Howard Hawks

Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." Roger Ebert called Hawks "one of the greatest American directors of pure movies, and a hero of auteur critics because he found his own laconic values in so many different kinds of genre material." He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Sergeant York'' (1941) and earned the Honorary Academy Award in 1974. A versatile director, Hawks explored many genres such as comedies, dramas, gangster films, science fiction, film noir, war films and Westerns. His most popular films include ''Scarface'' (1932), ''Bringing Up Baby'' (1938), ''Only Angels Have Wings'' (1939), ''His Girl Friday'' (1940), ''To Have and Have Not'' (1944), ''The Big Sleep'' (1946), ''Red River'' (1948), ''The Thing from Another World'' (1951), ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (1953), and ''Rio Bravo'' (1959). His frequent portrayals of strong, tough-talking female characters came to define the "Hawksian woman".

His work has influenced such directors as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, John Carpenter, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Quentin Tarantino and Michael Mann. ''Entertainment Weekly'' placed Hawks fourth on their list of greatest directors, writing: "His hallmarks are more thematic than visual: men who adhere to an understated code of manliness; women who like to yank the rug out from under those men's feet; a mistrust of pomposity; a love of sly, leg-pulling wit. Yet there's the ease of the complete filmmaker in his Westerns, dramas, musicals, detective films, and supremely confident comedies. No wonder the French adored the guy: His casual profundity was the studio's best advertisement for itself." Jean-Luc Godard called him "the greatest of all American artists".

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