JOHN HUSTON BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
John Huston was born on August 5th, 1906 in Nevada, Missouri with the birth name John Marcellus Huston. Over the course of his career in the industry, he worked as an actor, director and screenwriter. He was born to Walter Huston, a famous character actor and Rhea Gore.
At the age of three he was already performing vaudeville with his father and continued to do so into his teenage years. He also excelled at boxing and at the age of fourteen he dropped out of school to pursue a professional boxing career. Huston eventually won the Amateur Lightweight Boxing Championships in California.
He then began to turn his sites back on an acting career and in 1925 he appeared in the Broadway production of, "Ruint" followed by a role in, "Adam Solitaire". Discouraged with the direction his acting career was heading, he took a break and moved to Mexico where he worked as an officer in the cavalry.
Huston then returned to America and found work as a magazine and newspaper reporter. He dabbled in acting appearing in some minor film roles but again, frustrated, relocated to Europe, spending some time in London and Paris studying painting.
Huston then again, made the move back to America and began working as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers and appearing in a couple more stage productions. He also gained some experience in the film industry working as a director on such films as, "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Lee Patrick, Sydney Greenstreet, Barton MacLane, John Hamilton, Walter Huston, Murray Alper, Jerome Cowan, Elisha Cook Jr. and Ward Bond, "In This Our Life" (1942) starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Charles Coburn, Billie Burke, Dennis Morgan, Lee Patrick, Hattie McDaniel, Frank Craven, William Forrest, John Hamilton and George Brent and "Across the Pacific" (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung, Monte Blue, Richard Loo, Kam Tong, Charles Halton and Sydney Greenstreet.
Again, taking another break from the entertainment industry, Huston served as a Signal Corps during World War II. Upon completing his service, he returned to directing. He then began to focus full time as a director working on such films as, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) starring his father Walter Huston along with Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett, Alfonso Bedoya, Arturo Soto Rangel and Barton MacLane, "Key Largo" (1948) starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Monte Blue, Harry Lewis, William Haade, Rodd Redwing, Marc Lawrence, Dan Seymour, John Rodney and Jay Silverheels, "The African Queen" (1951) starring Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor – his only Oscar) with Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Walter Gotell, Richard Marner, Peter Swanwick and Theodore Bikel, "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950) Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, John McIntire, Brad Dexter and Marilyn Monroe, "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951) starring Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, Andy Devine, Robert Easton, Arthur Hunnicutt, John Dierkes, Douglas Dick and Royal Dano, "Moulin Rouge" (1952) starring Jose Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Peter Cushing, Theodore Bikel, Muriel Smith, Christopher Lee and Suzanne Flon, "Moby Dick" (1956) starring Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Orson Welles, James Robertson Justice, Royal Dano and Leo Genn among many others, "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" (1957) starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, "The Unforgiven" (1960) starring Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Charles Bickford, John Saxon, Albert Salmi, Doug McClure, Joseph Wiseman and Lillian Gish, "The Misfits" (1961) starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, Kevin McCarthy and Eli Wallach, "Freud" (1962) starring Montgomery Clift, Susannah York, Larry Parks, David McCallum and Susan Kohner, "The Night of the Iguana" (1964) starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr, "The Bible: In the Beginning" (1966) starring with George C. Scott, Ava Gardner, Richard Harris, Michael Parks, Franco Nero, Stephen Boyd and Peter O'Toole, "A Walk with Love and Death" (1969) starring his daughter Anjelica Huston in her film debut and himself along with Assi Dayan, Anthony Higgins, John Hallam and Robert Lang, "Fat City" (1972) starring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Candy Clark and Susan Tyrrell, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972) starring Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, Victoria Principal, Ned Beatty, Richard Farnsworth, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowall, Michael Sarrazin, Anthony Zerbe, Tab Hunter, Bill McKinney, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and himself as Grizzly Adams, "Prizzi's Honor" (1985) starring Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia, John Randolph, William Hickey, Lawrence Tierney and Anjelica Huston.
Huston did continue to work as an actor as well with some of his more well known roles being in, "Moby Dick" (1956), "The Cardinal" (1963) with Tom Tryon, Romy Schneider, Carol Lynley, Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, Ossie Davis, Robert Morse, Jill Haworth, Raf Vallone, Burgess Meredith, Bill Hayes and Maggie McNamara, "Chinatown" (1974) starring with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, "The Wind and the Lion" (1975) starring alongside Sean Connery, Candice Bergen and Brian Keith, "Break Out" (1975) also starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Robert Duvall, Sheree North and Randy Quaid, "Lovesick" (1983) with Dudley Moore, Elizabeth McGovern and Alec Guinness and his final film role, "Momo" (1986).
He had a total of five different wives, first in 1926 to Dorothy Jeanne Harvey. This marriage ended in 1933 and he then wed Lesley Black from 1946 through 1950 and together they had one child. His third wife was Evelyn Keyes whom he wed in 1946 and they too had one child before divorcing in 1950. He chose to marry for a fourth time to Enrica Sonia Soma in 1950 and they had two children and remained together until she passed away in 1969. His fifth and final marriage was to Celeste Shane in 1972 however by 1975, another marriage failed.
John Huston passed away at the age of eighty one from emphysema on August 28th, 1987 in Middletown, Rhode Island. His remains are interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery in California.
During his 46-year career, John Huston received 15 Oscar nominations, won twice, and directed both his father, Walter Huston, and daughter, Anjelica Huston, to Oscar wins in different films and he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1982.
Filmography
1987 Mister Corbett's Ghost
1986 Momo
1985 The Black Cauldron
1985 Prizzi's Honor
1985 Epic
1985 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1983 Lovesick
1983 A Minor Miracle
1982 Annie
1982 Cannery Row
1980 Head On
1980 The Return of the King
1979 Wise Blood
1979 Jaguar Lives!
1979 Winter Kills
1979 The Visitor
1978 The Word
1978 Angela
1978 The Bermuda Triangle
1978 The Biggest Battle
1977 The Hobbit
1977 The Rhinemann Exchange
1977 Tentacles
1976 Sherlock Holmes in New York
1976 Bronk
1975 The Wind and the Lion
1975 Breakout
1974 Chinatown
1973 Battle for the Planet of the Apes
1972 The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
1972 Appointment with Destiny
1972 Fat City
1972 The Other Side of the Wind
1971 Man in the Wilderness
1971 The Deserter
1971 The Bridge in the Jungle
1970 Myra Breckinridge
1970 The Kremlin Letter
1969 De Sade
1969 A Walk with Love and Death
1968 Candy
1967 Casino Royale
1966 ABC Stage 67
1966 The Bible: In the Beginning...
1964 The Night of the Iguana
1963 The Cardinal
1963 The List of Adrian Messenger
1962 Freud
1961 The Misfits
1960 The Unforgiven
1957 Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
1956 Moby Dick
1952 Moulin Rouge
1951 The Red Badge of Courage
1951 The African Queen
1950 The Asphalt Jungle
1949 We Were Stranger
1948 Key Largo
1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1942 In This Our Life
1942 Across the Pacific
1941 The Maltese Falcon
1930 The Storm
1929 Hell's Heroes
1929 Two Americans
1929 The Shakedown
