John Huston

John Marcellus Huston was born on August 5, 1906, in Nevada, Missouri, the only child of Rhea Gore and Walter Huston, a Canadian-born actor who began his career in vaudeville before transitioning to stage and film. Huston's parents divorced in 1913, and he spent much of his childhood in boarding schools, traveling during summers with each parent separately. As a young man he pursued a wide range of interests, including ballet, painting, opera, horseback riding, and English and French literature. He studied painting at the Art Students League of Los Angeles and, after dropping out of Abraham Lincoln High School, briefly became a professional boxer, reaching the rank of top amateur lightweight in California before a broken nose ended that pursuit.

Huston's early exposure to the stage came through his father, whom he watched rehearse off-Broadway productions in New York City. Those weeks of observation, by his own account, shaped his understanding of acting for the rest of his life. He appeared on Broadway himself in 1925, with credits that included the drama In Time to Come, the play Adam Solitaire, and the play Ruint. He also worked as a book writer for Broadway productions. During a subsequent period in Mexico, he wrote a play called Frankie and Johnny, based on the ballad of the same name, and sold it with relative ease. That success led him to pursue writing more seriously, and H. L. Mencken, editor of American Mercury, purchased two of his short stories. Huston's work later appeared in Esquire, Theatre Arts, and The New York Times, and he contributed to the New York Graphic as well.

He studied painting in Paris before eventually making his way to Los Angeles, where in 1931 he sought work in the film industry. He secured a script editing contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions, then moved to Universal Studios, where he wrote dialogue for several 1932 films including Murders in the Rue Morgue, A House Divided, and Law and Order. A House Divided was directed by William Wyler, who gave Huston an early and formative look at the full filmmaking process. The two became close collaborators. Huston's early Hollywood years were turbulent; a 1933 drunk-driving incident injured actress Zita Johann, and a subsequent accident in which actress Tosca Roulien was killed effectively ended his first stint as a Hollywood writer. He relocated to London and Paris before returning to Hollywood by 1937 with renewed focus.

His directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon in 1941, was made on a modest budget but achieved both commercial and critical success. Over the following 45 years, Huston directed 37 feature films, writing the screenplays for many of them. Among his most acclaimed directorial works were 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). Over the course of his career he received 14 Academy Award nominations and won twice, in addition to earning three Golden Globe Awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1980.

Huston also worked as an actor throughout his career, receiving an Academy Award nomination for The Cardinal (1963) and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Chinatown (1974). He appeared in Casino Royale (1967), Myra Breckinridge (1970), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), and provided the voice of the wizard Gandalf in the animated productions The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980). He directed his daughter, actress Anjelica Huston, in Prizzi's Honor, a performance for which she won an Academy Award.

A widely traveled man, Huston lived at various points in France, Mexico, and Ireland. Born a United States citizen, he renounced that citizenship to become an Irish citizen and resident in 1964, though he eventually returned to the United States, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was married five times and had been treated as a child for an enlarged heart and kidney ailments. John Huston died on August 28, 1987, at the age of 81.