Walter Huston

Walter Huston
in the trailer for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Born	Walter Thomas Huston April 5, 1883(1883-04-05) York County, Ontario, Canada
Died	April 7, 1950(1950-04-07) (aged 67) Hollywood, California, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1924–50
Spouse	Rhea Gore (1904–1912) Bayonne Whipple (1915–1924) Ninetta Sunderland (1931–1950)
Children	John Huston (1906–1987)

Walter Thomas Huston ( /ˈwɔːltər ˈhjuːstən/; April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.

Life and career

Huston was born in York County, Ontario, the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Huston, a provincial farmer who founded a construction company. He was of Scottish and Irish descent. Huston began his Broadway career in 1924. Once talkies began in Hollywood, he achieved fame in character roles. His first major role was in 1929's The Virginian with Gary Cooper. He appeared in the Broadway theatrical adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel Dodsworth in 1934 and the play's film version two years later.

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. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1948 for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was directed by his son, John Huston. His last film was The Furies in 1950 with Barbara Stanwyck.

Along with Anthony Veiller, he narrated the Why We Fight series of World War II documentaries directed by Frank Capra.

He died in Hollywood from an aortic aneurysm, two days after his 67th birthday.

Huston has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6626 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography (with co-stars)

• The Lady Lies (1929) with Claudette Colbert
• The Virginian (1929) with Gary Cooper
• The Virtuous Sin (1930) with Kay Francis
• The Bad Man (1930)
• Abraham Lincoln (1930)
• The Criminal Code (1931) with Constance Cummings and Boris Karloff
• The Beast of the City (1932) with Jean Harlow and Jean Hersholt
• Night Court (1932) with Lewis Stone and W S Van Dyke
• American Madness (1932) with Pat O'Brien
• Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford
• Kongo (1932) with Lupe Vélez and Virginia Bruce
• Gabriel Over the White House (1933) with Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon, and David Landau
• Ann Vickers (1933) with Irene Dunne
• Dodsworth (1936) with Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor, and David Niven
• Rhodes of Africa (1936)
• The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) with James Craig, Edward Arnold, and Anne Shirley
• Swamp Water (1941) with Walter Brennan and Anne Baxter
• The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet
• The Shanghai Gesture (1942) with Gene Tierney
• Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) with James Cagney
• The Outlaw (1943) with Thomas Mitchell and Jane Russell
• Edge of Darkness (1943) with Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan
• Mission to Moscow (1943)
• And Then There Were None (1945) with Barry Fitzgerald and June Duprez
• Dragonwyck (1946) with Gene Tierney and Vincent Price
• Duel in the Sun (1946) with Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, and Jennifer Jones
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt
• The Furies (1950) with Wendell Corey and Barbara Stanwyck

Academy Awards and nominations

• 1937 - Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - Dodsworth
• 1942 - Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - The Devil and Daniel Webster
• 1943 - Nominated Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Yankee Doodle Dandy
• 1949 - Won Best Actor in a Supporting Role - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

See also

• Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

Further reading

• John Weld. September Song. An intimate biography of Walter Huston. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998.

External links

• Walter Huston at the Internet Movie Database
• Walter Huston at the Internet Broadway Database
• Walter Huston at Find a Grave, with an incorrect year of birth on the plaque.