John Farrow

John Farrow (10 February 1904 – 28 January 1963) was an award-winning film director, producer and screenwriter. In 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Writing / Best Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days and in 1942 he was nominated as Best Director for Wake Island.

Life
Born John Villiers Farrow in Sydney, Australia, John Farrow began writing while working as a sailor in the 1920s. He moved to Hollywood to work in films as a marine technical advisor and stayed on as a screenwriter. He wrote for films between 1927 and 1959, and also directed between 1934 and 1959. Farrow was also a writer of short stories and plays (Laughter Ends), as well as non-fiction (Pageant of the Popes, and biographies of St Thomas More and Father Damien).

He was married to actress Maureen O'Sullivan from 12 September 1936 until his death. He fathered four daughters: actresses Mia, Prudence, Stephanie, Tisa; three sons: Michael Namien (1939-1958), Patrick Joseph (1942-2009), John Charles (born 1946). Maureen O'Sullivan was his second wife, after he converted to Catholicism and she received a papal dispensation to marry a divorcee. Pope Pius XI later appointed him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

He died from a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 58 and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

Awards and honors
Farrow was twice nominated for an Academy Award. He won the Oscar and Writers Guild of America Award for his adapted screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).

He was nominated for an Oscar and won the 1942 New York Film Critics Circle Award for his direction of the rousing World War II battle drama Wake Island.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6304 Hollywood Blvd.

Director

 * John Paul Jones (1959)
 * The Unholy Wife (1957)
 * Back from Eternity (1956)
 * The Sea Chase (1955)
 * A Bullet Is Waiting (1954)
 * Hondo (1953)
 * Plunder of the Sun (1953)
 * Ride Vaquero! (1953)
 * Botany Bay (1953)
 * Submarine Command (1951)
 * His Kind of Woman (1951)
 * Copper Canyon (1950)
 * Where Danger Lives (1950)
 * Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
 * Alias Nick Beal (1949)
 * Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
 * Beyond Glory (1948)
 * The Big Clock (1948)
 * Blaze of Noon (1947)
 * Calcutta (1947)
 * Easy Come, Easy Go (1947)
 * California (1946)
 * Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
 * You Came Along (1945)
 * The Hitler Gang (1944)
 * China (1943)
 * Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942)
 * Wake Island (1942)
 * A Bill of Divorcement (1940)
 * Married and in Love (1940)
 * Reno (1939)
 * Full Confession (1939)
 * Five Came Back (1939)
 * Sorority House (1939)
 * Women in the Wind (1939)
 * The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
 * Comet Over Broadway (1938) (uncredited)
 * Broadway Musketeers (1938)
 * My Bill (1938)
 * Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938)
 * The Invisible Menace (1938)
 * She Loved a Fireman (1937)
 * West of Shanghai (1937)
 * Men in Exile (1937)
 * Tarzan Escapes (1936) (uncredited)
 * The Spectacle Maker (1934) (as John Villiers Farrow)

Writer

 * John Paul Jones (1959)
 * Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
 * Ride, Vaquero! (1953) (uncredited)
 * Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
 * Last of the Pagans (1935) (original story and screenplay) (as John Villiers Farrow)
 * The Spectacle Maker (1934) (as John Villiers Farrow)
 * Don Quixote (1933) (English version)
 * The Impassive Footman (1932)
 * The Common Law (1931) (screen story)
 * A Woman of Experience (1931) (dialogue & screenplay)
 * Inside the Lines (1930) (dialogue)
 * Shadow of the Law (1930)
 * The Bad One (1930) (story)
 * Seven Days' Leave (1930)
 * The Four Feathers (1929) (titles)
 * The Wheel of Life (1929) (adaptation)
 * A Dangerous Woman (1929)
 * The Wolf Song (1929)
 * Three Weekends (1928) (adaptation)
 * The Woman From Moscow (1928) (also titles)
 * The First Kiss (1928) (adaptation)
 * Ladies of the Mob (1928)
 * The Blue Danube (1928) (story)
 * The Showdown (1928) (titles)
 * The Bride of the Colorado (1928) (story)
 * The Wreck of the Hesperus (1927) (story)
 * A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927)
 * White Gold (1927) (titles)

Producer

 * The Unholy Wife (1957)
 * Back from Eternity (1956)
 * The Sea Chase (1955)
 * Submarine Command (1951) (co-executive producer)
 * The Big Clock (1948)

Actor

 * Forbidden Island (1959) .... Stuart Godfrey
 * King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) (uncredited) .... Cpl. Stuart