penetrated disguise in Guido that upset Huston and drove him to push for a motivation scene, an emotional unmasking of the character.

As a Huston film, Freud has some particular interests: Huston serves as a narrator, displaying an omnipotence and almost Biblical detachment that establishes Freud as a kind of savior and messiah. The film opens with Huston's description of Freud as a kind of hero or God on a quest for mankind. "This is the story of Freud's descent into a region as black as hell, man's unconscious, and how he let in the light," Huston says in his narration. The bearded, thin look of Freud, who stands alone, denounced before the tribunal of his own people, also suggests a parallel with Christ. Freud brings a message of salvation which is rejected, and he is reluctantly denounced by his chief defender, Breuer.

Of all Huston's films, The List of Adrian Messenger is the one that deals most literally with people in disguise. George, who describes himself as unexcused evil, hides behind a romantic or heroic mask that falls away when he is forced to face the detective, who functions very much like Freud. The detective penetrates the masks, revealing the evil, and the evil is destroyed.

Huston's touch was evident in The Night of the Iguana in a variety of ways. First, he again took a group of losers and put them together in an isolated location. The protagonist, Shannon, once a minister, has been reduced to guiding tourists in Mexico. At the furthest reaches of despair and far from civilization, the quest for meaning ends and the protagonist is forced to face himself. Religion is an important theme. The film opens with Richard Burton preaching a sermon to his congregation. It is a startling contrast to Father Mapple's sermon in Moby Dick. Shannon is lost, confused, his speech is gibberish, an almost nonsensical confession about being unable to control his appetites and emotions. The congregation turns away from him.

This choice between the practical and the fantastic is a constant theme in Huston's life and films. There is also a choice between illusion and reality, a choice Huston finds difficult to make. Religion is seen as part of the fantasy world, a dangerous fantasy that his characters must overcome if they are not to be destroyed or absorbed by it. This theme is present in The Bible, Wise Blood, and Night of the Iguana. Huston's negative religious attitude is also strong in A Walk with Love and Death, which includes three encounters with the clergy. In the first, Heron is almost killed by a group of ascetic monks who demand that he renounce the memory of Claudia and "repent his knowledge of women." The young man barely escapes with his life. These religious zealots counsel a move away from the pleasure of the world and human love, a world that Huston believes in.

There are clearly constants in Huston's works—man's ability to find solace in animals and nature, the need to challenge oneself—but his world is unpredictable, governed by a whimsical God or no God at all. Each of Huston's characters seeks a way of coming to terms with that unpredictability, establishing rules of behavior by which he can live.

The Huston character, like Cain or Adam, is often weak, and frequently his best intentions are not sufficient to carry him through to success or even survival. The more a man thinks in a Huston film, the more dangerous it is for his survival. Conversely, however, his films suggest that those who are carried away by emotion, or too much introspection, are doomed. Since the line between loss of control and rigidity is difficult to walk, many Huston protagonists do not survive. It takes a Sam Spade, Sergeant Allison, or Abraham, very rare men indeed, to remain alive in this director's world.

Reflections in a Golden Eye raised many questions about the sexuality inherent in many of the themes that most attracted Huston: riding horses, hunting, boxing, and militarism. The honesty with which the director handles homosexuality is characteristic of his willingness to face what he finds antithetical to his own nature. In the film, the equation of Leonora and her horse is presented as definitely sexual, and at one point Penderton actually beats the horse in a fury because he himself is impotent. Huston also includes a boxing match in the film which is not in the novel. The immorally provocative Leonora watches the match, but Penderton watches another spectator, Williams. Reflections becomes an almost comic labyrinth of voyeurism, with characters spying on other characters.

Huston's protagonists often represent extremes. They are either ignorant, pathetic, and doomed by their lack of self-understanding (Tully and Ernie in Fat City, Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Peachy and Danny in The Man Who Would Be King) or intelligent, arrogant, but equally doomed by their lack of self-understanding (Penderton in Reflections in a Golden Eye and Ahab in Moby Dick). Between these extremes is the cool, intelligent protagonist who will sacrifice everything for self-understanding and independence (Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, and Freud). Huston always finds the first group pathetic, the second tragic, and the third heroic. He reserves his greatest respect for the man who retains his dignity in spite of pain and disaster.

