Oscar Profile #298: Walter Huston

Born April 5, 1883 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Walter Huston was educated in that city’s public schools. As a young man he worked construction jobs and in his spare time attended The Shaw School of Acting. He made his acting debut in 1902, touring in a succession of plays. In 1904 he married Rhea Gore, the mother of his son, writer-actor-director John Huston (1906-1987), the subject of Oscar Profile #28. In 1909 he divorced Gore and married actress Bayonne Whipple with whom he would be married through 1924.

Huston made his Broadway debut in the title role in 1924’s Mr. Pitt and later starred in such successes as Desire Under the Elms, Kongo, The Barker> and Elmer the Great before moving to Hollywood where he starred in three 1929 talkies including the smash hit, The Virginian in which he shared star billing with Gary Cooper. He followed those films with starring roles in numerous well-remembered 1930s films including Abraham Lincoln, The Criminal Code, Rain, Gabriel Over the White House and Ann Vickers. He married his third wife, actress Nan Sunderland in 1931. They would remain married until his death in 1950.

The actor returned to Broadway to star in 1934’s Dodsworth opposite Fay Bainter and then starred in the 1936 film version opposite Ruth Chatterton for which he received his first Oscar nomination. Back on Broadway in 1937’s Othello opposite Sunderland as Desdemona and Brian Aherne as Iago, he then starred in the 1938 musical, Knickerbocker Holiday in which he introduced “September Song” written especially for him by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson.

Huston received top billing in 1938’s Of Human Hearts but he was overshadowed by up-and-coming actor James Stewart and Oscar nominee Beulah Bondi. His biggest success since Broadway’s Knickerbocker Holiday was in 1941’s All That Money Can Buy AKA The Devil and Daniel Webster for which he received his second Oscar nomination. That same year he played an unbilled cameo as an old sea captain in son John’s directorial debut film, The Maltese Falcon. The following year’s Yankee Doodle Dandy brought him a third Oscar nomination as James Cagney’s Vaudevillian father, his first in support.

Alternating supporting roles in such films as Edge of Darkness, The North Star, Dragon Seed and Dragonwyck with starring roles in such films as And Then There Were None and Summer Holiday, he saved his best for last, receiving his fourth Oscar nomination and first and only win for his cackling old prospector in son John’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for which John also won Oscars for his direction and screenplay.

After appearing in support of Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in 1949’s The Great Sinner, Huston bowed out with 1950’s The Furies as Barbara Stanwyck’s tyrannical cattle rancher father. He died on April 7, 1950 two days after his 67th birthday. His recording of “September Song” from Broadway’s Knickerbocker Holiday which was heard in the 1950 film, September Affair was re-released in conjunction with the film and went straight to the top of the Hit Parade.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930), directed by D.W. Griffith

Known as “the father of film technique” and “the man who invented Hollywood”, D.W. Griffith made his talkie debut with this 1930 film which was not a success and helped end his monumental career that would last through just one more film, 1931’s The Struggle. Whatever shortcomings the film may have, and it has several, Walter Huston’s performance is not one of them. Kay Hammond as Mary Todd Lincoln and Ian Keith as John Wilkes Booth are fine as well, but Una Merkel, saddled with poorly written dialogue as Lincoln’s true love, Ann Rutledge, leaves a lot to be desired.

DODSWORTH (1936), directed by William Wyler

Walter Huston received his first Oscar nomination for reprising his 1934 Broadway role as the newly retired automotive tycoon who takes a long-planned European vacation with his wife only to see his marriage disintegrate. Ruth Chatterton as his social-climbing, youth-obsessed wife is very good, as is David Niven as one of her conquests, but Huston as the stoic retiree who just wants to relax and enjoy life is simply superb. Almost matching him is Mary Astor as a charming divorcee who is the opposite of Chatterton in every way. Maria Ouspeskaya received a Best Supporting Actress nod for her portrayal of an influential baroness.

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941), directed by William Dieterle

Stephen Vincent Benet’s classic short story was made into a film called All That Money Can Buy, a title which failed to sell the film. It only became a hit after its title was changed back to the one under which the world knew it. James Craig is the young farmer who makes a pack with devil only to regret it. Anne Shirley is his wife, Jane Darwell, fresh from her Oscar win for The Grapes of Wrath, is his mother. Edward Arnold is orator Daniel Webster who argues Craig’s release from the pact and a superb Walter Huston is Mr. Scratch AKA The Devil in another great Oscar nominated performance.

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz

James Cagney campaigned for the lead in this musical biography of Broadway legend George M. Cohan after Fred Astaire turned it down. Cagney, suspected by Washington Republican witch hunters of being a Communist, knew this All-American flag-waver would clear the fierce Democrat’s reputation once and for all. Cagney, of course, is magnificent in his Oscar-winning role, but right behind him is Walter Huston as his Vaudevillian father, Jerry Cohan. The latter’s Oscar nomination was assured by his unabashedly sentimental death scene written at his request. There’s still not a dry eye in any audience when that scene plays out.

THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948), directed by John Huston

John Huston’s superb film noir in a western setting provided both Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt with great acting opportunities as would-be contractors in 1925 Tampico, Mexico who become gold prospecting partners with the aid of grizzled old prospector Walter Huston in the wilds of Mexico. As good as Bogart and Holt, as well as Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane and Alfonso Bedoya are in the film’s other major roles, it’s the elder Huston’s still enthralling portrayal of the toothless old prospector with the righteous laugh that elevates his son’s film to the heights. Both Hustons won well deserved Oscars.