John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. In a career spanning more than five decades, he wrote the screenplays for many of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1980.
Son of actor Walter Huston, he studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris. He then moved to Mexico and began writing, first plays and short stories, and later working in Los Angeles as a Hollywood screenwriter, and was nominated for several Academy Awards writing for films directed by William Dieterle and Howard Hawks, among others. His directorial debut came with The Maltese Falcon (1941), which despite its small budget became a commercial and critical hit; he continued to be a successful, if iconoclastic, Hollywood director for the next 45 years.
Huston directed acclaimed films such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), The Misfits (1961), The Night of the Iguana (1964), Fat City (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Annie (1982), Prizzi's Honor (1985) and The Dead (1987). During his 46-year career, Huston received 14 Academy Award nominations, winning twice. Huston acted in numerous films, receiving nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for The Cardinal (1963) and Chinatown (1974) respectively. He also acted in Casino Royale (1967), Myra Breckinridge (1970) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). He voiced the wizard Gandalf in The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980).
Huston has been referred to as "a titan", "a rebel", and a "renaissance man" in the Hollywood film industry. He traveled widely, settling at various times in France, Mexico, and Ireland. Huston was a citizen of the United States by birth but renounced this to become an Irish citizen and resident in 1964. He eventually returned to the United States, where he lived the rest of his life. He was the father of actress Anjelica Huston, whom he directed to an Oscar win in Prizzi's Honor.
Early life
John Huston was born on August 5, 1906, in Nevada, Missouri. He was the only child of Rhea (née Gore) and Canadian-born Walter Huston. His father was an actor, initially in vaudeville, and later in films. His mother worked as a sports editor for various publications but stopped after John was born. Similarly, his father ended his stage acting career for steady employment as a civil engineer, although he returned to stage acting within a few years. He later became highly successful on both Broadway and then in motion pictures. He had Scottish, Scotch-Irish, English and Welsh ancestry.
Huston's parents divorced in 1913 when he was six years old. For much of his childhood, he lived and studied in boarding schools. During summer vacations, he traveled separately with each of his parents – with his father on vaudeville tours, and with his mother to horse races and other sports events. Young Huston benefited greatly from seeing his father act on stage, and he was later drawn to acting.
Some critics, such as Lawrence Grobel, surmise that his relationship with his mother may have contributed to his marrying five times, and seeming to have difficulty in maintaining relationships. Grobel wrote, "When I interviewed some of the women who had loved him, they inevitably referred to his mother as the key to unlocking Huston's psyche." According to actress Olivia de Havilland, "she [his mother] was the central character. I always felt that John was ridden by witches. He seemed pursued by something destructive. If it wasn't his mother, it was his idea of his mother." Living in Los Angeles, Huston became infatuated with the new film industry and motion pictures, as a spectator only. To Huston, "Charlie Chaplin was a god." He later remembered that while watching his father rehearse, he became fascinated with the mechanics of acting:
<blockquote>What I learned there, during those weeks of rehearsal, would serve me for the rest of my life.</blockquote>
After a short period of acting on stage, and having undergone surgery, Huston travelled alone to Mexico. During two years there, among other adventures, he obtained a position as an honorary member of the Mexican cavalry. He returned to Los Angeles and married Dorothy Harvey, a girlfriend from high school. Their marriage lasted seven years (1926–1933).
Career
1930–1939: Early career and directorial debut
During his stay in Mexico, Huston wrote a play called Frankie and Johnny, based on the ballad of the same title. After selling it easily, he decided that writing would be a viable career, and he focused on it. His self-esteem was enhanced when H. L. Mencken, editor of the popular magazine American Mercury, bought two of his stories, "Fool" and "Figures of Fighting Men." During subsequent years, Huston's stories and feature articles were published in Esquire, Theatre Arts, and The New York Times. He also worked for a period on the New York Graphic. In 1931, when he was 25, he moved back to Los Angeles in hopes of writing for the blossoming film industry. The silent films had given way to "talkies", and writers were in demand. A coroner's jury absolved Huston of blame, but the incident left him "traumatized". He moved to London and Paris, living as a "drifter."
Huston was recognized and respected as a screenwriter. He persuaded the Warners to give him a chance to direct, under the condition that his next script also became a hit.
