Coordinates | 34°03′″N118°15′″N |
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name | Sidney Lumet |
birth date | June 25, 1924 |
birth place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
death date | April 09, 2011 |
death place | New York City, New York, US |
death cause | Lymphoma |
nationality | American |
alma mater | Columbia University |
years active | 1939–2007 |
occupation | Director, producer, screenwriter, actor |
residence | Manhattan, New York, US |
spouse | Rita Gam(m. 1949–1955, divorced)Gloria Vanderbilt(m. 1956–1963, divorced)Gail Jones(m. 1963–1978, divorced)Mary Gimbel(m. 1980–2011, his death) |
parents | Baruch LumetEugenia Wermus |
children | Amy, Jenny }} |
The Encyclopedia of Hollywood states that Lumet was one of the most prolific directors of the modern era, making more than one movie per year on average since his directorial debut in 1957. He was noted by Turner Classic Movies for his "strong direction of actors", "vigorous storytelling" and the "social realism" in his best work. Film critic Roger Ebert described him as having been "one of the finest craftsmen and warmest humanitarians among all film directors." Lumet was also known as an "actor's director," having worked with the best of them during his career, probably more than "any other director."
Lumet began his career as an Off-Broadway director, then became a highly efficient TV director. His first movie was typical of his best work: a well-acted, tightly written, deeply considered "problem picture," 12 Angry Men (1957). From that point on Lumet divided his energies among other idealistic problem pictures along with literate adaptations of plays and novels, big stylish pictures, New York-based black comedies, and realistic crime dramas, including Serpico and Prince of the City. As a result of directing 12 Angry Men, he was also responsible for leading the first wave of directors who made a successful transition from TV to movies.
In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture." Two years later, he concluded his career with the acclaimed drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). A few months after Lumet's death in April 2011, TV commentator Lawrence O'Donnell aired a tribute to Lumet, and a retrospective celebration of his work was held at New York's Lincoln Center with the appearance of numerous speakers and film stars.
His parents, Baruch Lumet and Eugenia Wermus, were both veteran players of the Yiddish stage. His father was an actor, director, producer and writer, while his mother was a dancer. His mother died when he was a child. Lumet made his professional debut on radio at age four and stage debut at the Yiddish Art Theatre at five. As a child he also appeared in many Broadway plays, including 1935's Dead End and Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road. In 1935 at age 11, Lumet appeared in a Henry Lynn short film, Papirossen (meaning "Cigarettes" in Yiddish) co-produced by radio star Herman Yablokoff. The film was shown in a theatrical play with the same title, based on a hit song, "Papirosn". The play and short film appeared in the Bronx McKinley Square Theatre. In 1939 he made his only feature-length film appearance, at age 15, in One Third of a Nation. In 1939, World War II interrupted his early acting career, and he spent three years with the US army.
After returning from World War II service (1942–1946) as a radar repairman stationed in India and Burma, he became involved with the Actors Studio, and then formed his own theater workshop. He organized an Off-Broadway group and became its director, and continued directing in summer stock theatre, while teaching acting at the High School of Performing Arts. He was the senior drama coach at the new 46th St. (Landmark) building of "Performing Arts' ("Fame"). The 25 year old Lumet directed the drama department in a production of "The Young and Fair".
He also directed original plays for Playhouse 90, Kraft Television Theatre and Studio One, filming around 200 episodes, which established him as "one of the most prolific and respected directors in the business," according to Turner Classic Movies. His ability to work quickly while shooting carried over to his film career. Because the quality of many of the television dramas was so impressive, several of them were later adapted as motion pictures.
His first movie, 12 Angry Men, was an auspicious beginning for Lumet. It was a critical success and established Lumet as a director skilled at adapting theatrical properties to motion pictures. For US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, seeing the film for the first time, became a "pivotal moment" in her life, as she was at that time considering a career in law. "It told me that I was on the right path," she said.
Fully half of Lumet's complement of films have originated in the theater." He divided his energies among other idealistic problem pictures, adaptations of plays and novels, big stylish pictures, tense melodramas, and New York-based black comedies dealing with society and American culture. A controversial TV show he directed in 1960 gained him notoriety: The Sacco-Vanzetti Story on NBC; According to The New York Times, "the drama drew flack from the state of Massachusetts (where Sacco and Vanzetti were tried and executed) because it was thought to postulate that the condemned murderers were, in fact, wholly innocent. But the brouhaha actually did Lumet more good than harm, sending several prestigious film assignments his way."
He began adapting classic plays for both film and television. In 1959, he directed Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward in the feature film The Fugitive Kind, based on the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending. He later directed a live television version of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, which was followed by his 1962 film, A View from the Bridge, another psychological drama from a play written by Arthur Miller. This was followed by another Eugene O'Neill play turned to cinema, Long Day's Journey into Night, in 1962, with Katharine Hepburn gaining an Oscar nomination for her performance as a drug-addicted housewife; the four principal actors swept the acting awards at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. It was also voted one of the year's "Ten Best Films" by The New York Times.
