Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 - December 26, 1977) is an american director, producer, writer of the Classic Hollywood Era.
He was born Howard Winchester Hawks in Goshen, Indiana.
Hawks was known for his versatility as a director, filming comedies, dramas, and Westerns with equal ease and skill. Critic Leonard Maltin has labelled Hawks "the greatest American director who is not a household name," noting that, while his work may not be as well known as Ford, Welles, or Hitchcock, he is no less a talented filmmaker.
He died in Palm Springs, California, from the aftermath of a fall.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Howard Hawks has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street.
Hawks was notorious for fabricating stories about the movie business, usually in a way which inflated his already considerable contributions to it. One such story has it that Hawks told Ernest Hemingway that he could make a good movie out of the worst thing that Hemingway had ever written, at which point Hemingway challenged him to make a movie out of To Have and Have Not.
Books
- Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, Todd MacCarthy (Grove Press, 1997)
- Howard Hawks: American Artist, Jim Hillier , Peter Wollen (British Film Institute, 1997)
- Hawks by Hawks, Joseph MacBride (University of California Press, 1982)
External links
See also: Other notable figures in Western films