Many of Huston's films can de divided between those involving group quests that fail and those involving a pair of potential lovers who must face a hostile world. Generally, Huston's films about such lovers end in the union of the couple or, at least, their survival. In that sense, A Walk with Love and Death, starring his own daughter, proved to be the most pessimistic of his love stories, and Annie, his most commercial venture, proved to be his most optimistic.

—Stuart M. Kaminsky

Huston, John

views updated Jun 11 2018

HUSTON, John



Nationality: Irish/American. Born: John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, 5 August 1906; son of the actor Walter Huston; became Irish citizen, 1964. Family: Married 1) Dorothy Jeanne Harvey, 1926 (divorced 1933); 2) Leslie Black, 1937 (divorced 1944); 3) Evelyn Keyes, 1946 (divorced 1950), one adopted son; 4) Ricki Soma, 1950 (died 1969), one son, two daughters including the actress Anjelica; 5) Celeste Shane, 1972 (divorced 1977); also son Daniel by Zoë Sallis. Education: Attended boarding school in Los Angeles and at Lincoln High School, Los Angeles, 1923–24. Career: 1916—taken to California for cure after doctors in St. Paul, Minnesota, diagnose enlarged heart and kidney disease; 1920s—boxer in California; 1924—actor in New York; 1927—competition horseman, Mexico; 1928–30—journalist in New York; 1930—scriptwriter and actor in Hollywood; 1932—worked for Gaumont-British, London; 1933—moved to Paris, intending to study painting; 1934—returned to New York, editor Midweek Pictorial, and stage actor; 1936—writer for Warner Brothers, Hollywood; 1941—directed first film, The Maltese Falcon; 1942–45—served in Signal Corps, Army Pictorial Service, discharged as major; 1947—with William Wyler and Philip Dunne, formed Committee for the 1st Amendment to counteract HUAC investigation; 1948—formed Horizon pictures with Sam Spiegel; 1952—formed John Huston Productions for unrealized project Matador; 1955—moved to Ireland; from mid-1960s—narrator for TV; 1972—moved to Mexico. Awards: Legion of Merit, U.S. Armed Services, 1944; Oscar for Best Direction, for Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1947. Died: Of pneumonia, in Newport, Rhode Island, 28 August 1987.

Films as Actor:

1929

The Shakedown (William Wyler) (unbilled); Two Americans (short)

1930

Hell's Heroes (William Wyler) (unbilled); The Storm (William Wyler) (unbilled)

1963

The Cardinal (Preminger) (as Cardinal Glennon); The Directors (pr: Greenblatt) (appearance)

1968

Candy (Marquand) (as Dr. Dunlap); The Rocky Road to Dublin (Lennon—doc) (appearance)

1970

Myra Breckenridge (Sarne) (as Buck Loner); The Other Side of the Wind (Welles) (uncompleted)

1971

The Bridge in the Jungle (Kohner) (as Sleigh); Man in the Wilderness (Sarafian) (as Captain Filmore Henry); The Deserter (Kennedy) (as General Miles)

1973

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson) (as Lawgiver)

1974

Chinatown (Polanski) (as Noah Cross)

1975

Breakout (Gries) (as Harris Wagner); The Wind and the Lion (Milius) (as John Hay)

1976

Sherlock Holmes in New York (Sagal—for TV) (as Professor James Moriarty)

1977

The Rhinemann Exchange (Kennedy—for TV) (as Ambassador Henderson Granville); Tentacles (Hellman) (as Ned Turner); Il Grande Attacco (The Biggest Battle; The Great Battle; Battle Force; The Battle of Mareth) (Lenzi); Angela (Sagal) (as Hogan); Hollywood on Trial (Helpern Jr.—doc) (appearance)

1978

The Word (Richard Long—for TV) (as Nathan Randall); El Triangulo diabolico de la Bermudas (The Bermuda Triangle) (Cardona)

1979

Jaguar Lives! (Pintoff) (as Ralph Richards); Winter Kills (Richert) (as Pa Kegan)

1980

Il Visitatore (The Visitor) (Paradisi) (as Jersey Colsowitz); Head On (Fatal Attraction) (Grant) (as Clarke Hill); Agee (Spears—doc) (appearance); John Huston's Dublin (McGreevy—doc) (appearance)

1981

To the Western World (Kinmonth) (as narrator); John Huston: A War Remembered (Washburn—doc) (appearance)

1982

Cannery Row (Ward) (as narrator); Lights! Camera! Annie! (Kuehn—doc) (appearance)

1983

Lovesick (Brickman) (as Larry Geller, M.D.); A Minor Miracle (Young Giants) (Tannen)

1985

The Black Cauldron (Berman and Rich—animation) (as nar rator); George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (Stevens Jr.—doc) (appearance)

1986

Directed by William Wyler (Slesin—doc) (appearance)



Films as Director:

1941

The Maltese Falcon (+ sc)

1942

In This Our Life (+ co-sc, uncredited); Across the Pacific (co-d)

1943

Report from the Aleutians (doc) (+ ro as narrator, sc); Tunisian Victory (Capra and Boulting; directed some replacement scenes when footage lost, + co-commentary)

1944

The Battle of San Pietro (doc) (+ ro as narrator, sc)

1946

Let There Be Light (doc) (+ ro as narrator, co-sc, co-ph); A Miracle Can Happen (On Our Merry Way) (King Vidor and Fenton; directed some Henry Fonda/James Stewart sequences, uncredited)

1948

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (+ ro as American tourist, sc); Key Largo (+ co-sc)

1949

We Were Strangers (+ bit role as bank clerk, co-sc)

1950

The Asphalt Jungle (+ pr, co-sc)

1951

The Red Badge of Courage (+ sc); The African Queen (+ co-sc)

1952

Moulin Rouge (+ pr, co-sc)

1953

Beat the Devil (+ co-pr, co-sc)

1956

Moby Dick (+ pr, co-sc)

1957

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (+ co-sc); A Farewell to Arms (Charles Vidor; direction begun by Huston)

1958

The Barbarian and the Geisha; The Roots of Heaven

1960

The Unforgiven

1961

The Misfits

1962

Freud (Freud: The Secret Passion) (+ ro as narrator)

1963

The List of Adrian Messenger (+ bit role as Lord Asthon)

1964

The Night of the Iguana (+ co-pr, co-sc)

1966

La Bibbia (The Bible . . . in the Beginning; The Bible) (+ ro as Noah/narrator)

1967

Casino Royale (co-d, + ro as McTarry); Refelections in a Golden Eye (+ voice heard at film's beginning)

1969

Sinful Davey; A Walk with Love and Death (+ ro as Robert the Elder); De Sade (Enfield; d uncredited) (+ ro as the Abbe)

1970

The Kremlin Letter (+ ro as Admiral, co-sc)

1971

The Last Run (Fleischer; d begun by Huston)

1972

Fat City (+ co-pr); The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (+ ro as Grizzly Adams)

1973

The Mackintosh Man

1975

The Man Who Would Be King (+ co-sc)

1976

Independence (short)

1979

Wise Blood (+ ro as Grandfather, billed as "Jhon" Huston)

1980

Phobia

1981

Victory (Escape to Victory)

1982

Annie

1984

Under the Volcano

1985

Prizzi's Honor

1987

The Dead



Other Films:

1931

A House Divided (William Wyler) (dialogue, sc); Law and Order (co-sc)

1932

Murders in the Rue Morgue (Florey) (dialogue, sc)

1935

It Happened in Paris (Robert Wyler and Carol Reed) (co-adapt, sc); Death Drives Through (Cahn) (co-sc)

1938

Jezebel (William Wyler) (co-sc); The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (Litvak) (co-sc)

1939

Juarez (Dieterle) (co-sc)

1940

The Story of Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet) (Dieterle) (co-sc)

1941

High Sierra (Walsh) (co-sc); Sergeant York (Hawks) (co-sc)

1946

The Killers (Siodmak) (sc, uncredited); The Stranger (Welles) (co-sc, uncredited); Three Strangers (Negulesco) (co-sc)

1988

Mr. North (Danny Huston) (co-sc, exec pr)

Publications


By HUSTON: books—

Frankie and Johnny, New York, 1968.

