Anjelica Huston
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
Remembering her father: "He was 6-foot-3; his voice was big. He was devestatingly attractive--even to his daughter as a child. I remember watching him get dressed sometimes."He would ask me about his ties--rows of ties. I would pick out something, and he would never follow my advice. He had a sort of contempt for vanity, but he knew exactly the kind of impact he had . . . "He had a cruel streak--made him interesting. He liked his fun. It was certainly sometimes at the expense of others. I think he was sometimes reckless, and at worst thoughtless, but I don't think he was ever a man of bad intent. I think that he regretted things later, after he'd had time to consider. But I think if there were sin there, it was that he was very much preoccupied with what he wanted to do, which didn't necessarily coincide with his having a wife, or having children." --Anjelica Huston to James Kaplan in The New York Times, February 12, 1989
"I bought it when I was told beauty came from the inside. When you become older, it's an act of faith to believe beauty is inside. Do I like my looks? Sometimes . . . I'd say I'm one of those people who's handsome rather than beautiful. I have the same duality my father had. He could look wrinkled or child-like within hours. Feature-wise I'm more like him than [my mother]. I think I'm like a tall Englishwoman." --Huston quoted in Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1990
Biography
If ever there lived a woman more destined for a life of glamour, sophistication, and stardom than Anjelica Huston, that fortunate soul was most certainly born into royalty. From a fairy-tale childhood in the hills of Ireland to a history-making film career that would see her become Hollywood's first-ever third generation Academy Award-winner, Huston credited much of her success with her ability to transform herself through sheer force of will and her flair for making her critics eat their words. The daughter of famed actor/writer/director John Huston and first generation Italian-American model/prima ballerina Enrica "Ricki" Soma (his third wife, who earned the nickname "The Mona Lisa Girl" for her painterly beauty), Huston was born July 8, 1951 in Santa Monica, California. A world traveler by eight, she attended The Convent of the Sisters of Mercy until age 11, and quite took to the religion despite suspicions that her father attempted to sidestep indoctrination by claiming the family atheist. Soon after, Huston attained Irish citizenship. Her early years were spent at St. Clerans, a 110-acre Irish Georgian estate built in 1784. Nestled comfortably in western Ireland, the picturesque country manor (once the home of Merv Griffin) had been purchased by her father, who had moved to Ireland in 1952 (before renouncing his U.S. citizenship in 1964). When benevolent patriarch John was around, he was a loving yet stern presence who never suffered fools, encouraged his children to take calculated risks, and regaled the starry eyed siblings with thrilling tales of adventure and wildlife. Ricki, with her uniquely striking beauty and flair for haute couture, may have been, "an exotic fish out of water" in such a pastoral setting, yet she never appeared self-conscious. At St. Clerans, lavish picnics, fox hunts with with the Galway Blazers (of which John was Joint Master), and equestrian sports were welcomed ways of passing days. On occasion, the wanderlusting siblings would slip away to explore the ruins of a nearby castle. Novelists, socialites, ambassadors, countesses, and celebrities such as Peter O'Toole were a common site at St. Clerans. It was a botched staging of Macbeth at the family's first Christmas in the estate that Huston first caught the eye of the bedazzled "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) star. Though her parents' union was dissolving, the siblings remained largely shielded from the turmoil, so it came as quite a shock when John and Ricki separated in 1960. The following year, Huston and Tony moved to London with their mother. Neither parent ever discussed the separation with the children, and the move was done in such haste that it seemed to happen in a camera's flash. There, with the current of culture shock surging inside, Huston attended the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle. A pariah on the playground, she seemed as out of place in London as her mother had been in Ireland, yet more self aware and despairing about it. Meanwhile, after transferring schools, a penchant for playing hooky and shoplifting began to strain the relationship between Huston and her mother. Life in the city was vibrant; music was ubiquitous, and the revelation of seeing legends like The Kinks, Cream, The Animals, and Pink Floyd in their prime proved nearly as inspiring to Huston as the French New Wave masterworks unspooling at the local cinemas. She was acutely aware that despite being born in sunny Santa Monica, her distinctive beauty was as far from "All-American" as the films of Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were from those of Blake Edwards or Russ Meyer. Just as Huston was becoming acclimated with her new environment, however, a cutting remark made by fashion photographer Richard Avedon cast doubt on her future as a model. Some time later Avedon would photograph Huston for Vogue, just one of many instances in which she plated crow for her critics. A school search for the female lead in Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" (1969) was being launched throughout London, and despite producer Dyson Lovel's request that Huston audition, a letter from her father to his Italian counterpart strictly forbade the prospect, as she was to star in his own film "A Walk with Love and Death" (1969), which was created specifically for her. Infuriated by her father's unwelcome intervention, unable to connect with the