John Marcellus Huston August 5 1906 August 28 1987 was an American film director screenwriter actor and visual artist He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed many of which are today considered classics The Maltese Falcon 1941 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 The Asphalt Jungle 1950 The African Queen 1951 The Misfits 1961 Fat City 1972 The Man Who Would Be King 1975 and Prizzis Honor 1985 In his early years Huston studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris He explored the visual aspects of his films throughout his career sketching each scene on paper beforehand then carefully framing his characters during the shooting While most directors rely on postproduction editing to shape their final work Huston instead created his films while they were being shot with little editing needed Some of Hustons films were adaptations of important novels often depicting an heroic quest as in Moby Dick or The Red Badge of Courage In many films different groups of people while struggling toward a common goal would become doomed forming destructive alliances giving the films a dramatic and visual tension Many of his films involved themes such as religion meaning truth freedom psychology colonialism and war Huston has been referred to as a titan a rebel and a renaissance man in the Hollywood film industry Author Ian Freer describes him as cinemas Ernest Hemingwaya filmmaker who was never afraid to tackle tough issues head on During his 46year career Huston received 15 Oscar nominations winning twice He directed both his father Walter Huston and daughter Anjelica Huston to Oscar wins Description above from the Wikipedia article John Huston licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia