Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway
Born	Henri Leonard de Fiennes March 13, 1898(1898-03-13) Sacramento, California, United States
Died	February 11, 1985(1985-02-11) (aged 86) Hollywood, California, United States
Years active	1925 - 74

Henry Hathaway (March 13, 1898 – February 11, 1985) was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring John Wayne.

Background

Born Henri Leonard de Fiennes in Sacramento, California, he was the son of an American actor and stage manager, Rhody Hathaway (1868–1944), and a Hungarian-born Belgian aristocrat, Marquise Lillie de Fiennes (1876–1938), who acted under the name Jean Hathaway. This branch of the de Fiennes family came to America in the 19th century on behalf of King Leopold I of Belgium and was part of the negotiations with the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Rogier (1800–1885), to secure the 1862 treaty between Belgium and what was then known as the Sandwich Islands and is now called Hawaii.

Early career

In 1925, Hathaway began working in silent films as an assistant to notable directors such as Victor Fleming and Josef von Sternberg and made the transition to sound with them. He was the assistant director to Fred Niblo in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur starring Francis X. Bushman and Ramon Novarro. During the remainder of the 1920s, Hathaway learned his craft as an assistant, helping direct future stars such as Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Adolphe Menjou, Fay Wray, Walter Huston, Clara Bow, and Noah Beery.

Maturity

The 1930s

Henry Hathaway made his directorial debut in 1932 with a Western film production, Heritage of the Desert. Based on a Zane Grey novel, Hathaway gave Randolph Scott his first starring role in film that led to a lengthy career for Scott as a cowboy star. Hathaway too, was a fan of stories of the settling of the American West and would make a number of films involving the subject. In 1935, he directed The Lives of a Bengal Lancer which received several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and for which Hathaway won his only nomination for the Academy Award for Directing. He followed this with Go West, Young Man (1936), starring Mae West, based on Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance. Once again, he used Randolph Scott in this film, but not as a cowboy this time.

Film Noir

During the 1940s Hathaway began making films in a semidocumentary vein, often using the then-popular film noir style. These included The House on 92nd Street (1945), for which he was nominated for a Best Director award by the New York Film Critics Circle, 13 Rue Madeleine (1945), and Call Northside 777 (1948), in which Hathaway presented one of the first on-screen uses of a Fax machine. His film noir thriller Niagara (1953) starred the up-and-coming Marilyn Monroe.

In Hathaway's 1958 film From Hell to Texas, the young Dennis Hopper attempted to assert himself artistically on the set. Perhaps influenced by his recent experience with fellow actor James Dean's rebellious attitude on the sets of Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, Hopper forced Hathaway to shoot more than 80 takes of a scene before he acquiesced to Hathaway's demands. After the shoot, Hathaway reportedly told the young actor that his career in Hollywood was over, and for many years Hathaway's statement held true.

Later career and death

In the 1960s Hathaway returned to one of his favorite genres, directing John Wayne in several notable Westerns, including Wayne's Oscar winning performance in True Grit. Hathaway also directed 1966's Nevada Smith, another Western starring Steve McQueen that was based on the Harold Robbins novel The Carpetbaggers. In addition, Hathaway was one of three directors on the epic Cinerama Western, How the West Was Won (1962), directing the bulk of the film, including the river, prairie, and train robbery sequences. He made his 65th and final film in 1974.

Hathaway died from a heart attack in 1985 in Hollywood and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Although often overlooked as a director, his body of work earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1638 Vine Street.

Filmography

• Heritage of the Desert (1932)
• Wild Horse Mesa (1932)
• To the Last Man (1933)
• Now and Forever (1934)
• The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)
• Peter Ibbetson (1935)
• The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
• Souls at Sea (1937)
• The Real Glory (1939)
• Johnny Apollo (1940)
• The Shepherd of the Hills (1941)
• Sundown (1941)
• China Girl (1942)
• Wing and a Prayer (1944)
• The House on 92nd Street (1945)
• The Dark Corner (1946)
• Kiss of Death (1947)
• Call Northside 777 (1948)
• Down to the Sea in Ships (1949)
• The Black Rose (1950)
• The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
• Fourteen Hours (1951)
• Rawhide (1951)
• Niagara (1953)
• Garden of Evil (1954)
• Prince Valiant (1954)
• The Bottom of the Bottle (1956)
• 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)
• Legend of the Lost (1957)
• Woman Obsessed (1959)
• North to Alaska (1960)
• How the West Was Won (1962) (Co-directed with John Ford and George Marshall)
• Circus World (1964)
• The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
• Nevada Smith (1966)
• The Last Safari (1967)
• True Grit (1969)
• Airport (1970)
• Shoot Out (1971)
• Hangup (1974)

External links

• Henry Hathaway at the Internet Movie Database
• Henry Hathaway's Gravesite