John Huston

At one time he kept a pet monkey. His wife of the time, Evelyn Keyes , became fed up with the noise and the mess and told Huston that either she or the monkey would have to leave. "Honey," replied Huston, "its you!"

Son of Walter Huston.

Son Tony Huston appeared with him in The List of Adrian Messenger .

Appeared with daughter Anjelica Huston in A Walk with Love and Death .

Interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, California, USA.

Became an Irish citizen in 1964.

He is the only person to have ever directed a parent (Walter Huston ) and a child (Anjelica Huston ) to Academy Award wins.

Father-in-law of Pat Delaney.

Father of Danny Huston , from his relationship with Zoe Sallis.

A licensed pilot... and a prankster. He once flew over a golf course and dropped 5,000 ping-pong balls while a celebrity golf tournament was in progress.

Was voted the 13th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945." Pages 484-493. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

After he and wife Ricki separated, she became pregnant by another man. When she died, Huston brought her daughter, Allegra Huston , to live with him and adopted her.

Father of Tony Huston and Anjelica Huston , from his marriage to Ricki Soma.

While shooting The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in Mexico during his marriage to Evelyn Keyes , he befriended a boy named Pablo Albarran. Pablo came to spend the night at Hustons hotel one evening, and Huston discovered the next morning that the boy was a homeless orphan. Huston decided that he had no choice but to bring him back to the US and adopt him. He wrote in his autobiography that he met his wife Evelyn Keyes at the airport and surprised her by introducing her to their new son. She was in shock, but from then on did her best to be a good mother. He eventually married an Irish girl, had three children, then deserted his family and became a used-car dealer.

Directed 15 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Sydney Greenstreet , Walter Huston , Claire Trevor , Sam Jaffe , Humphrey Bogart , Katharine Hepburn , Jos Ferrer , Colette Marchand , Deborah Kerr , Grayson Hall , Susan Tyrrell , Albert Finney , Anjelica Huston , Jack Nicholson and William Hickey. Bogart and Trevor won Oscars for their performances, as did Hustons father Walter Huston and daughter Anjelica Huston

He and his father Walter Huston are the first Oscar-winning father-son couple. They are also the first father-son couple to be Oscar-nominated the same year and the first to win the same year .

Once described Charles Bronson as "a grenade with the pin pulled".

Former father-in-law of Virginia Madsen.

Was known to have a mean streak when handling actors, and reportedly irritated John Wayne (who was slightly taller than Huston and much more massive) so much while filming The Barbarian and the Geisha that Wayne lost his temper and punched Huston, knocking him out cold.

Although Huston was often described as being 6 4" tall, his actual measured height at his peak was 6 2".

Appears in The Return of the King , which was remade as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with Sean Astin. Astins father John Astin appeared in "The Addams Family" television series, playing Gomez Addams. The Addams Family films starred Anjelica Huston as Gomez wife Morticia.

There are three generations of Oscar winners in the Huston family: John, his father Walter Huston and his daughter Anjelica Huston. They are the first family to do so, the second family were the Coppolas--Francis Ford Coppola , Sofia Coppola , Nicolas Cage and Carmine Coppola.

His WW II documentary Let There Be Light was one of the first, if not the first, films to deal with the issue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; at the time called "shell shock") of soldiers returning from the war. Huston actually said that, "If I ever do a movie that glorifies war, somebody shoot me." This documentary was based on his front-line experiences covering the European war and what he saw soldiers go through during and returning from the war.

Born in Nevada, MO, but raised in Weatherford, TX, until his family moved to Los Angeles, CA.

Was amateur lightweight boxing champion of California.

Mother was newspaper reporter.

Maternal great-grandfather was Col. William P. Richardson who led the 25th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War.

He was first considered to star as the blind monk Jorge De Burgos in Der Name der Rose . He accepted the part but had to leave due to his bad health.

Accidentally struck and killed a Hollywood dancer, Tosca Roulien, while driving on Sunset Boulevard on September 25, 1933. Walter Huston appealed to MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer to use his influence with the LAPD regarding any questions of alcohol being involved. A subsequent inquest absolved Huston of any blame for the accident.

