John Huston Biography
John Huston was born in Nevada in 1906, his education influenced by his parents' background in theater and journalism. He had a colorful youth, including stints as a boxer in California, a horseman in Mexico and a struggling intellectual in Europe in the 1930s. After a short period of work in theater and journalism, he began his career as a screenwriter. In 1941 he made his directorial debut with the film The Maltese Falcon, for which he also wrote the screenplay. The film was praised for its well-defined characters, exceptional actor direction, use of depth of field, and expert storytelling. This led to a decade of success for Huston, during which he established himself as one of the leading directors of his generation.
During the war, he made powerful documentaries such as Let There Be Light (1945). In the post-war years he directed a series of films that strengthened his reputation. However, in the early 1950s, Huston became embroiled in controversy when he was criticized for being evasive in the face of the McCarthy hearings and too compliant with producers who sometimes altered his films in the editing room. He participated in anti-McCarthy activities before finally leaving the United States during the height of Hollywood's blacklist era, choosing to work on culturally ambitious productions in Europe, although the quality of his work during this period varies. Huston's work in the 1950s coexisted with the French critical reexamination of American cinema, which saw him as a controversial figure.
Some of his most notable films of the 1950s include Moulin Rouge (1952), a biopic of H. de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Moby Dick (1956). In addition to being a director and screenwriter, Huston was also an excellent actor, appearing in dozens of films, including The Cardinal (1963), which earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for best supporting actor, The Bible (1966). , where he played Noah, and especially Chinatown (1974) directed by Roman Polanski.