When necessary, Lumet would choose untrained actors, but stated, "over ninety percent of the time I want the best tools I can get: actors, writers, lighting men, cameramen, propmen." Nonetheless, when he did use less "fully dimensional" actors in the cast of his film, he was still able to bring out superior and memorable acting performances, as he did with Nick Nolte, Anthony Perkins, Armand Assante, Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Timothy Hutton and Ali MacGraw, who herself referred to him as "every actor's dream." In Jane Fonda's opinion, "he was a master. Such control of his craft. He had strong, progressive values and never betrayed them."
|fontsize = 95% |width = 25% |align = left}} Lumet believed that movies are an art and once stated that "The amount of attention paid to movies is directly related to pictures of quality." Because he started his career as an actor, he became known as an "actor's director," and worked with the best of them over the years, a roster probably unequaled by any other director." Acting scholar Frank P. Tomasulo agrees, and points out that many directors who are able to understand acting from an actor's perspective, were all "great communicators."
According to film historians Gerald Mast and Bruce Kawin, Lumet's "sensitivity to actors and to the rhythms of the city have made him America's longest-lived descendant of the 1950s Neorealist tradition and its urgent commitment to ethical responsibility." They cite his early film The Hill (1965) as "one of the most politically and morally radical films of the 1960s."
They add that beneath the social conflicts of Lumet's films lies the "conviction that love and reason will eventually prevail in human affairs," and that "law and justice will eventually be served – or not." His debut film, Twelve Angry Men, was an acclaimed picture in its day: it was a model for liberal reason and fellowship in the Eisenhower era; or maybe it was an alarming example of how easily any jury could be swayed." The film and its director were nominated for Academy Awards. Lumet was nominated for the Director's Guild Award and the film was widely praised by critics.
The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that his films often featured actors who studied "Method acting", "characterized by an earthy, introspective style. A leading example of such "Method" actors would be Al Pacino, who, early in his career, studied under Method acting guru Lee Strasberg. Lumet also preferred the appearance of spontaneity in both his actors and settings, an "improvisational look achieved by shooting much of his work on location."
He was able to prepare and execute a production in rapid order, allowing him to consistently stay within a modest budget. When filming Prince of the City, for example, although there were over 130 speaking roles and 135 different locations, he was able to coordinate the entire shoot in 52 days. As a result, write historians Charles Harpole and Thomas Schatz, performers were eager to work with him as they considered him to be an "outstanding director of actors." And they note that "whereas many directors disliked rehearsals or advising actors on how to build their character, Lumet excelled at both." As a result, he was able to give his performers a cinematic showcase for their abilities and help them deepen their acting contribution. Actor Christopher Reeve, who co-starred in Deathtrap, also pointed out that Lumet "knows how to talk technical language – if you want to work that way – he knows how to talk Method, he knows how to improvise, and he does it all equally well."
Joanna Rapf, writing about the filming of The Verdict, states that Lumet gave a lot of personal attention to his actors, "listening to them, touching them." She describes how Lumet and star Paul Newman sat on a bench secluded from the main set, where Newman had taken his shoes off, in order to privately discuss an important scene about to be shot. . . . The actors walk through their scenes before the camera rolls. This preparation was done because Lumet likes to shoot a scene in one take, two at the most. "I call him "Speedy Gonzales," the only man I know who'll double-park in front of a whorehouse," kids Paul Newman privately. "He's arrogant about not shooting more than he has to. He doesn't give himself any protection. I know I would," Newman adds. Film critic Betsey Sharkey agrees, adding the "he was a maestro of one or two takes years before Clint Eastwood would turn it into a respected specialty." Sharkey recalls, "[Faye] Dunaway once told me that Lumet worked so fast it was as if he were on roller skates. A racing pulse generated by a big heart."
Throughout a 2006 interview, he reiterated that "he is fascinated by the human cost involved in following passions and commitments, and the cost those passions and commitments inflict on others." This theme is at the "core" of most of his movies, notes Rapf, "including his stories of corruption in the New York City Police Department and family dramas such as in Daniel.
Therefore, Bowles adds, "Lumet's protagonists tend to be isolated, unexceptional men who oppose a group or institution. Whether the protagonist is a member of a jury or party to a bungled robbery, he follows his instincts and intuition in an effort to find solutions. Lumet's most important criterion is not whether the actions of these men are right or wrong but whether the actions are genuine. If these actions are justified by the individual's conscience, this gives his heroes uncommon strength and courage to endure the pressures, abuses, and injustices of others. Frank Serpico, for example, is the quintessential Lumet hero in his defiance of peer group authority and the assertion of his own code of moral values." Lumet in his autobiography described the film Serpico as "a portrait of a real rebel with a cause."