Although not diagnosed with emphysema until 1978, it is widely believed he was already developing the lung disease while directing The Misfits , following decades of heavy smoking.

Clint Eastwood s White Hunter Black Heart is about the making of Hustons movie The African Queen . The movie is based upon a screenplay by Peter Viertel , Hustons assistant during the making of "The African Queen". The character Eastwood plays is based upon Huston.

Mike Nichols , in the directors commentary on the Catch-22 DVD, recalled that one day he was shooting street scenes at Romes Studi di Cinecitt when he saw Huston at a pay phone. He was at Cinecitt helming The Kremlin Letter , considered by many to be the nadir of his directorial career. Nichols says that Huston was on the phone placing bets with his bookie back in the US while the red light of the soundstage in which "Kremlin" was being shot was on. This meant that Hustons movie was being shot, but that it was not being directed by him. Such is the strange way by which movies were made, Nichols explains cryptically.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 446-448. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1999.

Got the D.W. Griffith Career Achievement Award in 1985.

Became an Honorary Doctor of Literature at the Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland in 1964.

Was awarded the "One World Committee Award" in 1949.

Was originally supposed to direct Quo Vadis , but walked out following arguments about the script. He was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy.

Producer Walter Mirisch complained that Huston acted unprofessionally in the post-production period after shooting Sinful Davey . The initial preview of Hustons cut of the film in New York was disastrous, and Huston refused to cut the film after attending another preview, informing Mirisch via his agent that he "liked it just the way it is." Hustons agent informed Mirisch that his client "didnt see any reason to be present at previews." United Artists, which financed the film, was upset over the previews and demanded a re-edit. Huston refused to re-cut the picture, and the re-editing process was overseen by Mirisch. "Sinful Davey" was a failure at the box office after it was released. In his 2008 memoir, "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History," Mirisch writes that "John Huston, in his autobiography, said that he was aghast when he saw what I had done in the re-editing of his picture. Responding to preview criticism, I had tried to make it less draggy and more accessible to American audiences... I saw John Huston again on a couple of occasions, many years after the release of Sinful Davey, and he was very cold, as I was to him. I thought his behavior in abandoning the picture was unprofessional." The two, who had worked together on Hustons 1956 adaptation of Herman Melville s Moby Dick , never collaborated again.

In his 2008 memoir "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History," producer Walter Mirisch says that he vetoed Hustons desire to use his daughter Anjelica Huston as his leading lady opposite John Hurt in Sinful Davey , the story of a Scottish rakehell. Mirisch was worried that the inexperienced Angelica, who had appeared in only one other film at the time, A Walk with Love and Death , also directed by her father, would have to adopt a Scottish accent for the role. In addition, Mirisch felt that "... her appearance was rather more Italian than Scottish, and in stature she towered over John Hurt. John [Huston] and I then had a serious falling out about casting Angelica." (For the record, Angelica is officially listed as 510" tall and Hurt at 59".) The producer and his director butted heads over Hustons insistence that his daughter play the female lead, but Huston finally capitulated, and Pamela Franklin was cast instead (Angelica appears in the finished film in an uncredited bit part). The picture flopped, but Mirisch believed that the casting of the leading lady had nothing to do with it.

Is one of the few people to receive at least one Oscar nomination in five consecutive decades (1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s).

In the fifth edition of "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" (edited by Steven Schneider ), nine of Hustons films are listed: The Maltese Falcon , San Pietro , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Beat the Devil , Fat City , Prizzis Honor and The Dead .

Grandfather of Laura Huston and Jack Huston.

Daughter Anjelica Huston was born while he was shooting The African Queen in Africa. He received the news of her birth by telegram.

His best friend Humphrey Bogart nicknamed Huston "Double Ugly" and "The Monster.".

Has said that The MacKintosh Man is the worst movie he ever directed.

His character "Noah Cross" in Chinatown was ranked the #16 greatest screen villain of all time on the American Film Institutes 100 Heroes and Villains list.

When he married his fourth wife, Enrica "Ricki" Soma, he was 44 while she was only 20. They separated after ten years of marriage. They subsequently each had another child with other partners, but never divorced each other.