character, and acutely self-conscious in front of the film crew she had grown up around, Huston's frustrations with the film were only compounded when it was released to little fanfare, and critic John Simon dismissed her performance as "supremely inept" (perhaps his kindest words in the review). A portrait for British Vogue led to regular modeling work, and an encounter with British New Wave filmmaker Tony Richardson in an invitation to audition for the role of Ophelia his upcoming Roundhouse production of Hamlet. Though she lost the role to Marianne Faithfull, Huston remained her understudy through the play's London run. Meanwhile, Huston and her mother had begun to grow apart. Tragically, a heart-to-heart conversation concerning the prospects of reconciliation came too late, as Ricki perished in a car accident in 1969. Later, when Hamlet went on tour to New York, Francesca Annis took over the role of Ophelia, relegating Huston to a walk-on role that nevertheless served as the bridge to a new life stateside. Before the year was out, Huston was living in New York City. A tumultuous romance with schizophrenic, twice-married photographer Bob Richardson (over 20-years her senior) blossomed during a photo shoot for Harper's Baazar that plunged Huston headlong into the world of high fashion. A friendship with Penny Marshall led to walk-on roles in "Laverne and Shirley" (ABC 1976-1883), and a stint with Ford Models found Huston fulfilling her desire to become a fashion model. A stint in Europe served well to advance Huston's modeling career, but a return to New York a year later found Richardson growing dangerously erratic. Her father seemed to recognize this, offering his daughter an escape hatch in the form of a vacation to La Pax, Mexico -- which desperate Huston gladly accepted before moving to Los Angeles. A chance invitation to Jack Nicholson's birthday party resulted in a romance that endured for nearly two decades, and in 1980 Huston -- having dipped her toes back into the acting pool with appearances in "This is Spinal Tap" and "The Ice Pirates" (both 1984) -- enrolled in an acting class taught by Peggy Feury of the Loft Studio. Over the course of the next few years, the model morphed into an actress with increasing command of her body and craft. In March of 1983, an American Film Institution celebration honoring the work of John Huston was at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. He was in high spirits despite his deteriorating health, and in a rush of emotion Huston bungled her part of the presentation. She longed for a chance to correct the wrong that was "A Walk with Love and Death," and she got the opportunity when John Foreman presented her with the prospect of adapting Richard Condon's book Prizzi's Honor for the screen. Huston would star as Maerose Prizzi, the estranged granddaughter of an aging mafia don, and Jack as Charlie Partana, her former lover and the man for whom she still carries a flame. The film was quickly taking form when Huston signed with the Yvette Bikoff Agency. Convinced that her critical role in shepherding the project merited pay above scale, Huston goaded her new agent into pushing the issue with the producer. His caustic response decrying his inability to drop her from the film and her perceived lack of talent was precisely the kindling she needed to burn her absolute brightest, and that year at the Academy Awards, an elated Huston became the third Huston to win an Oscar when awarded Best Supporting Actress for her mesmerizingly nuanced performance. Nominations for her turn as a presumed-dead Holocaust victim who returns to her husband unexpectedly in Paul Mazursky's "Enemies: A Love Story" (1989) and as a sociopathic con artist in Stephen Frears' "The Grifters" (1990). The model/actress enjoyed an exhilarating film run that included parts in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989) and "Manhattan Murder Mysteries" (1993) and a wickedly fun turn as a hag who turns children into mice in Nicolas Roeg's "The Witches" (1990). Later, the woman who as a young girl glided around her bedroom pretending to be Morticia Addams found her force of will once again yielding fruitful results when she essayed the character in Barry Sonnenfeld's "The Addams Family" (1991), and its sequel "Addams Family Values" (1993). On occasion, Huston would return to the small screen for roles in the western "Lonesome Dove" (CBS 1988), and Roger Spottiswoode's "And The Band Played On" (HBO 1993), but her bread and butter was on the big screen, where performances in "The Player" (1992), "The Crossing Guard" (1995), and "Buffalo '66" (1988) offered impressive examples of her expanding range. In 2001, Huston appeared opposite Gene Hackman in director Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums," marking the beginnings of an ongoing  collaboration that would continue with "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), "The Darjeeling Limited" (2007), and "Isle of Dogs" (2017). The Golden Globes grew to love Huston during the 1990s, showering her in nominations that culminated in a win for her moving depiction of Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Women Suffrage Association, and founder of the League of Women Voters, in "Iron Jawed Angels" (2004). Over the course of the following decade, Huston drifted effortlessly drifting between film and television, keeping busy with appearances in shows like "Medium" (NBC/CBS 2005-2011) and "Smash" (NBC 2012-13). Interestingly -- at least for a celebrity initially known for turning heads in fashion mags -- the veteran actress seemed to find a second life as a voice-over artist beginning in the 2000s, and the work became steady with roles on the animated Dreamworks series "Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia" and Netflix's "All Hail King Julien" (both 2016). In May, 2018, Huston joined the cast of "John Wick 3: Parabellum."