The Maltese Falcon, edited by Richard J. Anobile, New York, 1974.

High Sierra, edited by Douglas Gomery, Madison, Wisconsin, 1979.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, edited by James Naremore, Madison, Wisconsin, 1979.

The Asphalt Jungle, with Ben Maddow, Carbondale, Illinois, 1980.

An Open Book, New York, 1980.

Juarez, with Aeneas Mackenzie and Wolfgang Reinhardt, edited by Paul J. Vanderwood, Madison, Wisconsin, 1983.


By HUSTON: articles—

Interview with Karel Reisz, in Sight and Sound (London), January/March 1952.

"How I Make Films," interview with Gideon Bachmann, in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Fall 1965.

"Huston!," interview with C. Taylor and G. O'Brien, in Inter/View (New York), September 1972.

"Talk with John Huston," with D. Ford, in Action (Los Angeles), September/October 1972.

"The Innocent Bystander," interview with D. Robinson, in Sight and Sound (London), Winter 1972/73.

"Talking with John Huston," with Gene Phillips, in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1973.

Interview with D. Brandes, in Filmmakers Newsletter (Ward Hill, Massachusetts), July 1977.

Interview with P. S. Greenberg, in Rolling Stone (New York), June/July 1981.

"Dialogue on Film: John Huston," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), January/February 1984.

"Interview with John Huston," interview with S. Hachem, in Millimeter (New York), July 1985.

"Filmsa: een gesprek met John Huston," interview with G. Cillario, in Skrien (Amsterdam), February/March 1986.

Interview with Michel Ciment and D. Allison, in Positif (Paris), October 1987.

Studlar, Gaylyn, and David Desser, editors, Reflections in a Male Eye: John Huston & the American Experience (includes interview with and short stories by Huston), Washington, D.C., 1993.


On HUSTON: books—

Davay, Paul, John Huston, Paris, 1957.

Allais, Jean-Claude, John Huston, Paris, 1960.

Nolan, William, John Huston, King Rebel, Los Angeles, 1965.

Benayoun, Robert, John Huston: La grande ombre da l'aventure, Paris, 1966; rev. ed., 1985.

Cecchini, Riccardo, John Huston, 1969.

Tozzi, Romano, John Huston, a Picture Treasure of His Films, New York, 1971.

Pratley, Gerald, The Cinema of John Huston, South Brunswick, New Jersey, 1977.

Kaminsky, Stuart, John Huston: Maker of Magic, Boston, 1978.

Madsen, Axel, John Huston, Garden City, New York, 1978.

Giannetti, Louis D., Masters of the American Cinema, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1981.

Hammen, Scott, John Huston, New York, 1985.

Ciment, Gilles, editor, John Huston, Paris, 1987.

McCarty, John, The Films of John Huston, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1987.

Grobel, Lawrence, The Hustons, New York, 1989.

Hart, Clive, Joyce, Huston & the Making of The Dead, London, 1989.

The Making of The African Queen: Or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind, London 1987.

Viertel, Peter, Guys and Pals, Dangerous Friends: At Large with Huston and Hemingway in the Fifties, New York 1992.

Studlar, Gaylyn, editor, Reflections in a Male Eye: John Huston & the American Experience, Washington, D.C., 1993.

Cooper, Stephen, Perspectives on John Huston, New York, 1994.

Brill, Lesley, John Huston's Filmmaking, New York, 1997.

Cohen, Allen, John Huston: A Guide to References & Resources, New York, 1997.


