Son of actor Walter Huston, whom he directed in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
There are three generations of Oscar winners in the Huston family: John, his father Walter Huston and his daughter Anjelica Huston. They are the first family to do so, the second family were the Coppolas - Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Nicolas Cage and Carmine Coppola.
Was amateur lightweight boxing champion of California.
Was awarded the "One World Committee Award" in 1949.
Was best friends with Humphrey Bogart.
Was known to have a mean streak when handling actors, and reportedly irritated John Wayne (who was slightly taller than Huston and much more massive) so much while filming The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) that Wayne lost his temper and punched Huston, knocking him out cold.
Was originally supposed to direct Quo Vadis (1951), but walked out following arguments about the script. He was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy.
Was voted the 13th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
When he married his fourth wife, Enrica "Ricki" Soma, he was 44 while she was only 20. They separated after ten years of marriage. They subsequently each had another child with other partners, but never divorced each other.
While making a movie in Mexico during his marriage to Evelyn Keyes, he befriended a boy named Pablo. Pablo came to spend the night at Huston's hotel one evening, and Huston discovered the next morning that the boy was a homeless orphan. Huston decided that he had no choice but to bring him back to the USA and adopt him. He wrote in his autobiography that he met his wife Evelyn at the airport and surprised her by introducing her to their new son. She was in shock, but from then on did her best to be a good mother. He eventually married an Irish girl, had three children, then deserted his family and became a used car dealer.