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Walter Huston | |
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Huston in The Furies (1950) | |
Born | Walter Thomas Houghston (1883-04-05)April 5, 1883 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Died | April 7, 1950(1950-04-07) (aged 67) |
Resting place | Belmont Memorial Park |
Occupation | Actor, singer |
Years active | 1902–1950 |
Spouse(s) | Rhea Gore (m. 1904; div. 1912) Ninetta (Nan) Sunderland (m. 1931) |
Children | John Huston |
Relatives | Tony Huston (grandson) Anjelica Huston (granddaughter) Danny Huston (grandson) Allegra Huston (granddaughter) |
Walter Thomas Huston (/ˈhjuːstən/;[1] né Houghston; April 5, 1883[1] – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian actor and singer. Huston won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, directed by his son John HustonAnjelica Huston, Danny Huston, Allegra Huston, and Jack HustonAnjelica Huston
Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario[1][2] He was the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Huston, a 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 theatrical voice coach Margaret Carrington (1877–1941).
His family moved, before his birth, from Melville,[5] just south of Orangeville, OntarioIn 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) and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada, Missouri. He maintained these jobs until 1909.
In 1909, his marriage foundering, he appeared with an older actress named Bayonne Whipple[6] They were billed as Whipple and Huston and, in 1915, they married. Vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s.
Huston began his BroadwayMr. 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 was cast in both character roles and as a leading manThe Virginian (1929) with Gary CooperAbraham Lincoln (1930), Rain (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933).
Huston remained busy throughout the 1930s and 1940s, both on stage and screen, becoming one of America's most prominent actors. He starred as the title character in the Broadway theatrical adaptation from Sinclair Lewis's novel Dodsworth in 1934 and the play's film versionNew York Film Critics CircleSeptember Song" in the original Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday (1938). Huston's recording of "September Song" is heard repeatedly in September Affair (1950).[7]
Huston made an uncredited appearance in The Maltese Falcon (1941) portraying the ship's captain, who is shot just before delivering the black bird to Sam Spade. Walter's son, John Huston
Among several contributions to World War II Allied propaganda films, Huston portrayed (uncredited) the part of a military instructor in a short propaganda film, Safeguarding Military Information (1942). The film produced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and distributed by the War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures IndustryWhy We Fight series of World War II documentaries directed by Frank CapraThe Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) as Mr. Scratch, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Mission to Moscow (1943), a pro-Soviet World War II propaganda
Huston played Howard in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), directed by his son, John Huston. The film was based on B. Traven's novelAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorThe Furies (1950) with Barbara Stanwyck
On April 7, 1950, two days after his 67th birthday, Huston died of an aortic aneurysm in his hotel suite in Beverly Hills[8][9] He was cremated and his ashes were buried at Belmont Memorial Park in Fresno, California.[10]
In 1960, Huston received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[11][12] He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame[13]
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 "September Song" on the May 7, 2012 episode of the NBC TV series Smash.
In 1998, the biography September Song – An Intimate Biography of Walter Huston by John Weld was published by The Scarecrow Press.