Provocative Facts About Anjelica Huston, The Hollywood Minx
Anjelica Huston is truly Hollywood royalty. Born into one of the most prestigious families in cinema history, Huston's life is full of immense privilege, heartbreaking tragedy, and lasting scandal.
Huston may be on top now—but it was one heck of a twisted journey for her to get there.
1. She Was Born Into A Hollywood Dynasty
The daughter of legendary Hollywood director John Huston and prima ballerina Enrica Soma, Anjelica Huston was born into a world of glamour and privilege—but her childhood hardly reflected that. When she was born, her father was deep in Uganda making a film. It took three days and a telegram carrier had to run hundreds of miles to get the happy news to him.
His reaction was nonplussed. Katharine Hepburn, his star, had to pry the news out of him after seeing the telegram arrive. This type of distance—physical or otherwise—would come to define her family dynamic and her relationships.
2. She Was All Alone
When Anjelica Huston recalls her childhood, it seems like something out of a Victorian novel. Her father had left his third wife for the then-teenaged Soma, who gave up her career when she got pregnant at 18.
Anjelica spent much of her childhood shut away in a country manor in Ireland. She and her older brother Tony had only their mother and a few tutors for company.
She described how Tony turned a cold shoulder to her, and with no other children around, she turned to books to occupy her time and imagination. Well, within a few years, her family drama would outdo anything she’d find on the written page.
3. Her Father Neglected Them
Distance not only defined her relationships with her family, but also her parents’ marriage. Within a year of Anjelica’s birth, her father dealt her mother a devastating blow. He not only refused to cast Soma in his film Moulin Rouge, he also had an affair with the woman he did cast. He avoided Soma and the kids for months at a time and engaged in multiple affairs over the years. The tension was rising—and her parents didn’t exactly handle it well.
4. She Didn’t Know About Them
Anjelica’s mother moved her and Tony to London in 1960, but she left out a very important detail: She never told the kids that she’d separated from John Huston.
But at holidays, things quickly became apparent, and Anjelica recalls meeting a literal cavalcade of girlfriends back in Ireland—actresses, socialites, novelists, and diplomats.
When she returned to London, Anjelica was in for another surprise.
