Movies starring Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951, to director and actor 'John Huston (I)' (qv) and Russian prima ballerina Enrica (Ricki) Soma. Huston spent most of her childhood overseas, in Ireland and England, and in 1969 first dipped her toe into the acting profession, taking a few small roles in her father's movies. However, in that year her mother died in a car accident, at 39, and Huston relocated to the United States, where the very tall, exotically beautiful young woman modeled for several years.
While modeling, Huston had a few more small film roles, but decided to focus more on movies in ...
show all Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951, to director and actor 'John Huston (I)' (qv) and Russian prima ballerina Enrica (Ricki) Soma. Huston spent most of her childhood overseas, in Ireland and England, and in 1969 first dipped her toe into the acting profession, taking a few small roles in her father's movies. However, in that year her mother died in a car accident, at 39, and Huston relocated to the United States, where the very tall, exotically beautiful young woman modeled for several years.
While modeling, Huston had a few more small film roles, but decided to focus more on movies in the late 1970s, studied acting and began to get roles. The first notable part was in 'Bob Rafelson' (qv)'s remake of the classic 1940s noir movie Postman Always Rings Twice, The (1981) (in which 'Jack Nicholson' (qv), with whom Huston had been living since 1973, was the star). After a few more years of on-again, off-again supporting work, her father perfectly cast her as calculating, imperious Maerose, the daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man (Nicholson again) in his film adaptation of 'Richard Condon (I)' (qv)'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 (her father and grandfather 'Walter Huston' (qv)) had also won one.
Huston thereafter worked prolifically, notable roles including co-star billing in 'Francis Ford Coppola' (qv)'s Gardens of Stone (1987), 'Barry Sonnenfeld' (qv)'s film versions of the 'Charles Addams' (qv) cartoons Addams Family, The (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), in which she portrayed Addams matriarch Morticia, 'Wes Anderson' (qv)'s Royal Tenenbaums, The (2001) and Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The (2004). Probably her finest performance on-screen, however, was as Lilly, the veteran, iron-willed con artist in 'Stephen Frears' (qv)' Grifters, The (1990), for which she received another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. A sentimental favorite is her performance as the lead in her father's final film, an adaptation of 'James Joyce (I)' (qv)'s Dead, The (1987) -- with her many years of residence in Ireland, Huston's Irish accent in the film is authentic.
Endowed with her father's great height and personal boldness, and her mother's beauty and aristocratic nose, Huston certainly cuts an imposing figure, and brings great confidence and authority to her performances. She clearly takes her craft seriously and has come into her own as a strong actress, emerging from under the shadow of her father, who passed away in 1987. Huston married the sculptor Robert Graham in 1992, and the couple live in the Los Angeles area.
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Billed as the first European 3-D CGI feature-length film, Kaena: The Prophecy revolves around a mammoth tree that rises 100 miles from the planet’s surface and provides shelter and sustenance for a variety of different races and species. Referred to as Axis, the tree has been losing its sap at a rate alarming enough to threaten the well-being of some of its inhabitants. Determined to get to the root of the disappearing sap is Kaena (Kirsten Dunst), a rambunctious teenager who leaves her village against the wishes of its elders. She encounters the mysterious Selenites along the way; led by an insidious queen (Anjelica Huston), the Selenites have resorted to enslaving another race in order to prevent the tree’s decline into death. Directed by Pascal Pinon and Chris Delaporte, Kaena: The Prophecy began filming in 1999 on a budget of 26 million dollars, and has been described as having merged elements from Shrek and Final Fantasy.
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Hollywood’s plundering of classic TV series has produced its fair share of turkeys, but this is a glorious exception. This is partly owing to director Barry Sonnenfeld’s wise decision to stick with the black humour of Charles Addams’s original and very popular New Yorker cartoons and, perhaps more importantly, some inspired casting — Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia are note perfect as loving Morticia and Gomez, while Christopher Lloyd was equally born to play Fester. However, these stars are almost surpassed by the astonishingly agile Thing and by Christina Ricci’s splendid performance as the young Wednesday. The plot — a confidence trickster (Lloyd) poses as Fester to steal the Addams fortune — is a tad contrived, but Sonnenfeld makes a confident transition from cinematographer to director (he proved himself again with Get Shorty in 1995) and the result is a witty family comedy that has enough sly humour to keep adults chuckling throughout. The massive success of the film inspired the cast to return for a sequel.
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Kids don’t just rule the roost in this amiable comedy, they steal the show. It’s a role-reversal romp in the same vein as Mr Mom, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in cuteness and verve. Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin play sacked advertising executives who decide to set up a children’s day-care centre; cue major mishaps as a house full of angel-faced youngsters turn into marauding monsters — much to the delight of rival childcare provider Miss Harridan (Anjelica Huston), the stern headmistress of a very proper “academy”. This is simplistic, but it works well. Murphy happily lets his pint-sized co-stars take centre stage and his performance is all the more effective for it, while the mix of parental-themed humour and poignant moments never nauseates. The film may be too sweet for mass appeal, but family audiences will be charmed.
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The first effort from director Wes Anderson since his critically beloved The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou finds the filmmaker re-teaming with a number of familiar faces, including Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Seymour Cassel. Murray plays Steve Zissou, an eccentric and renowned oceanographer who has decided to seek out and enact mortal revenge on a shark that ate one of the men on his team. Along for the ride is Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), a young man who has joined Zissou’s crew after showing up claiming to be the seaman’s long-lost son and Zissou’s co-producer (and estranged wife), Eleanor Angelica Huston. As the expedition ensues, the two bond and Plimpton falls for a female journalist (Cate Blanchett) who is writing a piece on Zissou. The crew meets a host of obstacles on their journey, including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy. Adding a flair of whimsy to the film’s aesthetic, the sea creatures and underwater scenes in the film have been created using stop-motion animation under the direction of Henry Selick, the man behind The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. The ensemble cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, and Bud Cort.
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It’s not quite a contradiction in terms to describe this dramatisation of Jim Thompson’s novel as a highly colourful film noir. Director Stephen Frears neatly shifts between the audacious scams executed by a trio of con artists, sudden moments of calculated violence and the intense rivalry that develops among expert bet chiseller Anjelica Huston, her ambitious son John Cusack and his scheming girlfriend, Annette Bening. Cusack rather lets the side down with a lightweight performance, but the powerhouse playing of his Oscar-nominated co-stars grabs the attention through every twist and turn.
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