Today is the 109th birthday of the famed director John Huston. Of course he died long ago, just a few weeks after this picture with his daughters Allegra and Anjelica was taken in fact, at the age of 81. But what a filmography! And what a showbiz family.
The Hustons are one of the rare families with multiple Oscar-winning generations. They're also ridiculously photogenic, with faces that march straight past traditional pretty with strong noses held high as if they can't be bothered with generic beauty standards. Their faces fascinate. They have character. They're ideal for storytelling. More...
WALTER HUSTON (1883-1950)
Walter Huston circa Dodsworth (1936)
Father & Son Oscars, same night
Like many of the first sound stars, Walter Huston was yanked from the Broadway stage (where you had to have a commanding voice) to be a movie star. He made 29 movies in the first ten years of his career including a memorable pairing with Joan Crawford in Rain (1932) and one of the absolute best films of the 1930s (a decade with no shortage of "best" contenders) the still underappreciated but remarkable marital drama Dodsworth (1936) which won him his first Oscar nomination. He won the statue on his fourth try in a way all Oscar statisticians will forever love: He won for a performance directed by his son -- who also won for directing him and was also on his fourth nomination! -- in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
JOHN HUSTON (1906-1987)
Photographed by the legendary Herb Ritts in the 1980s
...and by Henri-Cartier-Bresson in 1947. He loved that hand pose!
Born into showbiz, unlike his father, he started performing when he was only 3 on the Vaudeville stage. Like his father he started as a stage actor (he even played Abraham Lincoln on stage a few years after his father did the first Abe Lincoln biopic!) but quickly turned to screenwriting and directing.
I said "what a filmography!" earlier as a generality, rather than from specific love. I wouldn't call myself a true "fan" per se but perhaps I saw a few of his key films when I was too young to "get" them (adults were clearly his target audience). His work stretchies from 1941 through 1987, beginning with early noir classics of the 40s (The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo) straight on into Oscar's good graces (Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, Moulin Rouge,) in the 1950s and then through to a long run of movies that Oscar mostly shrugged at but which are nevertheless famous (The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean), divisive (The Night of the Iguana), notorious (Reflections in a Golden Eye), brilliant (The Misfits, my personal favorite of his) or highly publicized (Annie). Huston couldn't have asked for a better ending either. He went out with a big bang (Prizzi's Honor, 8 Oscar nominations and a win for Anjelica) followed by a quiet elegy (The Dead).
And we haven't even name-checked half of his movies. Do you have a favorite?
ANJELICA HUSTON (1951-)
anjelica & john
Anjelica's mother Ricki Soma (who died at only 39)
Anjelica in 1976
more modelling
Jack Nicholson & Anjelica Huston were together for over a decade
Anjelica photographed by Inez Vinoodh
Though John Huston was married five times, the only marriage that did not end in divorce was his third with Ricki Soma, though they each had a child with someone else while they were married. They had two children together (Tony & Anjelica) and after she died he adopted her daughter Allegra (pictured up top, who recently wrote a memoir of her life.) But of John's five children (his first was "Pablo," adopted from Mexico but I can't find much information on him so one assumes he didn't go into showbiz) and his last was Danny (further down), Anjelica is by far the most famous.
After a disastrous launch as a very young leading lady in her father's film A Walk With Love and Death (1969), she mostly modelled and barely touched the movies again until the early 1980s. She was already the very famous Jack Nicholson's significant other when she hit the big screen again (The Postman Always Ring Twice). And within a handful of years she had an Oscar on the shelf as well. Like her grandfather, she won for a John Huston film (Prizzi's Honor). Her star power peaked in the early 90s with incredible work in The Addams Family, The Grifters, and The Witches. But where has she been lately? She doesn't even show up in Wes Anderson pictures anymore. Curse you Wes! She just needs one more Oscar nomination to tie her Grandfather for most acting nominations from a Huston family member.
DANNY HUSTON (1962-)
Anjelica's half brother has made quite a career for himself as a character actor. It seems like he's in everything right?
JACK HUSTON (1982-)
Photography by Helena Christensen
Jack is the nephew to Danny & Anjelica, son of their older brother Tony, and the only one of four great grandchildren of Walter Huston to pursue acting (thus far at least) though his brother Matthew Huston is a documentarian / photographer.
He's best known to date for a series regular role on Boardwalk Empire. Does larger stardom await? He's got the leading role in the upcoming remake of Ben-Hur and though he was meant to star in a remake of The Crow that one has been cancelled.
What do you make of The Hustons and what's your favorite acting dynasty, real or future imagined?