Huston wrote:
<blockquote>They indulged me rather. They liked my work as a writer and they wanted to keep me on. If I wanted to direct, why, they'd give me a shot at it, and if it didn't come off all that well, they wouldn't be too disappointed as it was to be a very small picture. Years later, after Huston moved to Ireland, his daughter, actress Anjelica Huston, recalled that the "main movies we watched were the war documentaries."
Huston performed an uncredited rewrite of Anthony Veiller's screenplay for The Stranger (1946), a film he was to have directed. When Huston became unavailable, the film's star, Orson Welles, directed instead; Welles had the lead role of a high-ranking Nazi fugitive who settles in New England under an assumed name.
1947–1951: Breakthrough and acclaim
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Huston's next picture, which he wrote, directed, and briefly appeared in as an American asked to "help out a fellow American, down on his luck", was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). It would become one of the films that established his reputation as a leading filmmaker. The film, also starring Humphrey Bogart, was the story of three drifters who band together to prospect for gold. Huston gave a supporting role to his father, Walter Huston.
Warners studio was initially uncertain what to make of the film. They had allowed Huston to film on location in Mexico, which was a "radical move" for a studio at the time. They also knew that Huston was gaining a reputation as "one of the wild men of Hollywood." In any case, studio boss Jack L. Warner initially "detested it." But whatever doubts Warners had were soon removed, as the film achieved widespread public and critical acclaim. Hollywood writer James Agee called it "one of the most beautiful and visually alive movies I have ever seen." This theme was also expressed in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, where the group foundered on their own greed.
It starred Sterling Hayden and Sam Jaffe, a personal friend of Huston. Marilyn Monroe had her first serious role in this film. Huston said, "it was, of course, where Marilyn Monroe got her start." Huston recalls that at the preview showing, before the film was halfway through, "damn near a third of the audience got up and walked out of the theater."
At the same time, the film was also the cause of a growing feud between MGM founder Louis B. Mayer and Producer Dore Schary to the point where Huston felt like stepping down to avoid growing the conflict. However, Mayer encouraged Huston to stay on telling him to fight for the picture regardless of what he thought of it.
The African Queen (1951)
thumb|upright=1.15|Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (1951)
Before The Red Badge of Courage opened in theaters, Huston was already in Africa shooting The African Queen (1951), a story based on C. S. Forester's popular novel. It starred Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in a combination of romance, comedy and adventure. Barson calls it "one of the most popular Hollywood movies of all time." Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the film White Hunter, Black Heart, based on Peter Viertel's novel of the same name, which tells a fictional version of the making of the film.
1952–1966: HUAC period
In 1952 Huston moved to Ireland as a result of his "disgust" at the "witch-hunt" and the "moral rot" he felt was created by investigation and hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), which had affected many of his friends in the movie industry. Huston had, with friends including director William Wyler and screenwriter Philip Dunne, established the "Committee for the First Amendment", as a response to the ongoing government investigations into communists within the film industry. The HCUA was calling numerous filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors to testify about any past affiliations.
Huston took producing, writing, and directing credits for his next two films: Moulin Rouge (1952); and Beat the Devil (1953); both of these were financed by the Woolf brothers for whom Huston had made African Queen. Moby Dick (1956), however, was written by Ray Bradbury, although Huston had his name added to the screenplay credit after the completion of the project. Although Huston had personally hired Bradbury to adapt Herman Melville's novel into a screenplay, Bradbury and Huston did not get along during pre-production. Bradbury later dramatized their relationship in the short story "Banshee". When this was adapted as an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater, Peter O'Toole played the role based on John Huston. Bradbury wrote more poems, essays, and stories on his time in Ireland, but was reluctant to write a book because he did not want to gossip about Huston. It was not until after he read Katharine Hepburn's memoir, The Making of the African Queen, that he decided that he could write "a book which is fair, which presents the Huston that I loved along with the one that I began to fear on occasion." He published Green Shadows, White Whale, a novel about his time in Ireland with Huston, almost 40 years after he wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick.
