Anjelica Huston

Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston in 2005, by Robin Linderborg
Born	July 8, 1951 (1951-07-08) (age 58) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1967–present
Spouse(s)	Robert Graham Jr. (1992–2008) (his death)

Anjelica Huston (pronounced /ˈhjuːstən/; born July 8, 1951) is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in Enemies, a Love Story and The Grifters respectively. Among her roles, she starred as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), receiving Golden Globe nominations for both.

Early life

Anjelica Huston was born in Santa Monica, California, and is the daughter of director and actor John Huston and Italian-American prima ballerina Enrica 'Ricki' (née Soma), from New York.^[1] Huston spent most of her childhood in Ireland and England. She grew up in Saint Clerns House near Craughwell, County Galway. In 1969, she began taking a few small roles in her father's movies. In that same year, her mother, who was 39 years old, died in a car accident, and Huston relocated to the United States, where she modeled for several years. She has an older brother Tony, a younger maternal half-sister named Allegra, whom she called "Legs", and a younger paternal half-brother Danny.

Acting career

Anjelica Huston with her brother at the 62nd Annual Academy Awards in 1990

Deciding to focus more on movies, in the late 1970s she seriously studied acting. Her first notable role was in Bob Rafelson's remake of the The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). She costarred with Jack Nicholson, with whom she had a romantic relationship since 1973. Later, her father cast her as the calculating, imperious Maerose, daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man (Nicholson again) in his film adaptation of Richard Condon's Mafia-satire novel Prizzi's Honor (1985). Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, making her the first person in Academy Award history to win an Oscar when a parent and a grandparent had also won one.

Huston thereafter worked prolifically, notably earning another Oscar nomination for her portrayal of an iron-willed con artist in Stephen Frears' The Grifters (1990), this time for Best Actress. A sentimental favorite was her performance as the lead in her father's final film, an adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (1987).

She then became Morticia Addams, in the hugely successful 1991 movie adaptation of The Addams Family, and later in 1993, revived that role of Morticia for the follow-up sequel: Addams Family Values. Anjelica also starred in the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster, Ever After: A Cinderella Story alongside Drew Barrymore and Melanie Lynskey as the Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent. She also starred in two highly lauded Wes Anderson films, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), as well as appearing in 2007's The Darjeeling Limited. She also does the voice of Queen Clarion in the Disney Fairies film series starring Tinker Bell. On January 22nd 2010, Anjelica was honoured on Walk of Fame. She continued her renowned family's legacy in film, which began with her grandfather, Walter, and her father, John.

Directing career

Huston has recently expanded her horizons, following in her father’s footsteps in the director’s chair. Her first directorial credit was Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), followed by Agnes Browne (1999), in which she both directed and starred, and then Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005).

Political activism

In 2007, Huston led a letter campaign organized by the U.S. Campaign for Burma and Human Rights Action Center. The letter, signed by over twenty five high-profile individuals from the entertainment business, was addressed to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and urged him to "personally intervene" to secure the release of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma.^[2]

Huston has donated $2000 to Democratic political candidates John Kerry and Dick Gephardt.

Huston has recorded a public service announcement urging her colleagues in Hollywood to refrain from using great apes as slave labour in television, movies and advertisements.^[3]

Personal life

While working as a model in her teens during the late 1960s, Huston had a relationship with photographer Bob Richardson, who was 23 years her senior.^[4] She was also involved with actor Ryan O'Neal. Her on-and-off relationship with actor Jack Nicholson spanned from 1973 to 1990 and included an incident in which she became a witness for the prosecution at Roman Polanski's 1977 trial regarding the alleged rape of a 13 year old girl in Nicholson's home.^[5] Her testimony, which was reported made in exchange for dropping charges of cocaine possession, ref>[2]</ref> in which she had arrived at the residence she had just recently shared with Nicholson, was intended to be used against Polanski to place him in the bedroom with the alleged victim, but once a plea bargain was struck her testimony became obsolete.^[6]

On May 23, 1992, she married sculptor Robert Graham Jr.. The couple lived in Venice, California until his death on December 27, 2008.

She owns a ranch in Three Rivers, California, just east of Visalia, which she visits often.

Filmography

Television awards

Emmy Award nominations

• 1989 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special - Lonesome Dove
• 1995 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special - Buffalo Girls
• 1997 - Outstanding Directing In A Miniseries Or A Special - Bastard Out of Carolina
• 2002 - Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie - The Mists of Avalon
• 2004 - Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie - Iron Jawed Angels
• 2008 - Outstanding Guest Actress - Drama Series - Medium

Golden Globes

• 1990 - Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television - Lonesome Dove
• 1994 - Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television - Family Pictures
• 2004 - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television - Iron Jawed Angels'

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anjelica Huston

• Anjelica Huston at the Internet Movie Database
• Anjelica Huston at the Internet Broadway Database
• Anjelica Huston at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Anjelica Huston at TV.com