He and Orson Welles were good friends from the 1940s to Welles death in 1985. Both men coincidentally made their spectacular debut as directors in 1941 (Welles with Citizen Kane and Huston with The Maltese Falcon ). Both would eventually be directed by the other: Welles had a cameo in Hustons adaptation of Moby Dick and Huston played the lead in Welles unfinished The Other Side of the Wind .

In February 1933 his car collided with one being driven by Zita Johann He was fined $30.

Was scheduled to direct A Terrible Beauty" in June of 1969 and had been granted permission to film at the General Post Office in OConnell Street, in Dublin, Ireland. The project never went through.

Was scheduled to direct Peter OToole and Toshir Mifune in "Will Adams" with a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and produced by Eugene Frenke and Jules Buck. The project never went through.

Honored on a US Postage Stamp in May 2012 (along with Frank Capra , John Ford , and Billy Wilder ).

Was a Democrat.

Was hired as director on The Madwoman of Chaillot but walked off the set shortly before filming was due to start. He was replaced by Bryan Forbes.

He directed his father Walter Huston in three films: The Maltese Falcon , In This Our Life and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre .

He directed his daughter Anjelica Huston in five films: Casino Royale , A Walk with Love and Death , Sinful Davey , Prizzis Honor and The Dead .

Ava Gardner was quoted as saying that her three films with Huston were "the only joy and fun Ive ever had working in motion pictures.".

Two of his films, Wise Blood and Under the Volcano , are in the Criterion Collection.

Directed both Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn.

Preferred to film his movies on location rather than in the studio.

Was awarded with the D.W. Griffith Career Achievement Award in 1985.

Was awarded with a lifetime achievement award for his extraordinary contribution to film art at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984.

Was an avid reader.

First of three Gandalfs to also play a role in a Sherlock Holmes film. He played Prof. Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes in New York . Michael Hordern played the older Dr. Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes , and Ian McKellen played Sherlock himself in Mr. Holmes .

He usually spoke kindly about his ex-wives, with the notable exception of his fifth wife, Celeste Shane, who was over 30 years his junior. This marriage lasted only three years, and in his autobiography, published some five years after their divorce, he refused to mention her by name, referring to her only as "a crocodile". On talk shows he often said it was the only one of his marriages he regretted. Curiously, his devoted daughter Anjelica Huston has said many times that she really liked her stepmother.

Late in his life he was invited to the Ronald Reagan White House for lunch (along with 20 or more other people, well-known in a variety of fields). The hostess for the occasion was the First Lady herself, Nancy Davis , who had known Huston slightly many years earlier because her stepfather, Dr. Loyal Davis, was Hustons doctor. Although he was an outspoken Democrat, Huston attended the lunch and was the soul of tact and charm until Mrs. Reagan asked him if he didnt think that her husband had turned out to be an even better President than everyone had expected. Smiling sweetly and still exuding the utmost affability, Huston replied, "Worse, my dear--far, FAR worse!" Mrs. Reagans response is not recorded, but it was Hustons last visit to the White House.

Was very saddened by the death of John F. Kennedy.

John Huston vowed that if Ronald Reagan ever became president, he would never return to the US to live as a citizen again.

Enjoyed fox hunting when he lived in Ireland.

He was originally cast in Mr. North , but was hospitalized with pneumonia. He personally requested Robert Mitchum to play his part in the film. Mitchum did so on a break from filming "War and Remembrance" .

By the last year of his life he could only breathe for 20 minutes at a time before needing an oxygen mask.

Intended to be a professional painter.

John Huston wanted to adapt Ernest Hemingways Across the River and into the Trees.

Great grandfather of Sage Lavinia Huston and Cypress Night Huston.

Out of all the many films which he wrote and or directed, many considered classics, he only won 2 Oscars and they were both for the same film - The Treasure of Sierra Madre in which he was honoured for screenplay and direction.

He was seventy-nine years old when he was nominated for Best Director for Prizzis Honor , making him the oldest person ever to be nominated in the category.

I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual,loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small,world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And,one day you die. That is all there is to it.

I fail to see any continuity in my work from picture to picture.

He could be a Shakespearean actor. In fact, I think that he could play,King Lear.

I confess to having made films because they were in countries I wanted,to visit.

Hollywood has always been a cage. . . a cage to catch our dreams.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it. .