Huston had been planning to film Herman Melville's Moby-Dick for the previous ten years, and originally thought the starring role of Captain Ahab would be an excellent part for his father, Walter Huston. After his father died in 1950, Huston chose Gregory Peck to play the role. The movie was filmed over a three-year period on location in Ireland, where Huston was living. The fishing village of New Bedford, Massachusetts, was recreated along the waterfront; the sailing ship in the film was fully constructed to be seaworthy; and three 100-foot whales were built out of steel, wood, and plastic. In the film, Huston's voice was dubbed for the voice of actor Joseph Tomelty and a Pequod lookout. But the film failed at the box office. Critics such as David Robinson suggested that the movie lacked the "mysticism of the book" and thereby "loses its significance." Critics have since noted the "retrospective atmosphere of doom" associated with the film. Clark Gable, the star, died of a heart attack a few weeks after the filming was completed; Marilyn Monroe never finished another film, and died a year later after being suspended during the filming of Something's Got to Give; and costars Montgomery Clift (1966) and Thelma Ritter (1969) also died over the next decade. But two of the Misfits stars, Eli Wallach and Kevin McCarthy, lived another 50 years. During the filming, Monroe was sometimes taking prescribed drugs, which led to her arriving late on the set. Monroe also sometimes forgot her lines. Monroe's personal problems eventually led to the breakup of her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller, the scriptwriter, "virtually on set." Huston later commented about this period in Monroe's career: "Marilyn was on her way out. Not only of the picture, but of life."
<blockquote>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.</blockquote>
Huston explains how he became interested in psychotherapy, the subject of the film:
While working on Casino Royale (1967), Huston took interest in the Irish film industry, which had historically struggled to attain domestic or international success. There were rumours that he would buy Ireland's premiere film location, Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow. In 1967, Huston gave Taoiseach Jack Lynch a tour of Ardmore and asked to form a committee to help foster a productive Irish film industry. Huston served on the resulting committee with Irish filmmakers and journalists.
Huston was interviewed in Irish journalist Peter Lennon's Rocky Road to Dublin (1967), where he argued that it was more important for Irish filmmakers to make films in Ireland than for foreign production companies to make international films.
In 1969, he shot Sinful Davey in Ireland using a mixed Irish and British cast.
1972–1987: Later career and final films
After several films that were not well received, Huston returned to critical acclaim with Fat City. Based on Leonard Gardner's 1969 novel of the same name, it was about an aging, washed-up alcoholic boxer in Stockton, California, trying to get his name back on the map, while having a new relationship with a world-weary alcoholic. It also featured an amateur boxer trying to find success in boxing. The film was nominated for several awards. It starred Stacy Keach, a young Jeff Bridges, and Susan Tyrrell; she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Roger Ebert stated Fat City was one of Huston's best films, giving it four out of four stars.
Perhaps Huston's most highly regarded film of the 1970s, The Man Who Would Be King was both a critical and commercial success. Huston had been planning to make this film since the '50s, originally with his friends Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable. Eventually, the lead roles went to Sean Connery and Michael Caine. The movie was partly filmed on location in Morocco and the French Alps. The film was praised for its use of old-fashioned escapism and entertainment. Steven Spielberg has cited the film as one of the inspirations for his film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After filming The Man Who Would Be King, Huston took his longest break between directing films. He returned with an offbeat and somewhat controversial film based on the novel Wise Blood. Here, Huston showed his skills as a storyteller, and boldness when it came to difficult subjects such as religion. Under the Volcano, Huston's last film set in Mexico, stars Albert Finney as an alcoholic ambassador during the beginnings of World War II. Adapted from the 1947 novel by Malcolm Lowry, the film was highly praised by critics, most notably for Finney's portrayal of a desperate and depressed alcoholic. The film was a success on the independent circuit.
John Huston's final film, 1987's The Dead, is an adaptation of the classic short story by James Joyce. This may have been one of Huston's most personal films, due to his citizenship in Ireland and his passion for classic literature. Huston directed most of the film from a wheelchair, as he needed an oxygen tank to breathe during the last few months of his life. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and was praised by critics. Roger Ebert eventually placed it in his Great Movies list; a section of movies he claimed to be some of the best ever made. Huston died nearly four months before the film's release date. In the 1996 RTÉ documentary John Huston: An t-Éireannach, Anjelica Huston said that
"it was very important for my father to make that film." She contends that Huston did not think that it was going to be his last film, but that it was his love letter to Ireland and the Irish. He also played the Lawgiver in Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
Huston is famous to a generation of fans of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories as the voice of the wizard Gandalf in the Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980).