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1961
Moved to London at age ten
1967
Auditioned for the role of Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of "Romeo and Juliet"
1969
Made feature acting debut with an uncredited appearance in her father, John Huston's "Sinful Davey"
1969
First starring role, "A Walk with Love and Death"; directed by her father (who also co-starred as her uncle)
1969
Moved to NYC after mother's death and was an understudy for Marianne Faithful in the Broadway production of "Hamlet"
1971
Modeled for photographer (an old friend of Huston's mother) Richard Avedon in a 30-page fashion shoot for <i>Vogue</i> magazine
1973
Moved to Los Angeles, CA to live with off-screen love Jack Nicholson
1976
Returned to the screen in Elia Kazan's "The Last Tycoon"; first film with Jack Nicholson
1981
Second film with Nicholson, Bob Rafelson's remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
1982
Acted on episodes of "Laverne and Shirley" (ABC)
1984
Career received a boost when she was cast as an Amazon with guns in "The Ice Pirates"
1984
Made TV-movie debut in "The Cowboy and the Ballerina" (CBS)
1984
Appeared in Rob Reiner's feature directing debut "This Is Spinal Tap"
1985
Landed breakthrough screen role as the Mafia princess in John Huston's "Prizzi's Honor"; third onscreen collaboration with Nicholson
1985
Played title role in the Los Angeles stage production of "Tamara"
1986
Joined Michael Jackson and Dick Shawn in Francis Ford Coppola's 17-minute, 3-D musical "Captain Eo" (produced for the Disney theme parks)
1987
Played a woman in a loveless marriage in John Huston's final film, "The Dead"; screenplay was adapted by brother, Tony from the short story of the same name by James Joyce
1987
Re-teamed with Coppola in her first leading role, "Gardens of Stone"
1988
Acted in half-brother Danny Huston's "Mr. North"; co-adapted by father, John Huston
1989
Received a Best Supporting Oscar nomination as a Nazi concentration camp survivor in Paul Mazursky's "Enemies, a Love Story"
1989
Cast as as Clara Allen in the CBS miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (adapted from Larry McMurtry's novel), received an Emmy nomination for Lead Actress in a Miniseries
1989
Acted in first film with director Woody Allen, "Crimes and Misdemeanors," playing the desperate mistress of Martin Landau
1990
Acted the part of the Grand High Witch in Nicolas Roeg's "The Witches"
1990
Received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Lily Dillon in "The Grifters"
1991
Portrayed gothic matriarch Morticia Addams in "The Addams Family"
1992
Appeared as herself in Robert Altman's "The Player"
1993
Portrayed Doctor Betsy Reisz in the acclaimed HBO movie "And the Band Played On" that followed the course of the AIDS crisis
1993
Re-teamed with Woody Allen for "Manhattan Murder Mystery"
1993
Reprised role of Morticia for "Addams Family Values"
1993
Offered a strong performance as the mother of an autistic child in the ABC miniseries "Family Pictures"
1995
Portrayed Calamity Jane in the CBS miniseries "Buffalo Girls" (adapted from Larry McMurtry's novel), received an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actress in a Miniseries
1995
Re-teamed with Nicholson to play an estranged couple in Sean Penn's "The Crossing Guard"
1996
Made directorial debut with "Bastard Out of Carolina" (originally filmed for TNT, but they would not air it due to its content; later aired on Showtime), received an Emmy nomination for Directing
1998
Acted in Danny Cannon's mediocre crime film "Phoenix" (HBO), portraying Ray Liotta's love interest
1998
Portrayed the evil stepmother in Andy Tennant's take on the Cinderella story "Ever After"
1998
Played Vincent Gallo's Buffalo Bills-crazed mom in Gallo's "Buffalo 66"
1999
Directed, co-produced and starred in "Agnes Browne" as a widowed mother of seven in 1960s Ireland
2000
Appeared in James Ivory's "The Golden Bowl" (based on the Henry James novel)
2001
Played the matriarch in a family of failed geniuses in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums"
2001
Portrayed the Lady in the Lake in the TNT retelling of the Arthurian legend "The Mists of Avalon"
2002
Starred opposite Clint Eastwood in "Blood Work"
2003
Co-starred with Hilary Swank in the HBO movie "Iron Jawed Angels," about the American women's suffrage movement during the early 1900s; received an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actress
