Born May 30, 1896 in Goshen, Indiana, Howard Winchester Hawks was the eldest of five children of one of the Midwest’s wealthiest families. The family moved to Pasadena, California due to his mother’s poor health after the birth of her fifth child in 1906.
Hawks attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York studying mechanical engineering upon graduating high school. His friend Victor Fleming, then a cinematographer for Allan Dwan, helped get him his first job in the film industry as a prop man for Douglas Fairbanks. A flight instructor during World War I, he and his brother Kenneth, who had also been in the Air Force, moved to Hollywood after the war.
Hawks began his career as a writer and second unit director which lasted from the late 1910s to well into the 1920s, obtaining his first directorial credit for The Road to Glory in 1926. In 1928 he married actress Athole Shearer (Norma’s sister). Brother Kenneth married Mary Astor that same year and brother Bill married Bessie Love the following year. Another famous actress, Carole Lombard was Hawks’ cousin. All three brothers’ first marriages would end in divorce, Howard’s lasting the longest. He and Athole divorced in 1940.
Establishing himself as one of the most versatile directors of the early 1930s, Hawks directed the men-in-flight classic, The Dawn Patrol, the men-in-prison classic, The Criminal Code and the gangster classic, Scarface in quick succession from 1930-32. He then tackled comedy with such classics as Twentieth Century, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday and Ball of Fire from 1934-1941 with time out for 1939’s salute to pilots, Only Angels Have Wings and 1941’s biography of the most decorated soldier of World War I, Sergeant York, which earned him his only Oscar nomination. Married to socialite Nancy “Slim” Gross from 1941-1949, the marriage produced his only child, daughter Kitty Hawks.
Hawks’ input during the 1940s encompassed everything from the epic World War II film, Air Force to the Bogie and Bacall hits, To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep to the classic John Wayne western, Red River to the Cary Grant in drag comedy, I Was a Male War Bride.
The 1950s brought still more varied output with such films as the Kirk Douglas western, The Big Sky, the anthology film, O. Henry’s Full House for which he directed one episode, the Cary Grant comedy, Monkey Business, the Marilyn Monroe-Jane Russell musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the historical drama, Land of the Pharaohs, and another classic John Wayne western, Rio Bravo. It also brought his third and final marriage to actress Dee Hartford which lasted from 1953 to 1960.
The great director’s output slowed in the 1960s, but he was still able to vary his product with such diverse films as the safari inspired Hatari! , the comedy, Man’s Favorite Sport?, the racing drama, Red Line 7000, and yet another John Wayne western, El Dorado. He directed his last film, his fourth John Wayne western, Rio Lobo in 1970. It was Wayne who would present him with his long overdue honorary Oscar at the 1974 Academy Awards.
Howard Hawks died on December 26, 1977. He was 81.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
Long considered a classic, this screwball comedy was a huge flop on its initial release, receiving devastatingly bad reviews. According to the New York Times’ review, it was one long cliché, lasting just one week at Radio City Music Hall. A critical reassessment of Hawks in the 1950s brought both him and the film to the attention of a new generation. By 1972 the film had such a vaunted reputation that Peter Bogdanovich’s tribute film, What’s Up, Doc? became an instant hit in part because of its fabled connection. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, May Robson, Charlie Ruggles and two leopards, one tame, one wild, were the stars.
HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)
Hawks’ next outing with Grant was the sobering men and airplanes classic, Only Angels Have Wings. After that it was back to comedy as Grant starred as editor Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson in this gender-bending, rapid-fire dialogue remake of The Front Page which had been a huge hit for Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien nine years earlier. Grant is fine, of course, but the revelation here was Russell who followed up on the unexpected flair for comedy she provided in the previous year’s The Women with her knockout performance. Ralph Bellamy co-starred.
BALL OF FIRE (1941)
Hawks took on another classic when he directed Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s take on Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Barbara Stanwyck as a burlesque queen on the lam from her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews) who stumbles onto a group of lexicographers including her would-be prince (Gary Cooper) and seven befuddled elderly professors (Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Leonid Kinskey, Richard Haydn, Aubrey Mather). Hawks received his only Oscar nomination for the same year’s Sergeant York which doesn’t hold up quite as well.
RED RIVER (1948)
Hawks’ classic western was a masterful take on Mutiny on the Bounty with a screenplay by the legendary Borden Chase from his Saturday Evening Post short story. Hawks’ direction of John Wayne as the tough-as-nails trial boss was a revelation. No less impressive was his direction of stage actor Montgomery Clift as Wayne’s adopted son in first film, although it was the actor’s second film, Fred Zinnemann’s The Search, which beat it into theatres that earned him his first Oscar nomination that year. The supporting cast includes Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, Harry Carey, Harry Carey, Jr. and Noah Beery Jr.
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953)
Although known for his versatility, one genre no one expected the macho Hawks to tackle was the musical, but he surprisingly well with this adaptation of the 1949 Broadway smash that made a legend of Carol Channing. Hawks’ direction of Marilyn Monroe as the screen’s Lorelei Lee went a good way in establishing her legend as well. The film also benefitted from a build-up of co-star Jane Russell’s part. The two are ably assisted by Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan and foghorn voiced child actor George Winslow. The score’s best-known song is “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” which here they indeed are.
HOWARD HAWKS AND OSCAR
Sergeant York (1941) – Nominated – Best Actor
Career Achievement (1974) – Oscar – Honorary Award
