Walter Huston (1884 - 1950)

• actor
• born Walter Houghston on April 6, 1884, in Toronto, Ontario
• died April 7, 1950
• studied engineering
• by 1905 he was successful in vaudeville and was cast in a New York play, but after his marriage (to newspaper-woman Rhea Gore) and the birth of his son (director-to-be John Huston) in 1906, he decided to meet his responsibilities by working as an engineer at water and electrical plants in Nevada and then St. Louis, Missouri
• returned to the stage in 1909 and soon became a popular headliner in the vaudeville circuit
• divorced in 1913 and later married two more times
• in 1924 he starred in the Broadway plays Mr. Pitt and Desire Under the Elms
• in1929, he joined the exodus of Broadway performers to the movies, which were switching to sound
• although in his mid-40's cast in some romantic leads as well as character parts
• occasionally returned to Broadway, where he scored triumphs in Dodsworth, a role he later repeated on film, and Knickerbocker Holiday in which he gave his famous rendition of "September Song"
• films include:
  • D.W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930), title role
  • Dodsworth (1936) the New York Film Critics voted Huston best actor of 1936 for this performance
  • The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) (aka All That Money Can Buy) as Mr. Scratch (the devil)
  • The Maltese Falcon (1941) cameo as Captain Jacobi
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Academy Award for best supporting actor
• quotes:
  • Son, give 'em a good show, and always travel first class.
  • Hell, I ain't paid to make good lines sound good. I'm paid to make bad ones sound good.
• famous line (from The Devil and Daniel Webster): A soul---a soul is nothing. Can you see it, smell it, touch it, no.
• biography: The Hustons (1989) by Lawrence Grobel
• filmography

back to the Well Known Canadians Page