"As a child of the Depression," writes Joanna Rapf, "growing up poor in New York City with poverty and corruption all around him, Lumet became concerned with the importance of justice to a democracy. He says he likes questioning things, people, institutions, what is considered by society as 'right' and 'wrong.'" He admits, however, that he does not believe that art itself has the power to change anything. "There is, as he says, a lot of 'shit' to deal with in the entertainment industry, but the secret of good work is to maintain your honesty and your passion."
Film historian David Thomson writes "He has steady themes: the fragility of justice, and the police and their corruption.". He adds, "Lumet quickly became esteemed ... [and he] got a habit for big issues – Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, The Hill, – and seemed torn between dullness and pathos. ... Network ... was the closest he had come to a successful comedy. He was that rarity of the 1970s, a director happy to serve his material – yet seemingly not touched or changed by it. ... His sensitivity to actors and to the rhythms of the city have made him "America's longest-lived descendant of the 1950s Neorealist tradition and its urgent commitment to ethical responsibility."
Lumet, discussing one of his primary film subjects, police corruption, described his feelings for film magazine, Cinema Nation:
He used New York time and again as the backdrop – if not the symbol – of his "preoccupation with America's decline," according to film historians Scott and Barbara Siegel. In discussing the significance of urban settings to Lumet, Bowles notes, "Within this context, Lumet is consistently attracted to situations in which crime provides the occasion for a group of characters to come together. Typically these characters are caught in a vortex of events they can neither understand nor control but which they must work to resolve."
In a 2007 interview with New York magazine, he was asked, "Almost all of your films – from The Pawnbroker to your latest – have an intense level of that famous New York grit. Is being streetwise really such a difference between us and Hollywood?" Lumet replied: "In L.A., there's no streets! No sense of a neighborhood! They talk about us not knowing who lives in the same apartment complex as us – bullshit! I know who lives in my building. In L.A., how much can you really find out about anybody else? ... Really, it's just about human contact. It seems to me that our greatest problems today are coming out of the increasing isolation of people, everywhere."
The subject of "guilt," explains Desser, dominates many of Lumet's films. From his first feature film, 12 Angry Men (1957), in which a jury must decide the guilt or innocence of a young man, to Q & A (1990), in which a lawyer must determine the question of guilt and responsibility on the part of a maverick policeman, "guilt," writes Desser, "links the diverse parts of Lumet's varied and complex canon." Whereas in films like Murder on the Orient Express (1974), all of the suspects are guilty. There are aspects of Lumet's conception of guilt, adds Desser, that are biblical in nature, whereby Lumet explores Old Testament questions of guilt and responsibility: "Lumet's conception of guilt, that of a father's guilt being passed on to his sons and implicating them profoundly. . . are rampant in Lumet's cinema." According to Desser, such focus on guilt and responsibility which dominates Lumet's themes, "comes directly from Jewish tradition, specifically Judaism: the injunction to remember." This aspect of "remembrance" is explicitly seen in The Pawnbroker and Daniel, both of which "commemorate, they do not celebrate."
His films were also characterized by a strong emphasis on tensions within the "family," with his apparent "insistence on the centrality of family life." This emphasis on the family also included "surrogate families," as in the police trilogy, Serpico (1973), Prince of the City (1981), and Q&A;. An "untraditional family" is also inherent in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). According to Desser, the centrality of the family to the Jewish experience – and the way in which a family passes its values on to its children – were an important part of Lumet's worldview.
Partly because he was willing and able to take on so many significant social issues and problems, "he can deliver powerhouse performances from lead actors, and fine work from character actors," writes film historian Thomson. He is "one of the stalwart figures of New York moviemaking. He abides by good scripts, when he gets them."
According to Katz's Film Encyclopedia, "Although critical evaluation of Lumet's work wavered widely from film to film, on the whole the director's body of work has been held in high esteem. Critical opinion has generally viewed him as a sensitive and intelligent director who possesses considerable good taste, the courage to experiment with a variety of techniques and styles, and an uncommon gift for handling actors." Lumet, unlike some other directors, tried to keep a professional distance from his actor's personal lives: "Elia Kazan used to really try to get inside the head and psyche of everybody he worked with," Lumet told The New York Times in 2007, referring to the influential director. "I'm the exact opposite school. I don't like to get involved."
In a quote from his book, Lumet emphasized the logistics of directing:
In 1970, Lumet said, "If you're a director, then you've got to direct ... I don't believe that you should sit back and wait until circumstances are perfect before you and it's all gorgeous and marvelous ... I never did a picture because I was hungry ... Every picture I did was an active, believable, passionate wish. Every picture I did I wanted to do ... I'm having a good time."
Lumet, in a statement posted on IMDB, said, "If I don't have a script I adore, I do one I like. If I don't have one I like, I do one that has an actor I like or that presents some technical challenge." Critic Justin Chang adds that Lumet's skill as a director and in developing strong stories, continued up to his last film in 2007, noting that his "nimble touch with performers, his ability to draw out great warmth and zesty humor with one hand and coax them toward ever darker, more anguished extremes of emotion with the other, was on gratifying display in his ironically titled final film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."