Huston played the lead in Orson Welles's last completed film, The Other Side of the Wind. In it he played an aging filmmaker named Jake Hannaford who was having great problems getting financing for his latest uncompleted film. Much of his portrayal was filmed in the spring of 1974 in Carefree, Arizona, at Southwestern Studio and a nearby mansion. But due to political <!--What were these? -->and financial complications, The Other Side of the Wind was not released until the fall of 2018.
Movie themes
Author Ian Freer describes him as "cinema's Ernest Hemingway"—a filmmaker who was "never afraid to tackle tough issues head on." After an interview a few years before he died, the reporter writes that "Huston said he missed the major studio era when people savored making movies, not just money."
Directing techniques
He explored the visual aspects of his films throughout his career, sketching each scene on paper beforehand, then carefully framing his characters during the shooting. Some of Huston's films were adaptations of important novels, often depicting a "heroic quest", as in Moby Dick, or The Red Badge of Courage. In many films, different groups of people, while struggling toward a common goal, would become doomed, forming "destructive alliances", giving the films a dramatic and visual tension. Many of his films involved themes such as religion, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism, and war.
George Stevens, Jr. notes that while many directors rely on post-production editing to shape their final work, Huston instead created his films while they were being shot: "I don't even know the editor of my films most of the time," Huston said.
Film writer Peter Flint pointed out other benefits to Huston's style: "He shot economically, eschewing the many protective shots favored by timid directors, and edited cerebrally so that financial backers would have trouble trying to cut scenes." Huston shot most of his films on location, working "intensely" six days a week, and "on Sundays, played equally intense poker with the cast and crew." Huston loved the outdoors, especially hunting while living in Ireland. Among his life's adventures before becoming a Hollywood filmmaker, he had been an amateur boxer, reporter, short-story writer, portrait artist in Paris, a cavalry rider in Mexico, and a documentary filmmaker during World War II. Besides sports and adventure, he enjoyed hard liquor and relationships with women. Stevens describes him as someone who "lived life to its fullest". Johann suffered head trauma as she was thrown through the windshield. Huston was charged with driving while intoxicated.
Beliefs
It has been suggested that John Huston was an atheist, but his religious beliefs are hard to determine. He claimed that he had no orthodox religion. and said that he did not like Hollywood, and "especially despised Beverly Hills ... he thought it was just fake from the ground up. He didn't like any of that; he was not intrigued or attracted by it." She said that, in contrast, "he liked to be in the wild places; he liked animals as much as he liked people."
- Lesley Black (1910–2003) — During his marriage to Black he embarked on an affair with a married New York socialite, Marietta FitzGerald. While her lawyer husband was contributing to the war effort, the pair were once rumoured to have made love so vigorously they broke a friend's bed. (m. 1937; div. 1945)
- Evelyn Keyes (1916–2008) — They adopted a son, Pablo whom John discovered orphaned in Mexico. (m. 1946; div. 1950)
- Enrica Soma (1929–1969) — Huston and Soma were married, until she died at age 39 in a car accident. They had two children: Walter Anthony "Tony" Huston (b. 1950), screenwriter and attorney, father of actor Jack Huston; and a daughter, actress Anjelica Huston (b. 1951). During the marriage, Huston fathered a son, Danny Huston (b. 1962), with author Zoe Sallis. Danny became an actor. Soma also had a child from an extramarital affair during their marriage. Her daughter, Allegra Huston (b. 1964), is the child of John Julius Norwich. After Soma died at the age of 39, Huston treated the girl as one of his own children. (m. 1950; died 1969)
- Celeste Shane — In his autobiography, An Open Book, Huston refers to her as a "crocodile", and says that if he had his life to do over, he would not have married a fifth time. (m. 1972; div. 1977)
thumb|right|upright=1.35|Grave of John Huston and his mother, Rhea, at Hollywood Forever
Huston visited Ireland in 1951 and stayed at Luggala, County Wicklow, the home of Garech Browne, a member of the Guinness family. He visited Ireland several times afterwards and on one of these visits, he purchased and restored a Georgian home, St Clerans, of Craughwell, County Galway. Between 1960 and 1971 he served as Master of Fox Hounds (MFH) of the County Galway Hunt, whose kennels are at Craughwell. He renounced his U.S. citizenship and became an Irish citizen in 1964. His daughter Anjelica attended school in Ireland at Kylemore Abbey for a number of years. A film school is now dedicated to him on the NUI Galway campus.
