John Farrow

This article is about film director. For other uses, see John Farrow (disambiguation).

John Farrow
Born	John Villiers Farrow 10 February 1904(1904-02-10) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	27 January 1963(1963-01-27) (aged 58) Beverly Hills, California, United States
Occupation	Actor director, producer and screenwriter
Years active	1927-62
Spouse	Felice Lewin Maureen O'Sullivan (1936-1963) (his death) 7 children

John Villiers Farrow, CBE KGCHS (10 February 1904 – 27 January 1963) was an Australian-born American film director, producer and screenwriter. In 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Writing/Best Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days and in 1942 he was nominated as Best Director for Wake Island.

Life and career

Farrow was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of Lucy Villiers (née Savage), a dressmaker, and Joseph Farrow, a tailor's trimmer. Farrow began writing while working as a sailor in the 1920s. He moved to Hollywood to work in films as a marine technical advisor and stayed on as a screenwriter. He wrote for films between 1927 and 1959, and also directed between 1934 and 1959. Farrow was also a writer of short stories and plays (Laughter Ends), as well as non-fiction (Pageant of the Popes, and biographies of St Thomas More and Father Damien).

He was married to actress Maureen O'Sullivan from 12 September 1936 until his death. He fathered four daughters: actresses Mia, Prudence, Stephanie, Tisa; three sons: Michael Namien (1939–1958), Patrick Joseph (1942–2009), John Charles (born 1946). Maureen O'Sullivan was his second wife, after he converted to Catholicism and she received a papal dispensation to marry a divorcee.

He became an American citizen in 1947. In 1953 he was appointed an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was also appointed him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Pius XI.

He died from a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 58 and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

Awards and honors

Farrow was twice nominated for an Academy Award. He won the Oscar and Writers Guild of America Award for his adapted screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).

He was nominated for an Oscar and won the 1942 New York Film Critics Circle Award for his direction of the rousing World War II battle drama Wake Island.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6304 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Director

• The Spectacle Maker (1934) (as John Villiers Farrow)
• Tarzan Escapes (1936) (uncredited)
• Men in Exile (1937)
• She Loved a Fireman (1937)
• West of Shanghai (1937)
• Comet Over Broadway (1938) (uncredited)
• Broadway Musketeers (1938)
• My Bill (1938)
• Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938)
• The Invisible Menace (1938)
• Reno (1939)
• Full Confession (1939)
• Five Came Back (1939)
• Sorority House (1939)
• Women in the Wind (1939)
• The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
• A Bill of Divorcement (1940)
• Married and in Love (1940)
• Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942)
• Wake Island (1942)
• China (1943)
• The Hitler Gang (1944)
• You Came Along (1945)
• California (1946)
• Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
• Blaze of Noon (1947)
• Calcutta (1947)
• Easy Come, Easy Go (1947)
• Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
• Beyond Glory (1948)
• The Big Clock (1948)
• Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
• Alias Nick Beal (1949)
• Copper Canyon (1950)
• Where Danger Lives (1950)
• Submarine Command (1951)
• His Kind of Woman (1951)
• Hondo (1953)
• Plunder of the Sun (1953)
• Ride Vaquero! (1953)
• Botany Bay (1953)
• A Bullet Is Waiting (1954)
• The Sea Chase (1955)
• Back from Eternity (1956)
• The Unholy Wife (1957)
• John Paul Jones (1959)

Writer

• White Gold (1927) (titles)
• The Wreck of the Hesperus (1927) (story)
• A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927)
• Three Weekends (1928) (adaptation)
• The Woman From Moscow (1928) (also titles)
• The First Kiss (1928) (adaptation)
• Ladies of the Mob (1928)
• The Blue Danube (1928) (story)
• The Showdown (1928) (titles)
• The Bride of the Colorado (1928) (story)
• The Four Feathers (1929) (titles)
• The Wheel of Life (1929) (adaptation)
• A Dangerous Woman (1929)
• The Wolf Song (1929)
• Inside the Lines (1930) (dialogue)
• Shadow of the Law (1930)
• The Bad One (1930) (story)
• Seven Days' Leave (1930)
• The Common Law (1931) (screen story)
• A Woman of Experience (1931) (dialogue & screenplay)
• The Impassive Footman (1932)
• Don Quixote (1933) (English version)
• The Spectacle Maker (1934) (as John Villiers Farrow)
• Last of the Pagans (1935) (original story and screenplay) (as John Villiers Farrow)
• Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
• Ride, Vaquero! (1953) (uncredited)
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
• John Paul Jones (1959)

Producer

• The Big Clock (1948)
• Submarine Command (1951) (co-executive producer)
• The Sea Chase (1955)
• Back from Eternity (1956)
• The Unholy Wife (1957)

Actor

• King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) (uncredited) .... Cpl. Stuart
• Forbidden Island (1959) .... Stuart Godfrey

External links

• http://www.farrow-osullivan.com
• John Farrow at the Internet Movie Database
• John Farrow at Find a Grave
• Australian Dictionary of Biography