Following his death, numerous tributes have been paid for his enduring body of work, marked by many memorable portrayals of New York City. Fellow New York directors Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese both paid tribute to Lumet. Allen called him the "quintessential New York film-maker", while Scorsese said "our vision of the city has been enhanced and deepened by classics like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and, above all, the remarkable Prince of the City." Lumet also drew praise from New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who called him "one of the great chroniclers of our city".
Lumet was called "the last of the great movie moralists" in a tribute remembering a career in which he "guided many of the world’s most respected actors through roles that connected with the conscious of multiple generations."
Lumet's published memoir about his life in film, Making Movies (1996), is "extremely lighthearted and infectious in its enthusiasm for the craft of moviemaking itself," writes Bowles, "and is in marked contrast to the tone and style of most of his films. Perhaps Lumet's signature as a director is his work with actors – and his exceptional ability to draw high-quality, sometimes extraordinary performances from even the most unexpected quarters" Jake Coyle, Associated Press writer, agrees: "While Lumet has for years gone relatively underappreciated, actors have consistently turned in some of their most memorable performances under his stewardship. From Katharine Hepburn to Faye Dunaway, Henry Fonda to Paul Newman, Lumet is known as an actor's director," and to some, like Ali MacGraw, he is considered "every actor's dream."
Academy of Motion Pictures President Frank Pierson said, "Lumet is one of the most important film directors in the history of American cinema, and his work has left an indelible mark on both audiences and the history of film itself." Boston Herald writer James Verniere observes that "at a time when the American film industry is intent on seeing how low it can go, Sidney Lumet remains a master of the morally complex American drama."
Noting that Lumet's "compelling stories and unforgettable performances were his strong suit," director and producer Steven Spielberg believes that Lumet was "one of the greatest directors in the long history of film." Al Pacino, upon hearing of Lumet's death, stated that with his films, "he leaves a great legacy, but more than that, to the people close to him, he will remain the most civilized of humans and the kindest man I have ever known."
He did not win an individual Academy Award, although he did receive an Academy Honorary Award in 2005 and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as Network, which was nominated for 10, winning 4. In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture." Upon winning recognition from the Academy, Lumet said, "I wanted one, damn it, and I felt I deserved one." Nonetheless, director Spike Lee commented that "his great work lives on with us forever. Much more important than Oscar. Ya-dig?"
A few months after Lumet's death in April 2011, TV commentator Lawrence O'Donnell aired a tribute to Lumet, and a retrospective celebration of his work was held at New York's Lincoln Center with the appearance of numerous speakers and film stars.
Year | Film | Nominations | Awards |
1957 | |||
1962 | |||
1965 | |||
1970 | King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis | ||
1973 | Serpico | ||
1974 | |||
1975 | Dog Day Afternoon | ||
1976 | |||
1977 | |||
1978 | |||
1981 | Prince of the City | ||
1982 | The Verdict | ||
1986 | |||
1988 |
1966 The Group nominated for Competing Film 1964 Pawnbroker nominated for Competing Film 1959 That Kind of Woman nominated for Competing Film 1957 12 Angry Men Won the Golden Bear for Best Film
1992 A Stranger Among Us nominated for In Competition 1962 Long Day's Journey into Night nominated for Competing Film New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Category:1924 births Category:2011 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American Jews Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American screenwriters Category:American television directors Category:American television producers Category:American theatre directors Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Deaths from lymphoma Category:Jewish actors Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Writers from New York Category:Yiddish theatre performers
ar:سيدني لوميت an:Sidney Lumet bn:সিডনি লুমেট bs:Sidney Lumet bg:Сидни Лъмет ca:Sidney Lumet cs:Sidney Lumet cy:Sidney Lumet da:Sidney Lumet de:Sidney Lumet es:Sidney Lumet eu:Sidney Lumet fa:سیدنی لومت fr:Sidney Lumet gl:Sidney Lumet hr:Sidney Lumet it:Sidney Lumet he:סידני לומט kn:ಸಿಡ್ನಿ ಲ್ಯೂಮೆಟ್ la:Sidney Lumet lv:Sidnijs Lumets lb:Sidney Lumet hu:Sidney Lumet nl:Sidney Lumet ja:シドニー・ルメット no:Sidney Lumet pl:Sidney Lumet pt:Sidney Lumet ro:Sidney Lumet ru:Люмет, Сидни simple:Sidney Lumet sr:Сидни Лумет fi:Sidney Lumet sv:Sidney Lumet tr:Sidney Lumet uk:Сідні Люмет vi:Sidney Lumet zh:薛尼·盧梅This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 34°03′″N118°15′″N |
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{{infobox company | company name | Lumeta Corporation| company_type Private| company_slogan Global Network Visibility| foundation 2000| location_city Somerset, New Jersey | location_country USA | industry Computer software, Computer hardware, Computer network security, Network mapping, network discovery software| homepage www.lumeta.com }} |
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 34°03′″N118°15′″N |
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Name | John Huston |
Birth name | John Marcellus Huston |
Birth date | August 05, 1906 |
Birth place | Nevada, Missouri, U.S. |
Death date | August 28, 1987 |
Death place | Middletown, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, actor |
Years active | 1930–1987 |
Spouse | Dorothy Harvey (1925-1933; divorced)Lesley Black (1937-1945; divorced)Evelyn Keyes (1946–1950; divorced)Enrica Soma (1950–1969; her death)Celeste Shane (1972–1977; divorced) |
Partner | Zoe Sallis |
Children | Anjelica, Tony, Danny, Pablo |
Website | }} |
Huston was known to direct with the vision of an artist, having studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris in his early years. He continued to explore the visual aspects of his films throughout his career: sketching each scene on paper beforehand, then carefully framing his characters during the shooting. In addition, while most directors rely on post-production editing to shape their final work, Huston instead created his films while they were being shot, making his films both more economical and more cerebral, with little editing needed.
