Known for Directing
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. He is popular for his films from a wide range of genres, including screwball comedies [Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)], westerns [Red River (1948), Rio Bravo (1959), El Dorado (1967)], adventure films [Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944)], films noirs [The Big Sleep (1946)] and gangster films [Scarface (1932)]. Notable characteristics of his films are independent and tough-talking female protagonists ("Hawksian woman") and witty and fast-paced dialogues. In 1975, Hawks was awarded the Honorary Academy Award as "a master American filmmaker whose creative efforts hold a distinguished place in world cinema," and in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Sergeant York. Hawks has been considered by film critics to be an auteur because of his recognizable style and frequent use of certain thematic elements. Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States. Hawks influenced numerous filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese.
Born
May 30, 1896
Died
December 26, 1977 (age 81)
Birthplace
Goshen, Indiana, USA
Filmography
155 films, 1 show


Rio Lobo
1970 · 1h 56m · US
After the Civil War, a former Union colonel searches for the two traitors whose perfidy led to the loss of a close friend.


El Dorado
1966 · 2h 6m · US
Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah. Together with a fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.


Red Line 7000
1965 · 1h 50m · US
The lives and passions of a stock car team are revealed against the turbulent backdrop of the professional racing world.


Man's Favorite Sport?
1964 · 2h · US
Roger Willoughby is a renowned fishing expert, who, unbeknownst to his friends, co-workers, or boss, has never cast a line in his life. One day, he crosses paths with Abigail Paige, a sweetly annoying girl who has just badgered his boss into signing Roger up for an annual fishing tournament.


Hatari!
1962 · 2h 37m · US
A female wildlife photographer arrives on an East African reservation where a group of men trap wild animals for zoos and circuses.


Rio Bravo
1959 · 2h 21m · US
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.


Land of the Pharaohs
1955 · 1h 45m · US
A captured architect designs an ingenious plan to ensure the impregnability of the tomb of a self-absorbed Pharaoh, obsessed with the security of his next life.


Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1953 · 1h 31m · US
Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone, a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.


O. Henry's Full House
1952 · 1h 57m · US
Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".


Monkey Business
1952 · 1h 37m · US
Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.


The Big Sky
1952 · 2h 13m · US
Two tough Kentucky mountaineers join a trading expedition from St. Louis up the Missouri River to trade whisky for furs with the Blackfoot Indians. They soon discover that there is much more than the elements to contend with.


I Was a Male War Bride
1949 · 1h 45m · US
After marrying an American lieutenant with whom he was assigned to work in post-war Germany, a French captain attempts to find a way to accompany her back to the States under the terms of the War Bride Act.


A Song Is Born
1948 · 1h 53m · US
The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub singer Honey Swanson. But Honey's gangster boyfriend doesn't want to give her up.


Red River
1948 · 2h 13m · US
Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journey, his persistence becomes tyrannical in the eyes of Matthew Garth, his adopted son and protégé.


The Big Sleep
1946 · 1h 54m · US
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.


To Have and Have Not
1945 · 1h 40m · US
A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.


Air Force
1943 · 2h 4m · US
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.


Ball of Fire
1941 · 1h 51m · US
A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang—and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.


Sergeant York
1941 · 2h 14m · US
Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most celebrated American heroes of WWI.


His Girl Friday
1940 · 1h 32m · US
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.


Only Angels Have Wings
1939 · 2h 1m · US
A traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.


Bringing Up Baby
1938 · 1h 42m · US
David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.


Come and Get It
1936 · 1h 39m · US
An ambitious lumberjack abandons his saloon girl lover so that he can marry into wealth, but years later becomes infatuated with the woman's daughter.


The Road to Glory
1936 · 1h 43m · US
The story of trench life during World War I through the lives of a French regiment. As men are killed and replaced jaunty Lt. Denet becomes more and more somber. His rival for the affection of nurse Monique is Capt. La Roche.


Ceiling Zero
1936 · 1h 35m · US
War veteran pilots Dizzy Davis, Texas Clark and Jake Lee are working in an airline. Dizzy is fooling with one of the younger pilot's girl-friend and due to this he changes flights with Texas.


Barbary Coast
1935 · 1h 30m · US
Mary Rutledge arrives from the east, finds her fiancé dead, and goes to work at the roulette wheel of Luis Chamalis' Bella Donna, a rowdy gambling house in San Francisco in the 1850s. She falls in love with miner Jim Carmichael and takes his gold dust at the wheel. She goes after him, Chamalis goes after her with intent to harm Carmichael.


Twentieth Century
1934 · 1h 31m · US
A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she proves a match for him.


Today We Live
1933 · 1h 53m · US
Two lovers are living together and are not married; they had made a promise as children to get married when they grew up, but they "didn't wait."


Tiger Shark
1932 · 1h 17m · US
A Portuguese tuna fisherman catches his bride with his first mate.


The Crowd Roars
1932 · 1h 25m · US
Famous auto racing champion Joe Greer returns to his hometown to compete in a local race, discovering that his younger brother has aspirations to become a racing champion.


Scarface
1932 · 1h 33m · US
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.


The Criminal Code
1931 · 1h 37m · US
After young Robert Graham commits a murder while drunk and defending his girlfriend, he is prosecuted by ambitious Mark Brady and sentenced to 10 years. Six years later, Brady becomes the prison warden and offers the beleaguered Robert a job as his chauffeur. Robert cleans up his act, but, on the eve of his pardon, his cellmate drags him back into the world of violence, and he faces a difficult choice that could return him to prison.


The Dawn Patrol
1930 · 1h 48m · US
World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but he soon is promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.


Trent's Last Case
1929 · 1h 6m · US
Who killed the vicious millionaire Sigsbee Manderson? Not that pretty wife of his, surely? Philip Trent investigates.


The Air Circus
1928 · 1h 58m · US
Lost film. Two eager young pilots at flight school compete over their flight instructor's aviatrix sister.


Fazil
1928 · 1h 28m · US
An Arab prince born and raised in the desert and a beautiful Frenchwoman from Paris fall in love and marry, but the tremendous differences in their backgrounds and the cultural differences between their two different societies put strains on their marriage that may well prove irreparable.


A Girl in Every Port
1928 · 1h 18m · US
Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young woman come between them?


Paid to Love
1927 · 1h 16m · US
An American banker goes to a small Balkan country looking to invest his bank's money and shore up the country's weak economy in order to maximize the return on their investment. Towards that end he befriends the country's king and they come up with a scheme to get the Crown Prince married, a prospect not particularly appealing to the Crown Prince--until he sees the beautiful cabaret dancer the pair has picked for him to marry.


Cradle Snatchers
1927 · 59m · US
To cure their flirtatious husbands of consorting with flappers, three wives-- Susan Martin, Ethel Drake, and Kitty Ladd-- arrange with three college boys-- Henry Winton, Oscar, and Joe Valley-- to flirt with them at a house party. Joe Valley, who poses as a hot-blooded Spaniard, is vamped by Ginsberg in female attire, and Oscar, a bashful Swede, uses caveman methods when aroused. During a rehearsal of the party, the three husbands arrive, followed by their flapper friends, leading to comic complications.


Fig Leaves
1926 · 1h 10m · US
Adam, a plumber, is happily married to Eve, a wardrobe-obsessed housewife, until she accidentally meets a supercilious fashion designer. At the prompting of her neighbor, who has secret designs on Adam, Eve secretly becomes a fashion model by day, knowing that her husband would disapprove.


The Road to Glory
1926 · 1h 33m · US
May McAvoy is a woman who is blinded in an auto accident and relies on prayer to regain her sight.