On HUSTON: articles—

"Huston" issues of Positif (Paris), August 1952 and January 1957.

Mage, David, "The Way John Huston Works," in Films in Review (New York), October 1952.

Laurot, Edouard, "An Encounter with John Huston," in Film Culture (New York), no. 8, 1956.

Archer, Eugene, "John Huston—The Hemingway Tradition in American Film," in Film Culture (New York), no. 19, 1959.

"John Huston, the Bible, and James Bond," in Cahiers du Cinema in English (New York), no. 5, 1966.

Konigsberger, Hans, "From Book to Film—via John Huston," in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Spring 1969.

"Huston" issue of Film Comment (New York), May/June 1973.

Bachmann, Gideon, "Watching Huston," in Film Comment (New York), January/February 1976.

Jameson, R. T., "John Huston," in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1980.

Drew, B., "John Huston: At 74 No Formulas," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), September 1980.

Current Biography 1981, New York, 1981.

Millar, G., "John Huston," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1981.

"John Huston," in Film Dope (London), January 1983.

Hachem, S., "Under the Volcano," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), October 1984.

Marill, Alvin H., "The Films of John Huston," in Films in Review (New York), April 1985.

Canby, Vincent, "John Huston: A master at His Art," in New York Times, 23 June 1985.

Combs, Richard, "The Man Who Would Be Ahab: The Myths and Masks of John Huston," in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), December 1985.

"Huston" issue of Positif (Paris), January 1986.

Taylor, John Russell, "John Huston: The Filmmaker as Dandy," in Films and Filming (London), August 1986.

Negulesco, Jean, "John Huston: l'artiste que a du punch," in Positif (Paris), October 1986.

Obituary in New York Times, 29 August 1987.

Huston, Tony, "Family Ties," in American Film (New York), September 1987.

McCarthy, Todd, obituary in Variety (New York), 2 September 1987.

Ansen, David, "A Hollywood Iconoclast: A World-Class Director," in Newsweek (New York), 7 September 1987.

Schickel, Richard, "Wicked Gleams of the Good Life," in Time (New York), 7 September 1987.

Schulz-Keil, Weiland, and B. Walker, "Huston," in Film Comment (New York), September/October 1987.

Buckley, Michael, obituary in Films in Review (New York), November 1987.

Combs, Richard, "John Huston: An Account of One Man Dead," in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), December 1987.

Immergut, S., filmography and obituary in Premiere (New York), December 1987.

Schickel, Richard, "Huston's Serene Farewell," in Time (New York), 4 January 1988.

Carpenter, Gerald, "John Huston," in Video Review (New York), September 1988.

Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury, Maryland), vol. 17, nos. 2 and 4, 1989.

American Film (Washington, D.C.), June 1989.

Grobel, Lawrence, "John Huston: Mercurial Director of The Maltese Falcon and The Dead at St. Clerans," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April 1992.

Rubin, Mann, "Sundays with John Huston," in Creative Screenwriting (Washington, D.C.), Winter 1994.

Brill, Lesley, "The African Queen and John Huston's Filmmaking," in Cinema Journal (Austin), Winter 1995.

Shoilevska, Sanya, "Alex North's Score for The Misfits," in Cue Sheet (Hollywood), April 1996.

Seebohm, C. "Restless Blueblood," in Vanity Fair (New York), September 1997.


On HUSTON: films—

On Location: "The Night of the Iguana," television documentary, directed by William Kronick, 1964.

The Life and Times of John Huston, Esquire, directed by Roger Graef, 1967.

Ride This Way Grey Horse, directed by Paul Joyce, 1970.

The Directors Guild Series: John Huston, documentary directed by Crain, 1982.

Observations under the Volcano, documentary directed by Christian Blackwood, 1984.

Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick, television documentary, 1989.

The Making of The Dead, directed by Danny Huston, 1989.


* * *

Directors from John Cassavetes to Quentin Tarantino, Vittorio De Sica to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, have regularly worked in front of the camera. Even casual movie fans know that Alfred Hitchcock made celebrated cameo appearances in his films, and Orson Welles not only directed but starred in Citizen Kane.