Most of Huston's films were adaptations of important novels, often depicting a "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 or "destructive alliances", giving the films a dramatic and visual tension. Many of his themes also involved some of the "grand narratives" of the twentieth century, such as religion, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism and war.
Before becoming a Hollywood filmmaker, he had been an amateur boxer, reporter, short-story writer, portrait artist in Paris, a cavalry rider in Mexico, and a documentary filmmaker during World War II. Huston has been referred to as "a titan", "a rebel" and a "renaissance man", in the Hollywood film industry. Author Ian Freer describes him as "cinema's Ernest Hemingway" — a filmmaker who was "never afraid to tackle tough issues head on".
Huston's parents divorced in 1913, when he was 6, and as a result much of his childhood was spent living in boarding schools. During summer vacations, he traveled with each of his parents separately — with his father on vaudeville tours, and with his mother to racetracks or other sports events. The young Huston benefited greatly from seeing his father act on stage, as he was later drawn to the world of acting. Some critics, such as Lawrence Groble, surmise that his relationship with his mother may have been the cause for why he married five times, and why few of his relationships lasted. Groble writes, "When I interviewed some of the women who had loved him, they inevitably referred to his mother as the key to unlocking Huston's psyche." According to actress Olivia de Havilland, "she [his mother] was the central character. I always felt that John was ridden by witches. He seemed pursued by something destructive. If it wasn't his mother, it was his idea of his mother."
As a child, he was often ill, and was treated for an enlarged heart and kidney ailments. He recovered after an extended bedridden stay in Arizona, and moved with his mother to Los Angeles, where he went to Lincoln Heights High School. He dropped out of high school after two years in order to become a professional boxer, and by the age of 15 was already a top-ranking amateur lightweight boxer in California. He soon ended his brief boxing career after suffering a broken nose. He also "plunged" himself into a multitude of interests, including abstract painting, ballet, English and French literature, opera, and horseback riding. Living in Los Angeles, he became "infatuated" with the new film industry and motion pictures, but as a spectator only. To Huston, "Charlie Chaplin was a god."
He moved back to New York to live with his father, who was then acting in off-Broadway productions, and he obtained a few small roles. From watching his father rehearse, he remembers being fascinated with the mechanics of acting:
:What I learned there, during those weeks of rehearsal, would serve me for the rest of my life.
After a short period acting on stage, and having undergone surgery, he traveled on his own to Mexico. During his two years there, among his other adventures, he got a position riding as an honorary member of the Mexican cavalry. He returned to Los Angeles and married a girlfriend from high school, Dorothy Harvey. But their marriage only lasted a year.
He received a script editing contract with Goldwyn Studios, but after six months of receiving no assignments, quit to work for Universal Studios, where his father was by then a star. At Universal, he got a job in the script department, and began by writing dialogue for a number of films in 1932, including Murders in the Rue Morgue, A House Divided, and Law and Order. The last two also starred his father, Walter Huston. In addition, House Divided was directed by William Wyler, who gave Huston his first real "inside view" of the filmmaking process during all stages of production. Wyler and Huston would also later become close friends and collaborators on a number of leading films.
Huston gained a reputation as a "lusty, hard-drinking libertine" during his first years as a writer in Hollywood. Huston describes those years as a "series of misadventures and disappointments", however. His brief career as a Hollywood writer ended suddenly after a car he was driving struck and killed a young female pedestrian. He was absolved of blame by a coroner's jury, but the incident left him "traumatized" nonetheless, and he moved to London and Paris, living as a "drifter."
By 1937, after five years, the 31-year-old Huston returned to Hollywood intent on being a "serious writer." He also married Lesley Black. His first job was as scriptwriter with Warner Brothers Studio, with his personal longterm goal of directing his own scripts. For the next four years, he co-wrote scripts for major films such as Jezebel, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Juarez, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet and Sergeant York (1941). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his writing both Ehrlich and Sergeant York. Huston writes that Sergeant York, which was directed by Howard Hawks, has "gone down as one of Howard's best pictures, and Gary Cooper had a triumph playing the young mountaineer."
