This Day in Indie History: Howard Hawks

by MovieMaker Staff | Published May 29, 2007

One of the most under-celebrated directors of his time, Howard Hawks was born on this day in 1896. Over his career, beginning in the pre-studio days of the 1910s, through the silent era and lasting into the early 1970s, Hawks directed nearly 50 films, including classics like Scarface (1932), Sergeant York (1941), The Big Sleep (1946) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Today he is remembered among the likes of great American directors like John Ford and Orson Welles, yet, the Academy recognized him with only one nomination, in 1942. John Ford won for The Grapes of Wrath that year, beating out Sergeant York and Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane. Hawks would not get his own Oscar until 1971, when the Academy voted to recognize him with a special award. Despite living in an era dominated by the studios, Hawks successfully produced and developed scripts for his own films, serving as a model for later writer-director-producers who would rise in esteem after the breakdown of the studio system.

Quotable: “A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes.”

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