Hawks, Howard Winchester

(1896-1977)

   Born in Goshen, Indiana, film director, producer, and writer Howard Hawks grew up in a wealthy family that moved to California while he was young. He attended Throop Polytechnic Institute, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Cornell University, where he graduated in 1918. Hawks briefly served in the U. S. Army Air Service, and after a number of jobs he moved to Hollywood and began work in the film industry in 1924.

   He wrote his first screenplay, Tiger Love, in 1924 and directed his first film, The Road to Glory, in 1925. Hawks made a number of classic films across different genres. In 1932 he directed Scarface, based on the life of the gangster Al Capone, and starring Paul Muni. In 1938 he had success with the comedy, Bringing Up Baby, starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. His film based on the life of World War I hero Sergeant York won Gary Cooper an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1944, Hawks directed the first film coupling Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, To Have and Have Not, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Bogart and Bacall also starred in Hawk’s The Big Sleep, a Raymond Chandler novel. Hawks also made a few classic Westerns, most notably Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959). His Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) starred Marilyn Monroe. Hawks last film was Rio Lobo, made in 1977. He was given a lifetime achievement award by the Academy of Arts in 1975.

   See also Cinema.