Painting
Huston was an accomplished painter who wrote in his autobiography, "Nothing has played a more important role in my life". As a young man, he studied at the Smith School of Art in Los Angeles but dropped out within a few months. He later studied at the Art Students League of New York. He painted throughout his life and had studios in each of his homes. One of the last pictures that Huston painted, his colorful watercolor including a ram and a bunch of grapes, along with his handwritten inscription, "In celebration of my beloved friend Baron Philippe's 60th harvest at Mouton -- John Huston," illustrated the label of the 1982 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild, in one of the greatest years of one of the world's greatest wines, putting him in the company of the renowned artists who illustrated that wine's label in other years. He had owned a wide collection of art, including a notable collection of Pre-Columbian art.
Illness and death
A heavy smoker, Huston was diagnosed with emphysema in 1978. By the last year of his life he could not breathe for more than twenty minutes without needing oxygen. He died on August 28, 1987, in his rented home in Middletown, Rhode Island, from pneumonia as a complication of lung disease, aged 81. Huston is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood with his mother.
Archives
The moving image collection of John Huston is held at the Academy Film Archive. The film material at the Academy Film Archive is complemented by production files, photographs, and personal correspondence found in the John Huston papers, 1932–1981, at the academy's Margaret Herrick Library. The film archive preserved several of John Huston's home movies in 2001.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" |Year
! rowspan="2" |Title
! colspan="3" |Functioned as
! rowspan="2" |Notes
|- style="background:#B0C4DE;"
!Director
!Writer
!Producer
|-
|1941
|The Maltese Falcon
|
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1942 || In This Our Life
|
|
|||
|-
|Across the Pacific
|
|
||| Replaced for the last two weeks of filming by Vincent Sherman
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1948 ||The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
|
|
|||
|-
|Key Largo
|
|
|||Co-writer with Richard Brooks
|-
|1949 ||We Were Strangers
|
|
|||Co-writer with Peter Viertel
|-
|1950 ||The Asphalt Jungle
|
|
|||Co-writer with Ben Maddow
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1951 || The Red Badge of Courage
|
|
|||Co-writer with Albert Band
|-
|The African Queen
|
|
||| Co-writer with James Agee
|-
|1952 || Moulin Rouge
|
|
|||Co-writer with Anthony Veiller
|-
|1953 ||Beat the Devil
|
|
|||Co-writer with Truman Capote
|-
|1956 || Moby Dick
|
|
||| Co-writer with Ray Bradbury
|-
|1957 || Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
|
|
||| Co-writer with John Lee Mahin
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1958 || The Barbarian and the Geisha
|
|
|||
|-
|The Roots of Heaven
|
|
|||
|-
| 1960 || The Unforgiven
|
|
|||
|-
| 1961 || The Misfits
|
|
|||
|-
|1962 || Freud: The Secret Passion
|
|
|||
|-
|1963 || The List of Adrian Messenger
|
|
|||
|-
|1964 || The Night of the Iguana
|
|
||| Co-writer with Anthony Veiller
|-
|1966 || The Bible: In the Beginning...
|
|
|||
|-
| rowspan="2" |1967
|Reflections in a Golden Eye
|
|
|||
|-
| Casino Royale
|
|
|||Co-director with Ken Hughes, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, and Val Guest
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1969 || Sinful Davey
|
|
|||
|-
|A Walk with Love and Death
|
|
|||
|-
|1970 || The Kremlin Letter
|
|
|||Co-writer with Gladys Hill
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1972 || Fat City
|
|
|||
|-
|The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
|
|
|||
|-
|1973 || The Mackintosh Man
|
|
|||
|-
|1975 || The Man Who Would Be King
|
|
|
|Co-writer with Gladys Hill
|-
|1976 || Independence
|
|
|
| Short film
|-
|1979 || Wise Blood
|
|
|
|
|-
|1980 || Phobia
|
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1981 || Escape to Victory
|
|
|
|
|-
|Let There Be Light
|
|
|
|Documentary; completed 1946–48
|-
|1982 || Annie
|
|
|
|
|-
|1984 || Under the Volcano
|
|
|
|
|-
|1985 || Prizzi's Honor
|
|
|
|
|-
|1987 || The Dead
|
|
|
|
|}
Writer only
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#B0C4DE;"
!Year
!Title
!Director
!Notes
|-
|1930
|The Storm
| rowspan="2" |William Wyler
|with Charles Logue, Langdon McCormick, Tom Reed and Wells Root
|-
|1931
|A House Divided
|with John B. Clymer, Olive Edens and Dale Van Every
|-
| rowspan="2" |1932
|Murders in the Rue Morgue
|Robert Florey
|with Tom Reed and Dale Van Every
|-
|Law and Order
| rowspan="2" |Edward L. Cahn
|with Tom Reed and Richard Schayer
