John Huston - Personal Life

Personal Life

To producer George Stevens, Jr., Huston symbolized "intellect, charm and physical grace" within the film industry. He adds, "He was the most charismatic of the directors I knew, speaking with a soothing, melodic voice that was often mimicked, but was unique to him."

Huston loved the outdoors, especially sports such as hunting while living in Ireland. He claimed that he had no orthodox religion. Among his life's adventures before becoming a Hollywood filmmaker, he had been an amateur boxer, reporter, short-story writer, portrait artist in Paris, a cavalry rider in Mexico, and a documentary filmmaker during World War II. Besides sports and adventure, he enjoyed hard liquor and relationships with women of all types — one of the reasons he was married five times. Stevens describes him as someone who "lived life to its fullest". Barson even suggests that Huston's "flamboyant life" as a rebel would possibly make for "an even more engaging tale than most of his movies".

His daughter, Anjelica Huston notes that he did not like Hollywood, and "especially despised Beverly Hills ... he thought it was just fake from the ground up. He didn't like any of that; he was not intrigued or attracted by it." She notes that in contrast, "he liked to be in the wild places; he liked animals as much as he liked people."

He was married five times:

1. Dorothy Harvey — This marriage lasted 7 years and ended in 1933.
2. Lesley Black — It was during his marriage to Black that he embarked on an affair with married New York socialite Marietta FitzGerald. While her lawyer husband was helping the war effort, the pair were once rumoured to have made love so vigorously, they broke a friend's bed.
3. Evelyn Keyes — The Hustons adopted a son Pablo, from Mexico.
4. Enrica Soma — They had two children: a daughter, Anjelica Huston, and a son, Walter Antony "Tony" Huston, now an attorney and who is father of actor Jack Huston. Soma also had a daughter, Allegra Huston, as the result of an extramarital affair with John Julius Norwich; Huston treated the girl as one of his own children following Soma's death four years later.
5. Celeste Shane — In his autobiography, An Open Book, Huston refers to her as a "crocodile", and states only that if he had his life to do over, he would not marry a fifth time.

Four of his marriages ended in divorce. His fourth wife, Soma, died during their marriage. In addition to his children with Soma, he fathered a son, actor Danny Huston, with author Zoe Sallis.

Among his friends were Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway. Humphrey Bogart was one of his best friends and Huston delivered the eulogy at his funeral.

Huston visited Ireland in 1951 and stayed at Luggala, County Wicklow, the home of Garech Browne, a member of the Guinness family. He visited Ireland several times afterwards and on one of these visits he purchased and restored a Georgian home, St Clerans, of Craughwell, County Galway. Between 1960 and 1971 he served as Master of Fox Hounds (MFH) of the County Galway Hunt – the famous "Galway Blazers" – whose kennels are at Craughwell. He renounced his U.S. citizenship and became an Irish citizen in 1964. His daughter Anjelica attended school in Ireland at Kylemore Abbey for a number of years. A film school is now dedicated to him on the NUIG campus.

Huston was an accomplished painter who wrote in his autobiography, "Nothing has played a more important role in my life". As a young man he studied at the Smith School of Art in Los Angeles but dropped out within a few months. He later studied at the Art Students League of New York. He painted throughout his life and had studios in each of his homes. He had owned a wide collection of art, including a notable collection of Pre-Columbian art.

A heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with emphysema in 1978. By the last year of his life he could not breathe for more than twenty minutes without needing oxygen. He died on August 28, 1987 in Middletown, Rhode Island from pneumonia as a complication of lung disease in his rented home. Huston is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.