Huston was becoming a recognized and respected screenwriter. He was able to persuade Warners to give him a chance to direct, under the condition that his next script also became a hit. Huston writes:
:They indulged me rather. They liked my work as a writer and they wanted to keep me on. If I wanted to direct, why, they'd give me a shot at it, and if it didn't come off all that well, they wouldn't be too disappointed as it was to be a very small picture.
The next script he was given to work on was High Sierra (1941), to be directed by Raoul Walsh. The film became the hit Huston wanted. It also made Humphrey Bogart a star with his first major role, as a gunman on the run. Warners kept their end of the bargain, and gave Huston his choice of subject.
Huston kept the screenplay close to the novel, keeping much of Hammett's dialogue, and directing it in an uncluttered style, much like the book's narrative. He also did the unusual preparation for this, his first directing job, by sketching out each shot beforehand, including camera positions, lighting, and compositional scale, for such things as closeups.
He especially benefited by selecting a superior cast, giving Humphrey Bogart the lead role. Bogart was happy to take the role, as he liked working with Huston. In addition, the supporting cast included other noted actors: Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet (his first film role), and his own father, Walter Huston. The film, however, was given only a small B-movie budget, and received minimal publicity by Warners, as they had low expectations. The entire film was made in eight weeks for only $300,000.
Upon receiving immediate enthusiastic response by the public and critics, Warners was surprised. Critics hailed the film as a "classic", and up until the present day it is claimed by many to be the "best detective melodrama ever made." Herald Tribune critic Howard Barnes called it a "triumph." Huston again received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay. After this film, Huston would from then on direct all of his screenplays, except for one, Three Strangers (1946). In 1942, he directed two more hits, In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis, and Across the Pacific, another thriller starring Humphrey Bogart.
Upon returning to Hollywood once the war was over, he co-wrote the film, The Stranger (1946), although he was not credited. The film was directed and produced by Orson Welles, who also acted the part of a Nazi war criminal who manages to settle in New England under an assumed name.
Warners studio was initially uncertain what to make of the film. They had allowed Huston to film on location in Mexico, which was a "radical move" for a studio at the time. They also knew that Huston was gaining a reputation as "one of the wild men of Hollywood." In any case, studio boss Jack Warner initially "detested it." But whatever doubts Warners had were soon removed, as the film achieved widespread public and critical acclaim. Hollywood writer James Agee called it "one of the most beautiful and visually alive moves I have ever seen." Time magazine described it as "one of the best things Hollywood has done since it learned to talk." Huston won Oscars for best director and best screenplay; his father won for best supporting actor. It also won other awards in the U.S. and overseas. Film Comment magazine devoted four pages to the film in its May–June 1980 edition, with author Richard T. Jameson offering his impressions:
:"This film has impressed itself on the heart and mind and soul of anyone who has seen it, to the extent that filmmakers of great originality and distinctiveness like Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah can be said to have remade it again and again ... without compromising its uniqueness."
Also in 1948 he directed his next film, Key Largo, again with Humphrey Bogart starring. It was the story about a disillusioned returning veteran clashing with gangsters on a remote Florida key. It co-starred Lauren Bacall, Claire Trevor, and Edward G. Robinson. The film was an adaptation of the stage play by Maxwell Anderson, and the film itself seemed overly stage-bound for many viewers. However, the "outstanding performances" by all the actors saved the film, and Claire Trevor won an Oscar for best supporting actress. Huston was annoyed that the studio cut several scenes from the final release without his agreement. That, along with some earlier disputes, angered Huston enough that he left the studio when his contract expired.
Film critic Andrew Sarris considers it to be "Huston's best film", and the film that made Marilyn Monroe a recognized actress. Sarris also notes the similar themes in many of Huston's films, as exemplified by this one: "His protagonists almost invariably fail at what they set out to do." This theme was also similar to the story in Treasure of the Serra Madre, where greed became the cause of the group's undoing.
It starred Sterling Hayden and Huston's personal friend, Sam Jaffe. It also became the first serious role for Marilyn Monroe, according to Huston: "it was, of course, where Marilyn Monroe got her start." The film succeeded at the box office and Huston was again nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay and best director, along with winning the Screen Directors Guild Award. It would subsequently become a model for many similar movies by other filmmakers.
The movie did poorly at the box office. Huston suggests that it was possibly because it "brought war very close to home." Huston recalls that at the preview showing, before the film was halfway through, "damn near a third of the audience got up and walked out of the theater." Despite the "butchering" and weak public response, film historian Michael Barson describes the movie as "a minor masterpiece."
