As the most important member of a Hollywood family dynasty whose professional roots were planted in vaudeville, John Huston (1906-1987) left an indelible mark on American cinema as a director, writer, and actor.

The son of actor Walter Huston and Rhea Gore Huston, John Huston was born in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. He was named for his maternal grandfather. At age four Huston's parents separated; they divorced in 1912. His father, who had temporarily quit vaudeville to take various jobs as an electrical engineer, decided to return to his true calling and left for New York. John and his mother moved to Dallas. In 1916 Huston was diagnosed as having an enlarged heart and Bright's disease, or nephritis, a sometimes fatal kidney disease. For the next two years Huston and his mother (who had remarried) traveled around the United States to get the opinions of various doctors. He was a...