But one of the most prolific of all actor-directors is John Huston. Certainly, performing was in Huston's genes. His father was the fine actor Walter Huston; his daughter is the equally fine actress Anjelica Huston. In fact, he is the only filmmaker ever to direct a father (for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) and a daughter (for Prizzi's Honor) to Academy Awards.

Huston himself was graced with a deep, full, instantly recognizable voice. On occasion he narrated films; he is very much a faceless presence in his three World War II-era documentaries (Report from the Aleutians, The Battle of San Pietro, and Let There Be Light), which he directed while a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. His voice adds a certain stature to each film, as he describes the war's various military campaigns over some sobering, graphically realistic footage or illustrates the plight of deeply troubled returning veterans.

But Huston also had a photogenic face and a commanding screen presence, and he could work magic with a solid, juicy role. Had he not been such an outstanding director, he could have carved out a stellar career as a character actor, perhaps one to rival his illustrious father. He gave notable performances in Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (as the brusque but benevolent Boston Cardinal); William Richert's Winter Kills (as a patriarch whose son, a U.S. president, had been assassinated years earlier); and most especially Roman Polanski's Chinatown (as the insidiously evil powerbroker Noah Cross). He effectively directed himself in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (as a properly grizzled Grizzly Adams) and Wise Blood (as a fire-and-brimstone preacher). While at his very best playing corrupted, hell-bent authority figures, Huston also could play farce, as he did in Marshall Brickman's romantic comedy Lovesick, cast as Dudley Moore's psychiatrist (who is predisposed to dropping off into slumberland during their sessions).

Nevertheless, Huston—like Orson Welles—far too often chose to slum on screen, accepting throwaway roles in schlocky films far beneath his stature. His filmography is littered with undistinguished parts in one-too-many potboilers, along with trashy Hollywood fare (most specifically, Christian Marquand's Candy, Cy Endfield's De Sade, and Mike Sarne's Myra Breckenridge). By accepting such work, Huston simply traded in on his name. He phoned in his performance in the minimum amount of time, and with the minimum effort. His reward: a paycheck, no more, no less. Had he been so inclined, Huston might have left us with just as many memorable film roles as films he directed.

—Rob Edelman

John Marcellus Huston

views updated Jun 11 2018

John Marcellus Huston

As the most important member of a Hollywood family dynasty whose professional roots were planted in vaudeville, John Huston (1906-1987) left an indelible mark on American cinema as a director, writer, and actor.

The son of actor Walter Huston and Rhea Gore Huston, John Huston was born in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. He was named for his maternal grandfather. At age four Huston's parents separated; they divorced in 1912. His father, who had temporarily quit vaudeville to take various jobs as an electrical engineer, decided to return to his true calling and left for New York. John and his mother moved to Dallas. In 1916 Huston was diagnosed as having an enlarged heart and Bright's disease, or nephritis, a sometimes fatal kidney disease. For the next two years Huston and his mother (who had remarried) traveled around the United States to get the opinions of various doctors. He was a sickly child. After they moved to Phoenix, they decided that a recommended cure of a strict diet and sweat baths was harmful. Once back on a normal regimen, he regained his health.

At age 13, living in southern California, Huston and a friend were arrested for juvenile delinquency after setting fire to a condemned building. Huston was sent to a detention home. After his release his mother enrolled him in the San Diego Army and Military Academy, where he stayed for six months before returning to public school in Los Angeles.

He went to Lincoln Heights High School because of its boxing program. He eventually compiled a 23-2 amateur record as a lightweight. A magazine article on futurism got him interested in art, and he enrolled first in the Smith Art School and later the Art Students League. In 1924 Huston moved to New York, where his father's guidance provided a new direction for his creative passion.

Acted with his Father

By 1924 vaudeville veteran Walter Huston had scored his first successes in the legitimate theater. That year John Huston had a small role in The Easy Mark, a play that starred his father. Huston acted in two other plays in 1924, Sherwood Anderson's The Triumph of the Egg and Ruint.

