American third generation actress, a granddaughter of actor Walter Huston and daughter of writer-director John Huston. She won the best supporting actress Oscar for “Prizzi’s 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 ladies’ 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 dad’s attention. Always conscious of his disapproval, he wasn’t abusive, just tough on the children. Dad’s little girl, she wouldn’t 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. Mary’s 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 dad’s standards and having no real way to do so, she didn’t take many parts in the 1970s. Feeling thwarted and depressed in her 20s because she didn’t 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 “Prizzi’s 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 as a Hollywood Royal couple, spending 17 years together. Giving one another a wide berth, neither of them were confrontational and lack of communication was part of their problem. An avid gardener, she tended to their home rather than to her own career. She felt defensive during those years, now she feels she is stronger and a survivor. The relationship with Nicholson ended when he fathered a child with another woman. It took two years to find her perfect house with no view; she hates views. Doing all the work herself, she has a garden that any Englishwoman would envy. She also owns a ranch north of Hollywood. After their breakup in 1990, she spent four years in a collaboration with the late acting coach Peggy Feury which enhanced her abilities immensely. During this time she also took singing lessons. Becoming an actress of enormous range, she has played as an extra in the film “Frances” and as Morticia in “The Addams Family.” She enjoys playing witches and responds well to eccentric characters. She has worked with both of her brothers. Tony wrote the screen play for “The Dead” in which Anjelica was directed by their dad. Their father died during filming on 28 August 1987. Her dad had emphysema and she smoked until the early 1990s. In 1989 she appeared in the acclaimed “Lonesome Dove” mini-series on TV. She has now branched out into the field of directing. In 1985 she won best supporting actress for “Prizzi’s Honor” and in February 1990 she received the National Society of Film Critics Award for “Enemies, A Love Story.” She received a nomination for best actress in “The Grifters” in 1991.
On 28 August 1987 she married Mexican born, world-renowned Los Angeles sculptor Robert Graham. When being interviewed she stated, “I’m a Cancer, I like my house and animals and I would love to have a child.”
Her husband died at age 70 on 27 December 2008 in Santa Monica, California. The cause was not given.
Link to Wikipedia biography