John Huston was born in Nevada, Missouri, in 1906. The son of actor Walter Houston, John survived a sickly youth (enlarged heart and kidney problems) to become a professional boxer and become the highest rank in California only to see his career ended in 1921 with a badly broken nose during combat. Huston dabbled in painting, horseback riding, opera, and eventually began to follow in his father's footsteps by accepting minor roles in off-Broadway productions. A career detour to Mexico found Huston teaching horseback riding and becoming an honorary member of the Mexican cavalry. At the same time he began to write and wrote a play called "Frankie and Johnny". It sold quickly. This encouraged him and he soon returned to California to work as a screenwriter for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. After a series of personal misadventures, he went to work for Warner Brothers Studio as a screenwriter, co-authoring screenplays for a number of major films including Sergeant York. The success of this film and an Oscar nomination provided Huston with the ability to request and receive the chance to direct a film on the condition that his next screenplay became a hit. With this incentive he wrote High Sierra which became a resounding success under the direction of Raoul Walsh and made a star of the little-known (at that time) actor, Humphrey Bogart. In his directorial debut in 1941, Huston worked on Dashiell Hammett's A Detective. story, The Maltese Falcon. This was a risk as the previous two film versions of this novel had been box office failures, so Warner was betting on Huston's ability to avoid the problems that plagued the previous versions. The gamble paid off with Huston remaining faithful to the novel, keeping much of the dialogue, strictly... to the center of the paper... of nations. His films were visually magnetic, tight and sparingly directed such that little ever remained on the cutting room floor. John Houston left us a rich legacy of films that will continue to entertain generations to come. Works Cited "John Huston--Biography." IMDb. IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001379/bio, Web. June 21, 2014. “John Huston.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Huston, June 7, 2014. Web. June 22, 2014. “John Huston.” TCM. TCM.com, http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/510041%7C86038/John-Huston/ Web. June 21, 2014."The African Queen (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_African_Queen, June 7, 2014. Web. June 22, 2014. “The Maltese Falcon (1941 film).” TCM. TCM.com, http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/510291%7C86058/Maltese-Falcon/ Web. June 21 2014