Huston Anjelica

American third generation actress, granddaughter of actor Walter Huston, daughter of writer-director John Huston. She won the best supporting actress Oscar for "Prizzis Honor" in 1985 and a National Society of Film Critics Award in 1990 for "Enemies, A Love Story." Born into a powerful artistic family, the second child of larger-than-life writer-director John Huston and his fourth wife, ballerina Enrica Soma, Anjelica was a very innocent, quiet child. Her dad, a gambler, sportsman and ladys man, moved the family to an estate in Ireland when she was a year old. Spending most of his time on locations around the world and coming home for holidays, Anjelica learned to dress up, mimic and make people laugh in order to gain approval from him. She sensed a tension between herself and one year older brother Tony, vying for dads attention. Always conscious of his disapproval, he wasnt abusive, just tough on the children. Dads little girl, she wouldnt dream of answering back. Her parents were atheists, but she was sent to convent school at eight to mix with other children. She rode horses and went antique shopping with her mom. Enrica and her three children lived on the estate in what was called "the Little House" and when John was home he brought his guests to "the Big House." At about 11 she realized he father had other women as more than friends and her parents separated about that time. Anjelica, older brother Tony and younger brother Danny moved to London with their mother. She attended the Lycee Francaise, St. Marys Town and Country and Holland Park Comprehensive schools. During her stormy adolescence when she was attending anti-war rallies in 1966 her dad pulled her out of school, awarding her a part in his film "A Walk With Love and Death" in order to play the role of a 14th century French heroine. The film was considered ponderous and archaic. Shortly before its release her mom, at 39 years old, died in a car crash. She felt loss and emptiness as her world turned upside down. Afraid her dad would put her in a convent, she ran to New York with the Tony Richardson company of Hamlet understudying the role of Ophelia. Becoming statuesque, her luminously pale skin, black coffee hair, green eyes and chiseled patrician face were a natural combination for fashion modeling on the runways of London, Paris, Milan and Germany. She appeared on the cover of "Vogue" and in other noted publications. Part of the Huston heritage is a love of work. She feels the more you work the less you criticize the work of others. Having to measure up to her dads standards and having no real way to do so, she didnt take many parts in the 1970s. Feeling thwarted and depressed in her 20s because she didnt have early success, she now feels lucky as the odd crossing of her American and European background has provided her with the advantage of being discovered later in life. Never an ingénue type, people assumed she received parts because of her dad before her award-winning role in "Prizzis Honor" when she was 34. A car accident in 1980 became a turning point, moving her out of the shadows into her own light. It was a wake-up call when she had a head-on collision at the bottom of Coldwater Canyon, going through the windshield, breaking her nose in four places and needing a six hour operation to repair it. She still has a tiny arrow tip of bone buried in the bridge of her nose. Anjelica met Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles in 1972. They became known Read less