John Huston

Biography

John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Misfits (1961), Fat City (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Prizzi's Honor (1985). In his early years, Huston studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris. He explored the visual aspects of his films throughout his career, sketching each scene on paper beforehand, then carefully framing his characters during the shooting. While most directors rely on post-production editing to shape their final work, Huston instead created his films while they were being shot, with little editing needed. Some of Huston's films were adaptations of important novels, often depicting an "heroic quest," as in Moby Dick, or The Red Badge of Courage. In many films, different groups of people, while struggling toward a common goal, would become doomed, forming "destructive alliances," giving the films a dramatic and visual tensi…

Directed

1. The Maltese Falcon (1941) — Director
2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) — Director
3. The African Queen (1952) — Director
4. Escape to Victory (1981) — Director
5. Casino Royale (1967) — Director
6. Annie (1982) — Director
7. The Man Who Would Be King (1975) — Director
8. Key Largo (1948) — Director
9. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) — Director
10. Moby Dick (1956) — Director
11. The Misfits (1961) — Director
12. Prizzi's Honor (1985) — Director
13. The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) — Director
14. The Unforgiven (1960) — Director
15. The Dead (1987) — Director
16. Fat City (1972) — Director
17. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) — Director
18. Beat the Devil (1953) — Director
19. The Night of the Iguana (1964) — Director
20. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) — Director
21. Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) — Director
22. Moulin Rouge (1952) — Director
23. The MacKintosh Man (1973) — Director
24. Wise Blood (1979) — Director
25. Under the Volcano (1984) — Director
26. The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) — Director
27. Across the Pacific (1942) — Director
28. Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) — Director
29. The Battle of San Pietro (1945) — Director
30. The Red Badge of Courage (1951) — Director
31. In This Our Life (1942) — Director
32. The Kremlin Letter (1970) — Director
33. Love and Bullets (1979) — Director
34. The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) — Director
35. Let There Be Light (1946) — Director
36. The Roots of Heaven (1958) — Director
37. Phobia (1980) — Director
38. A Walk with Love and Death (1969) — Director
39. Report from the Aleutians (1943) — Director
40. We Were Strangers (1949) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Chinatown (1974) — Noah Cross
2. The Black Cauldron (1985) — Narrator (voice)
3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) — American in Tampico in White Suit (uncredited)
4. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) — The Lawgiver
5. Casino Royale (1967) — McTarry
6. Annie (1982) — Actor on Radio (uncredited)
7. Moby Dick (1956) — Barman / Ship's Lookout (voice) (uncredited)
8. The Misfits (1961) — (uncredited)
9. The Hobbit (1977) — Gandalf the Grey (voice)
10. The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) — Noah
11. The Other Side of the Wind (2018) — J.J. 'Jake' Hannaford
12. The Return of the King (1980) — Gandalf (voice)
13. The Wind and the Lion (1975) — John Hay
14. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) — Grizzly Adams
15. They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018) — Self (archive footage)
16. Tentacles (1977) — Ned Turner
17. The Visitor (1979) — Jerzy Colsowicz
18. Breakout (1975) — Harris Wagner
19. Wise Blood (1979) — Grandfather
20. Man in the Wilderness (1971) — Captain Filmore Henry
21. The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) — Lord Ashton (uncredited)
22. Candy (1968) — Dr. Arnold Dunlap
23. The Oscars (1953) — Self
24. Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) — Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
25. Momo (1986) — Meister Hora
26. The Battle of San Pietro (1945) — Narrator
27. Five Came Back (2017) — Self (archive footage)
28. The Red Badge of Courage (1951) — Grizzled Union Veteran (uncredited)
29. Winter Kills (1979) — Pa Kegan
30. The Bermuda Triangle (1978) — Edward
31. Myra Breckinridge (1970) — Buck Loner
32. The Cardinal (1963) — Kardinal Glennon
33. Cannery Row (1982) — Narrator
34. The Kremlin Letter (1970) — Admiral
35. Five Came Back (2017) — Self (archive footage)
36. Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014) — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
37. Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010) — Self (archive footage)
38. Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) — Professor James Moriarty
39. Pelé Forever (2004) — Self (archive footage)
40. A Walk with Love and Death (1969) — Robert the Elder