Early life

Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he attended Winchester Street Public School. He was the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Houghston, a provincial farmer who founded a construction company. He was of Scottish and Irish descent. He had a brother and two sisters, one of whom was the famous theatrical voice coach Margaret Carrington (1877-1941).

His family moved, before his birth, from Orangeville, Ontario where they were farmers. As a young man, he worked in construction and in his spare time attended the Shaw School of Acting. He made his stage debut in 1902. He went on to tour in In Convict Stripes, a play by Hal Reid, father of Wallace Reid and also appeared with Richard Mansfield in Julius Caesar. He again toured in another play The Sign of the Cross. In 1904, he married Rhea Gore (1882-1938) and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada, Missouri. He maintained these jobs until 1909.

Career

In 1909, his marriage floundering, he appeared in vaudeville with an older actress called Bayonne Whipple (1865-1937) (born Mina Rose). They were billed as Whipple and Huston and, in 1915, they married. Vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s.

Huston began his Broadway career on January 22, 1924. He appeared in a play, Mr. Pitt. Several more Broadway plays solidified his fame, e.g., Desire Under the Elms, Kongo, The Barker, Elmer the Great, Dodsworth.

Once talkies began in Hollywood, he achieved fame in both character roles and as a leading man. His first major role was portraying the villainous Trampas in the western The Virginian (1929) with Gary Cooper.

He starred as the title character in the Broadway theatrical adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel Dodsworth in 1934 and the play's film version two years later. For his role as Sam Dodsworth, Huston won the New York Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award.

Huston remained busy throughout the 1930s and 1940s, both on stage and screen (becoming one of America's most distinguished actors). He performed "September Song" in the original Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday in 1938. Among his films are Abraham Lincoln (1930), Rain (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Mission to Moscow (1943), a pro-Soviet World War II propaganda film as Ambassador Joseph E. Davies.

In 1941, Walter Huston portrayed the part of the ship's captain, who is shot while delivering the black bird to Sam Spade in the "Maltese Falcon". This was an uncredited performance. Walter's son, John Huston, directed the picture. John Huston as a practical joke had his father enter the scene and die over 10 different takes.

In 1948, he played Howard in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was also directed by his son, John Huston. The film was based on B. Traven's novel, which told the story of three gold diggers in 1920s post-revolution Mexico. Walter Huston won the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film, while John Huston won the Best Director Academy Award, thus making them the first father and son to win at the same ceremony.

In the 1950 release of the film entitled, "September Affair", starring Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotton, Walter Huston sang the title song in the movie. The "September Song" was a very popular romantic tune during the 1950s and 60s. He had originally appeared in the Broadway show "Knickerbocker Holiday", where he debuted the song. His last film was the 1950, The Furies with Barbara Stanwyck

Along with Anthony Veiller, he narrated the Why We Fight series of World War II documentaries directed by Frank Capra.

Death

On April 7, 1950, two days after his 67th birthday, Huston died of an aortic aneurysm in his hotel suite in Beverly Hills. He was cremated and his ashes were buried at Belmont Memorial Park in Fresno, California.

Legacy

In 1960, Huston was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6624 Hollywood Blvd. for his contribution to motion pictures. He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Huston's son John initially became a screenwriter, before becoming an Academy Award-winning director and acclaimed actor. All of Huston's grandchildren have become actors, as well as his great-grandson. Granddaughter Anjelica sang his famous "September Song" on the May 7, 2012 episode of the NBC TV series Smash.

In 1998, John Weld wrote and published the biographical book September Song - An Intimate Biography of Walter Huston.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Gentlemen of the Press	Wickland Snell
1929	The Lady Lies	Robert Rossiter
1929	The Virginian	Trampas
1930	The Virtuous Sin	Gen. Gregori Platoff
1930	The Bad Man	Pancho Lopez
1930	Abraham Lincoln	Abraham Lincoln
1931	The Criminal Code	Mark Brady
1931	A House Divided	Seth Law
1931	The Star Witness	District Attorney Whitlock
1931	The Ruling Voice	Jack Bannister
1932	The Beast of the City	Jim Fitzpatrick
1932	Night Court	Judge Moffett
1932	American Madness	Dickson
1932	Rain	Alfred Davidson
1932	Kongo	Flin
1932	The Woman from Monte Carlo	Captain Carlaix
1932	Law and Order	Frame 'Saint' Johnson
1932	The Wet Parade	Pow Tarleton
1933	Gabriel Over the White House	Hon. Judson Hammond
1933	Ann Vickers	Barney Dolphin
1933	Hell Below	Lieut. Comdr. T.J. Toler USN
1933	Storm at Daybreak	Mayor Dushan Radovic
1933	The Prizefighter and the Lady	Professor
1934	Keep 'Em Rolling	Sgt. Benjamin E. 'Benny' Walsh
1935	Trans-Atlantic Tunnel	President of the United States
1936	Dodsworth	Sam Dodsworth	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor
1936	Rhodes of Africa	Cecil John Rhodes
1938	Of Human Hearts	Ethan Wilkins
1939	The Light That Failed	Torpenhow
1941	The Devil and Daniel Webster	Mr. Scratch	Alternative title: All That Money Can Buy Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor
1941	Swamp Water	Thursday Ragan
1941	The Maltese Falcon	Captain Jacobi	Uncredited
1941	The Shanghai Gesture	Sir Guy Charteris
1942	Yankee Doodle Dandy	Jerry Cohan	Nominated-Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1942	Always In My Heart	MacKenzie 'Mac' Scott
1943	The Outlaw	Doc Holliday
1943	Edge of Darkness	Dr. Martin Stensgard
1943	Mission to Moscow	Ambassador Joseph E. Davies
1943	The North Star	Dr. Kurin
1943	December 7th	Uncle Sam 'U.S.'
1944	Dragon Seed	Ling Tan
1945	And Then There Were None	Dr. Edward G. Armstrong
1946	Dragonwyck	Ephraim Wells
1946	Duel in the Sun	The Sinkiller
1948	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	Howard	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture National Board of Review Award for Best Actor New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (2nd place)
1948	Summer Holiday	Mr. Nat Miller
1949	The Great Sinner	General Ostrovsky
1950	The Furies	T.C. Jeffords

[ Source: Wikipedia ]