Huston had been planning to film Herman Melville's Moby Dick for the previous ten years, and originally saw it as an excellent part for his father, Walter Huston. However, his father died in 1950, and he chose Gregory Peck to play the starring role of Captain Ahab. The movie was filmed over a three-year period on location in Ireland, where Huston was then living. The fishing village of New Bedford, Massachusetts was recreated along the waterfront; the sailing ship in the film was fully constructed to be seaworthy; and three 100-foot whales were built out of steel, wood, and plastic. However, the film failed at the box office, with some critics, like David Robinson, suggesting that the movie lacked the "mysticism of the book" and thereby "loses its significance."
Huston explains how he became interested in psychotherapy, the subject of the film: :I first got into that through an experience in a hospital during the war, where I made a documentary about patients suffering from battle neuroses. I was in the army and made the picture "Let There Be Light". That experience started my interest in psychotherapy, and to this day Freud looms as the single huge figure in that field.
:Every morning before beginning work, I visited the animals. One of the elephants, Candy, loved to be scratched on the belly behind her foreleg. I'd scratch her and she would lean farther and farther toward me until there was some danger of her toppling over on me. One time I started to walk away from her, and she reached out and took my wrist with her trunk and pulled me back to her side. It was a command: "Don't stop!" I used it in the picture. Noah scratches the elephant's belly and walks away, and the elephant pulls him back to her time after time.
Huston is also famous to a generation of fans of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories as the voice of the wizard Gandalf in the Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980).
According to Kaminsky, Huston's stories were often about "failed quests" by a group of different people. The group would persist in the face of poor odds, doomed at the outset by the circumstances created by an impossible situation. However, some members of the doomed group usually survive, those who are "cool" and "intelligent", or someone who "will sacrifice everything for self-understanding and independence". Those types of characters are exemplified by Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, and Montgomery Clift in Freud.
Another type of quest often seen in Huston's films involve a pair of potential lovers trying to face a hostile world. Flint adds, however, that he "bucked Hollywood's penchant for happy endings", and many of his stories ended with "love unsatisfied".
Film historian James Goodwin adds that in virtually all of his films, there is some type of "heroic quest — even if it involves questionable motives or destructive alliances". In addition, the quest "is preferable to the spiritless, amoral routines of life". As a result, his best films, according to Flint, "have lean, fast-paced scripts and vibrant plots and characterizations, and many of them deal ironically with vanity, avarice and unfulfilled quests".
However, in the opinion of critics Tony Tracy and Roddy Flynn, "... what fundamentally fascinated Huston was not movies per se — that is, form — but the human condition ... and literature offered a road map for exploring that condition." In many of his films, therefore, he tried to express his interest by developing themes involving some of the "grand narratives" of the twentieth century, such as "faith, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism, war and capitalism".
To Jameson, all of Huston's films are adaptations, and he believes that through his films there was a "cohesive world-view, not only thematically but also stylistically; there is the Huston look". The "Huston look" was also noted by screenwriter James Agee, who adds that this "look proceeds from Huston's sense of what is natural to the eye and his delicate, simple feeling for space relationships." In any case, notes Flint, Huston took "uncommon care to preserve the writer's styles and values ... and sought repeatedly to transpose the interior essence of literature to film with dramatic and visual tension", as he did in Red Badge of Courage, Moby Dick, and Under the Volcano.
Religion is also a theme that runs through many of Huston's films. In The Night of the Iguana, Kaminsky notes how Richard Burton, while preaching a sermon to his congregation, seems "lost, confused, his speech is gibberish", and leads his congregation to turn away from him. In other films, adds Kaminsky, religion is seen as "part of the fantasy world", that the actors must overcome to survive physically or emotionally. "These religious zealots counsel a move away from the pleasure of the world and human love, a world that Huston believes in," concludes Kaminsky. Such religious themes were also seen in The Bible, and Wise Blood, for example.
To Barson, however, Huston was among the "least consistent" filmmakers, although he concludes that he was one of the "most interesting directors of the past sixty years". Throughout his long career, many of his films did poorly and were criticized as a result. To a writer in 1972 he commented, "Criticism isn't a new experience for me. Pictures that are now thought of as, forgive the term, classics, weren't all that well thought of at the time they came out." After an interview a few years before he died, the reporter writes that "Huston said he missed the major studio era when people savored making movies, not just money."
Film writer Peter Flint also agrees and points out other benefits to that style: "He shot economically, eschewing the many protective shots favored by timid directors, and edited cerebrally so that financial backers would have trouble trying to cut scenes." Huston shot most of his films on location, working "intensely" six days a week, and "on Sundays, played equally intense poker with the cast and crew."
When asked how he envisions his films while directing and what his goals are, Huston replied: :To me the ideal film — which I've never succeeded in making — would be as though the reel were behind one's eyes and you were projecting it yourself, seeing what you wish to see. This has a great deal in common with thought processes ... That's why I think the camera is an eye as well as a mind. Everything we do with the camera has physiological and mental significance.