Acting soon took a backseat to creative writing. Huston's first published piece, in 1929, was a short story, "Fool." It was published by H.L. Mencken in his American Mercury magazine, which paid Huston $200. Other stories soon followed.

In 1929, Huston eloped with Dorothy Harvey. That year also marked Huston's film acting debut, in the short Two Americans for Paramount Pictures. Two Americans also starred Huston's father. In 1930 his puppet play, Frankie and Johnny, went over well in New York and was nearly produced for the legitimate stage, starring Fanny Brice.

Early Hollywood Years

For Huston the 1930s marked his transition from the theater to film and from acting to screenwriting. During the decade he acted in only one play—The Lonely Man in 1937—and no films. Except for a few cameo appearances, Huston would not act again in films until the 1960s. After the success of Frankie and Johnny, Huston began working as a scriptwriter for Universal Studios, contributing to three films in 1932: A House Divided, Law and Order (both of which starred his father), and Murders in the Rue Morgue. Huston wrote much of the dialogue for these pictures.

As his professional life was on the upswing, his personal life took a turn for the worse. Living the fast life, he began neglecting Dorothy, who descended into alcoholism as his infidelities became more apparent. During the first half of 1933, Huston was arrested twice for drunk driving and in September of that year his car struck and killed a woman. He was cleared by a grand jury when the evidence proved that he had a green light when he hit the woman, but Universal let him go. He and his wife divorced. Huston went to Great Britain and worked on two films for Gaumont-British.

Huston married Lesley Black in 1937 and returned to Hollywood to work as a scriptwriter for Warner Brothers on the film Jezebel. In 1939, loaned out to Goldwyn-United Artists, he worked (though without being credited) on the script for Wuthering Heights. He also earned his first Academy Award nomination for his screenplay for Dr. Erhlich's Magic Bullet.

In 1940, Huston directed his father in the play A Passenger to Bali. In his autobiography, An Open Book, Huston assessed his first directorial effort as "an honorable failure, even though it closed after only a few performances."

Succeeded as a Director

After the play closed, Huston went back to Warner Brothers and received his second Academy Award nomination for the screenplay for Sergeant York. He also collaborated with W.R. Burnett on the screenplay of Burnett's novel, High Sierra. The film was the turning point in the careers of Huston and actor Humphrey Bogart, who was the fifth choice to play the role of Roy Earle, the film's protagonist. The success of High Sierra convinced Warner Brothers to allow Huston to direct his first film, The Maltese Falcon.

Released in 1941, The Maltese Falcon made Bogart into a star, and Walter Huston had a small part in the film. John Huston got another Oscar nomination. From then on Huston was primarily a director, though he also wrote screenplays for films he did not direct, notably The Killers and The Stranger, both released in 1946.

During World War II, Huston was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps. His military service involved making documentary films about the military in the Aleutians and in Italy. His final documentary for the Signal Corps, Let There Be Light, narrated by Walter Huston, was about the treatment of "psychoneurotic" combat veterans. The film was made in 1946 but was suppressed by the Army for more than 30 years. Also in 1946 Huston divorced Lesley Black and married actress Evelyn Keyes; they divorced in 1950. After the war, Huston returned to the theater, directing Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit on Broadway. Huston wanted to film No Exit, but nothing ever came of it.

In 1948 Huston returned to film directing in Hollywood, making another classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Huston wrote the screenplay and also made a brief appearance in the film, which again starred Bogart and Walter Huston. John Huston won Academy Awards for best director and best screenplay and Walter Huston won for best supporting actor. While filming the movie Huston took in a thirteen-year-old Mexican boy, Pablo Albarran, and adopted him. In later years the two became estranged and lost contact. In addition to Pablo, Huston had four other children: Tony, Anjelica, Danny, and Allegra.

