Walter Huston
| Walter Huston | |
|---|---|
 Huston in The Furies (1950) | |
| Born |
Walter Thomas Houghston April 5, 1883 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died |
April 7, 1950 (aged 67) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Aortic aneurysm |
| Resting place | Belmont Memorial Park |
| Occupation | Actor, Singer |
| Years active | 1902–1950 |
| Spouse(s) |
Rhea Gore (m. 1904; div. 1912) Bayonne Whipple (m. 1915; div. 1924) Ninetta (Nan) Sunderland (m. 1931–50) |
| Children | John Huston (1906–1987) |
| Relatives |
Anjelica Huston (granddaughter) |
Walter Thomas Huston (/ˈwɔːltər ˈhjuːstən/; ';[1] born Walter Thomas Houghston; April 5, 1883[1] – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian-born American actor and singer. Huston won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He was the father of actor and director John Huston, the grandfather of Pablo Huston, Walter Anthony (Tony) Huston, Anjelica Huston, Danny Huston, and Allegra Huston, and the great-grandfather of actor Jack Huston.
Early life
Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he attended Winchester Street Public School.[1][2] He was the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Houghston, a provincial farmer who founded a construction company.[3] He was of Scottish and Irish descent.[4] He had a brother and two sisters, one of whom was the famous theatrical voice coach Margaret Carrington (1877–1941).
His family moved, before his birth, from Orangeville, Ontario where they were farmers. As a young man, he worked in construction and in his spare time attended the Shaw School of Acting. He made his stage debut in 1902. He went on to tour in In Convict Stripes, a play by Hal Reid, father of Wallace Reid and also appeared with Richard Mansfield in Julius Caesar. He again toured in another play The Sign of the Cross. In 1904, he married Rhea Gore (1882–1938)[5] and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada, Missouri. He maintained these jobs until 1909.
Career
In 1909, his marriage foundering, he appeared with an older actress named Bayonne Whipple (1865–1937) (born Mina Rose).[6] They were billed as Whipple and Huston and, in 1915, they married. Vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s.
Huston began his Broadway career on January 22, 1924. He appeared in a play, Mr. Pitt. Several more Broadway plays solidified his fame, e.g., Desire Under the Elms, Kongo, The Barker, Elmer the Great and Dodsworth.
Once talkies began in Hollywood, he achieved fame in both character roles and as a leading man. His first major role was portraying the villainous Trampas in the western The Virginian (1929) with Gary Cooper.
He starred as the title character in the Broadway theatrical adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel Dodsworth in 1934 and the play's film version two years later. For his role as Sam Dodsworth, Huston won the New York Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award.
Huston remained busy throughout the 1930s and 1940s, both on stage and screen (becoming one of America's most distinguished actors). He performed "September Song" in the original Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday in 1938. Among his films are Abraham Lincoln (1930), Rain (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Mission to Moscow (1943), a pro-Soviet World War II propaganda film as Ambassador Joseph E. Davies.
In 1941, Walter Huston portrayed the part of the ship's captain, who is shot while delivering the black bird to Sam Spade in the "Maltese Falcon". This was an uncredited performance. Walter's son, John Huston, directed the picture. John Huston, as a practical joke, had his father enter the scene and die over 10 different takes.
In 1948, he played Howard in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was also directed by his son, John Huston. The film was based on B. Traven's novel, which told the story of three gold diggers in 1920s post-revolution Mexico. Walter Huston won the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film, while John Huston won the Best Director Academy Award, thus making them the first father and son to win at the same ceremony.
In the 1950 release of the film entitled, "September Affair", starring Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten, Walter Huston sang the title song in the movie. "September Song" was a very popular romantic tune during the 1950s and 60s. He had originally appeared in the Broadway show "Knickerbocker Holiday", where he debuted the song. His last film was the 1950, The Furies with Barbara Stanwyck
Along with Anthony Veiller, he narrated the Why We Fight series of World War II documentaries directed by Frank Capra.
Death
On April 7, 1950, two days after his 67th birthday, Huston died of an aortic aneurysm in his hotel suite in Beverly Hills.[7][8] He was cremated and his ashes were buried at Belmont Memorial Park in Fresno, California.[9]
Legacy
In 1960, Huston was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6624 Hollywood Blvd. for his contribution to motion pictures,[10][11] making him one of fewer than a hundred Oscar-winning male actors in Hollywood history to receive a star. He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.[12]
Huston's son John initially became a screenwriter, before becoming an Academy Award-winning director and acclaimed actor. All of Huston's grandchildren have become actors, as well as his great-grandson. Granddaughter Anjelica sang his famous "September Song" on the May 7, 2012 episode of the NBC TV series Smash.
In 1998, John Weld wrote and published the biographical book September Song – An Intimate Biography of Walter Huston.
Selected filmography
See also
- Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations and Hollywood Walk of Fame stars (20th century)
References
- 1 2 3 According to the Province of Ontario. Ontario, Canada Births, 1869–1911. ancestry.com
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 15, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
- ↑ Morrison, Michael A. (1999). John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor (Volume 10 of Cambridge studies in American theatre and drama). Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-521-62979-9.
- ↑ Huston, John (1994). An Open Book. Da Capo Press. p. 9. ISBN 0-306-80573-1.
- ↑ "findagrave.com; Rhea Gore Huston (1882–1938)". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
- ↑ "Walter Huston/Bayonne Whipple; response from Ancestry.com dated March 17, 2005". Archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com. 2005-03-17. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
- ↑ "Hollywood Death of Walter Huston". The Glasgow Herald. Glasgow, Scotland. April 6, 1950. p. 4. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ Huston, John (1994). An Open Book. Da Capo Press. p. 185. ISBN 0-306-80573-1.
- ↑ "Services Planned for Walter Huston". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Spokane, Washington. April 10, 1950. p. 9. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ "Walk of Fame Stars Walter Huston". Hollywood Chamber of Commerce/Walk of Fame.
- ↑ "Hollywood Star Walk: Walter Huston". latimes.com.
- ↑ "Theater Hall of Fame members".
- ↑ "DVD Savant Blu-ray Review: Jane Eyre". Glenn Erickson, DVD Talk, November 20, 2013. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
Further reading
- John Weld. September Song: An Intimate Biography of Walter Huston". The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998.
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