2004
Co-starred with Bill Murray in Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" as Zissou's (Murray) estranged wife
2005
Directed Rosie O'Donnell and Andie MacDowell in the CBS movie "Riding the Bus With My Sister"
2006
Guest starred as an unorthodox psychiatrist in a four episode stint on the Showtime series "Huff"
2006
Cast in Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of Daniel Clowes' comic story "Art School Confidential"
2007
Co-starred with Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan in the western "Seraphim Falls"
2008
Played a missing persons investigator in a six-episode story arc on "Medium" (NBC), received an Emmy nomination for Guest Actress in a Drama
2008
Cast as Sam Rockwell's mother in the film "Choke," based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk
2010
Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2010
Played the curator of the Guggenheim and Kristen Bell's boss in the comedy "When in Rome"
2011
Cast opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen in "50/50"
2011
Cast in the comedy feature "The Big Year" opposite Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin
2012
Cast as the tenacious producer of a Broadway musical on NBC's "Smash"
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Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Remembering her father: "He was 6-foot-3; his voice was big. He was devestatingly attractive--even to his daughter as a child. I remember watching him get dressed sometimes."He would ask me about his ties--rows of ties. I would pick out something, and he would never follow my advice. He had a sort of contempt for vanity, but he knew exactly the kind of impact he had . . . "He had a cruel streak--made him interesting. He liked his fun. It was certainly sometimes at the expense of others. I think he was sometimes reckless, and at worst thoughtless, but I don't think he was ever a man of bad intent. I think that he regretted things later, after he'd had time to consider. But I think if there were sin there, it was that he was very much preoccupied with what he wanted to do, which didn't necessarily coincide with his having a wife, or having children." --Anjelica Huston to James Kaplan in The New York Times, February 12, 1989
"I bought it when I was told beauty came from the inside. When you become older, it's an act of faith to believe beauty is inside. Do I like my looks? Sometimes . . . I'd say I'm one of those people who's handsome rather than beautiful. I have the same duality my father had. He could look wrinkled or child-like within hours. Feature-wise I'm more like him than [my mother]. I think I'm like a tall Englishwoman." --Huston quoted in Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1990
On her first directing experience, helming the controversial "Bastard Out of Carolina": "I was surprised that a television network would embark on this. But since the script had been sent to me directly by TNT, I assumed they knew what they were getting into."As we made the film, I was left blissfully alone, and I received only good reports when I sent back my dailies. By the time I handed in my director's cut, I was feeling quite in the clover." --Huston to Warren Berger in The New York Times, December 15, 1996
About acting in and directing "Agnes Browne": "I'm more terrified by technology than I should be, but I'm pretty good with people, and certainly still better in front of the camera than behind it . . . "I've been on sets a long time, so there's not a lot people can tell me about what goes on. I basically do what's honest to me, and rely on my cameraman [Anthony B. Richmond] to keep it on the right side of the line and to watch over me when I get so far into the acting discipline that I can't be objective." --Huston quoted in Premiere: Women in Hollywood 1999
"My father was extremely loving to me and funny and wise and understanding, and at other times extremely demanding, critical, calculating, exacting. When you're a young woman, I think you want to please a lot, so maybe you accept more of the criticism than you would as an older person. But criticism can be very wounding. It certainly was to me."---Anjelica Huston to Graham Fuller in Interview, FEBRUARY 2000.
