Walter Huston
Walter Huston was one of modern theater's greatest actors.
He spent 48 years in the theater. He acted in stock companies, Broadway hits, vaudeville, radio, television and the movies. In each field, he became a headline and a star.
In motion pictures, his greatest roles were those of Abraham Lincoln in the D.W. Griffith production of that title, the devil in "All That Money Can Buy" and the sourdough prospector in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
Huston was one of the most eminent actors on the Broadway stage since his first starring role as Marshall Pitt in "Mr. Pitt" in 1924. He starred in many of the early Eugene O'Neill plays including his famous role of Ephriam Cabot in "Desire Under the Elms."
Audiences remembered his characterization of blusty Nifty Miller in "The Barker" in 1927 and his soft-voiced Sam Dodsworth in 1935.
Huston liked to say that a "hell-fire and brimstone" preacher turned him to acting.
"I imitated him one day in church, waving my arms around and aping his gestures," Huston told an interviewer. "That was my first public appearance. The only applause I got was a spanking."
He ran away from home at the age of 18 and joined a traveling stock company. When that was closed down he rode the freight train to New York and got a walk-on part with Richard Mansfield. Three years later he quit the stage to try engineering and contracting. But the footlight fever was too strong in him. He returned to vaudeville in 1909.
His first motion picture was "Gentlemen of the Press" in 1929. Others include "Cecil Rhodes," "The Virginian," "The Criminal Code," "The Light That Failed," "Rain," "Gabriel Over the White House," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "The Shanghai Gesture," "The Outlaw," "Mission to Moscow," "North Star" and "Dragon Seed."
His last picture was "The Furies" with Barbara Stanwyck.
Related stars
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Points of interest
Academy Awards
| Year | Category | Work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Best Actor | Dodsworth | Nomination |
| 1941 | Best Actor | All That Money Can Buy | Nomination |
| 1942 | Best Supporting Actor | Yankee Doodle Dandy | Nomination |
| 1948 | Best Supporting Actor | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | Win |
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