Walter Huston

Walter Thomas Huston ( HEW-stən; April 6, 1883 or 1884 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian and American (by naturalization) actor and singer. Huston won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, directed by his son John Huston. He is the patriarch of the four generations of the Huston acting family, including his son John, grandchildren Anjelica Huston and Danny Huston, as well as great-grandchild Jack Huston.

Huston was born on April 6, 1883, in Toronto, Ontario, where he attended Winchester Street Public School. He was the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Huston, a 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 theatrical voice coach Margaret Carrington (1877–1941).

His family moved, before his birth, from Melville, just south of 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), a sports editor for various publications, and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada, Missouri. He maintained these jobs until 1909.

The couple's only child John Huston was born on August 5, 1906, in Nevada, Missouri, at which point Rhea gave up her work to concentrate on motherhood.

In 1909, with his marriage foundering, he appeared with an older actress named Bayonne Whipple (born Mina Rose, 1865–1937). They were billed as Whipple and Huston.

Walter and Rhea Gore Huston divorced in 1913, and in December 1914, Huston married Mina Rose. Vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s, and Walter's son John was sent to live and study in boarding schools. During summer vacations, John traveled separately with each of his parents – with father Walter on vaudeville tours, and with his mother Rhea to horse races and other sports events.

Walter Huston began his Broadway career on January 22, 1924, when he performed there in the play Mr. Pitt. He then solidified his Broadway career with roles in productions such as Desire Under the Elms, Kongo, The Barker, and Elmer the Great.

Once talkies began in Hollywood, he was cast in both character roles and as a leading man. His first major role was portraying the villainous Trampas in The Virginian (1929), a Western that costars Gary Cooper and Richard Arlen. Some of Huston's other early sound roles include Abraham Lincoln (1930), Rain (1932), and Gabriel Over the White House (1933).

The career of Mina Rose (a.k.a. Bayonne Whipple) did not follow the same trajectory as Huston's, and their act -- and marriage -- collapsed after Huston began to accept solo work. After several years of separation, the two divorced in 1931. Huston remarried that same year, to Ninetta (Nan) Sunderland, and the two remained married until Huston's death.

On April 7, 1950, Huston died of an aortic aneurysm in his hotel suite in Beverly Hills one day after his birthday. He was cremated.

In 1960, a decade after his death, Huston received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, memorializing his contributions to the entertainment industry through his extensive, critically acclaimed work in motion pictures. He was also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.

In 1998, Scarecrow Press published John Weld's September Song—An Intimate Biography of Walter Huston.