|-
| rowspan="2" |1935
|Death Drives Through
|with Katherine Strueby and Gordon Wellesley
|-
|It Happened in Paris
|Robert Wyler
|with Katherine Strueby and H. F. Maltby
|-
| rowspan="2" |1938
|The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
|Anatole Litvak
|with John Wexley
|-
|Jezebel
|William Wyler
|with Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel and Robert Buckner
|-
|1939
|Juarez
| rowspan="2" |William Dieterle
|with Aeneas MacKenzie and Wolfgang Reinhardt
|-
|1940
|Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
|with Norman Burnstine and Heinz Herald
|-
| rowspan="2" |1941
|High Sierra
|Raoul Walsh
|with W. R. Burnett
|-
|Sergeant York
|Howard Hawks
|with Abem Finkel, Harry Chandler and Howard Koch
|-
| rowspan="3" |1946
|The Killers
|Robert Siodmak
|Uncredited; with Anthony Veiller and Richard Brooks
|-
|Three Strangers
|Jean Negulesco
|with Howard Koch
|-
|The Stranger
|Orson Welles
|Uncredited; with Anthony Veiller, Victor Trivas and Decla Dunning and the Career Achievement Award from the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures in 1984.
He also has the unique distinction of directing both his father Walter and his daughter Anjelica in Oscar-winning performances (in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Prizzi's Honor, respectively), making the Hustons the first family to have three generations of Academy Award winners. He also directed her in Sinful Davey in 1969.
In addition, he also directed 13 other actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Sydney Greenstreet, Claire Trevor, Sam Jaffe, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, José Ferrer, Colette Marchand, Deborah Kerr, Grayson Hall, Susan Tyrrell, Albert Finney, Jack Nicholson and William Hickey.
In 1960, Huston was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to motion pictures. In 1965, Huston received the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America. In 1981, his film Escape to Victory was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. A statue of Huston, sitting in his director's chair, stands in Plaza John Huston in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Awards and nominations received by Huston's films
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!rowspan="2"|Title
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#aaaade;"|Academy Awards
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#aa0;"|BAFTA Awards
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#fe1;"|Golden Globe Awards
|-
!Nominations
!Wins
!Nominations
!Wins
!Nominations
!Wins
|-
|1941
|The Maltese Falcon
|align=center|3
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1948
|The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
|align=center|4
|align=center|3
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|3
|align=center|3
|-
|Key Largo
|align=center|1
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|
|-
|1950
|The Asphalt Jungle
|align=center|4
|
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|3
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1951
|The Red Badge of Courage
|
|
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|-
|The African Queen
|align=center|4
|align=center|1
|align=center|2
|
|
|
|-
|1952
|Moulin Rouge
|align=center|7
|align=center|2
|align=center|3
|
|align=center|1
|align=center|1
|-
|1957
|Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
|align=center|2
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1962
|Freud: The Secret Passion
|align=center|2
|
|
|
|align=center|4
|
|-
|1964
|The Night of the Iguana
|align=center|4
|align=center|1
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|5
|
|-
|1966
|The Bible: In the Beginning...
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|align=center|1
|
|-
|1967
|Casino Royale
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1972
|Fat City
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|align=center|2
|
|-
|1975
|The Man Who Would Be King
|align=center|4
|
|align=center|2
|
|align=center|1
|
|-
|1982
|Annie
|align=center|2
|
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|3
|
|-
|1984
|Under the Volcano
|align=center|2
|
|
|
|align=center|2
|
|-
|1985
|Prizzi's Honor
|align=center|8
|align=center|1
|align=center|2
|align=center|1
|align=center|6
|align=center|4
|-
|1987
|The Dead
|align=center|2
|
|
|
|
|
|-
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#b3b5c3; text-align:center;"|Total
!53
!9
!15
!1
!31
!8
|-
|}
See also
- List of atheists in film, radio, television and theater
References
External links
- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- Literature on John Huston
- John Huston papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Walter and John Huston, circa 1932