Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks was thrice married. First, he married actress Athole Shearer in 1928. The couple had two children, Barbara and David. They got divorced in 1940.

He married socialite Slim Keith in 1941. Together, they had a daughter, Kitty. The couple divorced in 1949.

His third marriage was with television actress Dee Hartford in 1953. The couple divorced in 1960.

Howard Hawks was born on 30 May 1896, in Goshen, Indiana, U.S.A. He was the eldest child of Frank W. Hawks and Helen Hawks (née Howard). Frank belonged to Goshen's most well-known family whereas Helen’s father, C.W. Howard was a leading businessman of Wisconsin.

In 1898, the family moved to Neenah, Wisconsin, where Frank began working as a secretary/treasurer for his father-in-law's paper company. It was here that Howard enjoyed princely treatment from his grandfather.

Soon, Frank and Helen had four more children, Kenneth Neil Hawks (born 1899), William Bellinger Hawks (born 1901), Grace Louise Hawks (born 1903) and Helen Bernice Hawks (born 1906). However, multiple childbirths made Helen very ill.

1906 onwards, the family began to spend their winters in Pasadena, California to aid Helen’s recovery. By 1910, they permanently shifted to Pasadena.

C.W. Howard continued to pamper his grandson; in 1916, he bought Howard Hanks a Mercer race car and arranged flying lessons for him in order to acquire a pilot's license.

In the summer of 1916, while racing the Mercer car his grandfather had gifted him, he became friends with Victor Fleming, a former auto mechanic and a cinematographer,.

Fleming helped him get his first job in the film industry, as a prop boy for Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount Pictures).

He eventually worked on some more Hollywood projects like DeMille's ‘The Little American’ (1917), and Marshall Neilan’s ‘The Little Princess’ (1917) and ‘Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley’ (1918).

The United States entered the First World War in April 1917. Like other students, Howard too left the University to join the armed forces. During the war, he served as a Lieutenant in the Signal Corps and later joined the Army Air Corps.

After the Armistice was signed in November 1918, he was discharged from his duties. He worked as an aviator, car racer, and racing car designer for some time, before deciding to build a career in Hollywood.

In 1938, he directed a screwball comedy for Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures, ‘Bringing up Baby’, starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. The film was initially unsuccessful but gradually came to be considered as a masterpiece.

In 1941, he made ‘Sergeant York’, starring Gary Cooper as a peace loving farmer who becomes a celebrated World War I soldier. The film was commercially successful and earned him his only Academy award nomination for Best Director.

In 1959, Hawks produced and directed a Western, ‘Rio Bravo’, starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan as four lawmen protecting a local prison where a criminal awaiting trial is lodged.