By this time Huston was an admired film director with a unique method of working. Peter Flint, writing in the New York Times after Huston's death, noted that Huston "edited cerebrally so that financial backers would have trouble trying to cut scenes. He made brilliantly evocative use of color … closely supervised all stages of production" and always worked within his budget. In Open Book Huston discussed his preferred method of shooting scenes in sequence. "Even more important is the sense of storytelling—the cadence and rhythm that's in the director's subconscious. Jumping back and forth in time is interruptive." Besides The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Huston also directed and co-wrote (with Richard Brooks) Key Largo in 1948. In the early 1950s Huston had another success with The African Queen, which he directed and co-wrote with James Agee.

Opposed Red-Baiting

In the late 1940s and early 1950s U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy initiated the "Red Scare," and the effect on the film and television industries was the infamous blacklist. In late 1947 Huston, along with writer Philip Dunne and director William Wyler, formed the Committee for the First Amendment (CFA), trying to counter the influence of McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). But when Hollywood producers went along with the blacklist, the CFA was doomed. In 1950, Huston, along with Wyler and director John Ford, successfully opposed an attempt to have Joseph L. Mankiewicz removed as president of the Screen Directors Guild after Mankiewicz refused to take a loyalty oath.

The day after his divorce from Evelyn Keyes, Huston married Enrica (Ricky) Soma, a ballerina. In 1953 the financial success of Moulin Rouge allowed Huston to immigrate to Ireland, which remained his permanent residence until 1978; Huston became an Irish citizen in 1964. By then he had separated from Ricky Soma; she died in an auto crash in 1969. In 1972 he married Celeste Shane and divorced her in 1975.

The variety of Huston's directorial output never abated. In the 1950s he directed such films as Moby Dick (1956) and the war movie, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957). Films he directed in the 1960s included The Misfits (1961), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), The Night of the Iguana (1964), The Bible (1966), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). Among Huston's films from the 1970s were The Kremlin Letter (1970), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). Also during that decade Huston managed to balance his directing responsibilities with numerous acting roles. Though some of his appearances were in his own films, his best-known role was playing the manipulative Noah Cross in Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski.

Final Years

In the 1980s Huston's output, though diminished due to illness, remained as varied as ever. His movies included Wise Blood (1980), Annie (1982), Under the Volcano (1984), Prizzi's Honor (1985), and The Dead (1987). Prizzi's Honor costarred Huston's eldest daughter, Anjelica, who received an Academy Award for best supporting actress. The film received four Golden Globe Awards including best director. The Dead was released posthumously.

Huston's first serious brush with death occurred in 1977 when an aneurysm required emergency surgery and an abdominal blockage forced a second operation. In his later years Huston suffered from emphysema, which was the cause of his death on August 28, 1987, in Middletown, Rhode Island. By then Huston was an icon in the film community. Just three months before his death he testified (on videotape) before a congressional committee in opposition to the colorization of black-and-white films. In 1980 he was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center; in 1983 came the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. He was honored at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival "for the entirety of his work and his extraordinary contribution to the cinema," and in 1985 he was given the D.W. Griffith Career Achievement Award.

Books

Ceplair, Larry and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960, Anchor Press/ Doubleday, 1980.

Grobel, Lawrence, The Hustons, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989.

Huston, John, An Open Book, Alfred A Knopf, 1980.

Periodicals

Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1985; June 4, 1987; August 29, 1987; August 29, 1987.

Newsweek, May 19, 1980.

New York Times, January 16, 1981; March 5, 1983; May 24, 1984; May 13, 1987; August 29, 1987; September 6, 1987.

Toronto Star, December 19, 1985.

Online

"John Marcellus Huston," Internet Movie Data Base,http://us.imdb.com/Name?Huston%2C+John (October 21, 2001). □

Huston, John

views updated Jun 11 2018

Huston, John (1906–87) US film director, writer, and actor. His debut feature was The Maltese Falcon (1941). In 1946, he won a best director Academy Award for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Other classics followed, such as Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), and The African Queen (1951). After a series of critical failures, Huston returned to form with The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Prizzi's Honor (1985). His last film was The Dead (1987).

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