According to Kaminsky, much of Huston's vision probably came from his early experience as a painter on the streets of Paris. While there, he studied art and worked at it for a year and a half. Huston continued painting as a hobby for most of his life. Kaminsky also notes that most of Huston's films "reflected this prime interest in the image, the moving portrait and the use of color." Huston explored the use of "stylistic framing", especially well-planned close-ups, in much of his directing. In his first film, The Maltese Falcon, for instance, Huston sketched out all of his scenes beforehand, "like canvases of paintings". His daughter, Anjelica Huston adds that even for his subsequent films, he sketched storyboards "constantly". She agrees that for her father, "it was a form of study, and my father was a painter, a very good one." She also notes that "there was an extremely developed sensory quality about my father, he didn't miss a trick."
In addition, he also directed 13 other actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Sydney Greenstreet, Claire Trevor, Sam Jaffe, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, José Ferrer, Colette Marchand, Deborah Kerr, Grayson Hall, Susan Tyrrell, Albert Finney, Jack Nicholson and William Hickey.
John Huston received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1982. A statue of Huston, sitting in his director's chair, stands in Plaza John Huston in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Huston loved the outdoors, especially sports such as hunting while living in Ireland. He claimed that he had no orthodox religion. Among his life's adventures before becoming a Hollywood filmmaker, he had been an amateur boxer, reporter, short-story writer, portrait artist in Paris, a cavalry rider in Mexico, and a documentary filmmaker during World War II. Besides sports and adventure, he enjoyed hard liquor and relationships with women of all types — one of the reasons he was married five times. Stevens describes him as someone who "lived life to its fullest". Barson even suggests that Huston's "flamboyant life" as a rebel would possibly make for "an even more engaging tale than most of his movies".
His daughter, Anjelica Huston notes that he did not like Hollywood, and "especially despised Beverly Hills ... he thought it was just fake from the ground up. He didn't like any of that; he was not intrigued or attracted by it." She notes that in contrast, "he liked to be in the wild places; he liked animals as much as he liked people."
He was married five times:
#Dorothy Harvey — This marriage lasted 7 years and ended in 1933. #Lesley Black — It was during his marriage to Black that he embarked on an affair with married New York socialite Marietta FitzGerald. While her lawyer husband was helping the war effort, the pair were once rumoured to have made love so vigorously, they broke a friend's bed. #Evelyn Keyes — The Hustons adopted a son Pablo, from Mexico. #Enrica Soma — They had two children: a daughter, Anjelica Huston, and a son, Walter Antony "Tony" Huston, now an attorney and who is father of actor Jack Huston. Soma also had a daughter, Allegra Huston, as the result of an extramarital affair with John Julius Norwich; Huston treated the girl as one of his own children following Soma's death four years later. #Celeste Shane — In his autobiography, An Open Book, Huston refers to her as a "crocodile", and states only that if he had his life to do over, he would not marry a fifth time.
Four of his marriages ended in divorce. His fourth wife, Soma, died during their marriage. In addition to his children with Soma, he fathered a son, actor Danny Huston, with author Zoe Sallis.
Among his friends were Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway. Humphrey Bogart was one of his best friends and Huston delivered the eulogy at his funeral.
Huston visited Ireland in 1951 and stayed at Luggala, County Wicklow, the home of Garech Browne, a member of the Guinness family. He visited Ireland several times afterwards and on one of these visits he purchased and restored a Georgian home, St Clerans, of Craughwell, County Galway. He became an Irish citizen in 1964 and his daughter Anjelica attended school in Ireland at Kylemore Abbey for a number of years. A film school is now dedicated to him on the NUIG campus.
Huston was an accomplished painter who wrote in his autobiography, "Nothing has played a more important role in my life". As a young man he studied at the Smith School of Art in Los Angeles but dropped out within a few months. He later studied at the Art Students League of New York. He painted throughout his life and had studios in each of his homes. He had owned a wide collection of art, including a notable collection of Pre-Columbian art.
A heavy smoker, he suffered from emphysema in his final days. He died on August 28, 1987 in Middletown, Rhode Island from complications of a heart attack. Huston is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1906 births Category:1987 deaths Category:People from Nevada, Missouri Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category:American people of Canadian descent Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:People from County Galway Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:American screenwriters Category:American film producers Category: United States Army officers Category:People from Echo Park, Los Angeles
an:John Huston bg:Джон Хюстън ca:John Huston da:John Huston de:John Huston es:John Huston eu:John Huston fa:جان هیوستون fr:John Huston gl:John Huston hr:John Huston id:John Huston it:John Huston he:ג'ון יוסטון hu:John Huston nl:John Huston ja:ジョン・ヒューストン no:John Huston pl:John Huston pt:John Huston ro:John Huston ru:Хьюстон, Джон sr:Џон Хјустон sh:John Huston fi:John Huston sv:John Huston tl:John Huston tr:John Huston uk:Джон Х'юстон zh:約翰·休斯頓This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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