Henry hathaway

Hathaway was known to be a man of strong character. During a shoot, he had hired a guy exclusively to roast him a potato for breakfast. Since the producer was not very clear about his usefulness and he had to save expenses, he fired him. Arriving the next day, Hathaway was in a rage. “Either they bring me my potato or I don’t shoot the movie!” He yelled.

Born on March 13, 1898 in Sacramento (California, USA), Henri Leonard de Fiennes was the son of Rhody Hathaway, a theater actor turned manager, and the Marchioness Lillie de Fiennes, who also ended up dedicating himself to acting. Like Jean Hathaway. At first, the young Henry –who inherited the title of marquis– wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and succeed as an actor from a very young age, but he only managed to intervene briefly in a Western by Allan Dwan and filmed the short The Storm Woman , by Ruth Ann Baldwin.

His career was interrupted by World War I. After fighting in Europe, he returned to the United States, where he tried to dedicate himself to finance, although he soon decided to return to Hollywood, to try his luck, this time in the technical part. He discovered that he was quite good at it after serving as an assistant director to Fred Niblo onBen-Hur (1925) , by Josef von Sternberg , inMorocco , and of Victor Fleming inThe song of the wolf , among others.

In 1932, Paramount commissioned him his first directing project,Steppe Legacy , a B-movie based on a western novel by Zane Grey . He decided to give the then totally unknown Randolph Scott a shot at leading man . The result was so good that the director and actor repeated it in six other westerns of a similar cut, which also adapted Grey:The Wild Prairie , The Cursed Horde ,the passage of sunset ,The man of the forestTo the Last Man andThe last rodeo . I would also turn to Scott onGo West Young Man , although he did not play a cowboy there.

With Gary Cooper he shot the romantic dramaDream of Eternal Love , followed by the title that would consecrate the filmmaker definitively, Three Bengali Lancers , a classic of colonial adventure films. For the film, Hathaway earned an Oscar nomination for best director, the only one in his prolific career. Cooper also starred under himSouls in the sea , andThe jungle in arms , another of the great tapes in the career of both.

He demonstrated his versatility with the intense dramaThe Way of the Lone Pine , which featured Sylvia Sidney , Fred MacMurray and Henry Fonda in one of its first leading roles. He also came out of his forays into the black genre, withThe house on 92nd street ,The kiss of deathJohnny Apollo or13 Rue Madeleine .

He married in 1922, with Elvira, his longtime girlfriend, whom he adored. Hathaway mostly shot on location at a time when studio shooting was prevalent. He especially took advantage of the natural locations in his big-budget productions for Fox, the war film Rommel, the desert fox , and the thrillerNiagara , with a memorable interpretation of Marilyn Monroe .

The collaborations of the Marquis Hathaway with ‘the Duke’ John Wayne are especially successful . After the adventure tapeAlaska, land of gold, the well -rounded westerns were shot by the four children of Katie Elder andValor of law , for which the actor finally obtained the long-awaited Oscar for playing a one-eyed sheriff. Both were also part of the blockbuster in CineramaHow the West Was Won, co-directed with John Ford and George Marshall . Hathaway used to be quite despot during filming, and he was famous because on numerous occasions he would tell off someone who had screwed up. “To be a good director you have to be a bastard. And I am a bastard,” he went on to declare. But Wayne managed to console the admonished with his usual anecdotes and thanks.

Wayne and Bronston filmed with Hathaway in SpainThe fabulous world of the circus , but due to a series of unfortunate events, it became so expensive that it ended up ruining the producer Samuel Bronston. During a break, Wayne decided to stop by a cinema on Madrid’s Gran Vía to see his filmMisión de audaces , because he was very interested in seeing himself speaking in Spanish. He laughed so hard that the projection stopped. When the lights came on, the public did not believe the fact that the renowned actor was there.

Late in his career, Hathaway directed Steve McQueen , as a half-Indian half-breed in Nevada Smith . He mixed western and intrigue in the grippingThe poker of death , with Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin . He also collaborated onAirport , by George Seaton , filming several outdoor sequences and said goodbye to the cinema withCriminal blackmail , a minor action film in his filmography. He passed away in 1985 of a heart attack.