Kenneth Hawks

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Kenneth Neil Hawks (born August 12, 1898 in Goshen , Indiana , † January 2, 1930 in front of Redondo Beach , California ) was an American director and film producer .

Life

Kenneth Hawks was born in 1898 as the second of five children of the wealthy paper manufacturer Frank W. Hawks (1865-1950) and his wife Helen (born Howard ; 1872-1952) in Goshen. His older brother was the future director and screenwriter Howard Hawks (1896-1977). His younger siblings were William B. Hawks (1901-1969), Grace Louise Hawks (1903-1927) and Helen Bernice Hawks (1906-1911).

After the birth of Kenneth Hawks, the family settled in Neenah , Wisconsin , in 1898 . From 1906, the family began to spend more and more time in Pasadena , California , where they finally settled completely in 1910. In 1911, his sister Helen Bernice died of an inflammation of the intestine, which Hawks' mother religiously believed not to have treated. When his sister Grace Louise also died of untreated tuberculosis in 1927, Kenneth and Howard Hawks blamed their mother for it.

His studies at Yale University were interrupted when the United States entered the First World War. Hawks returned to Yale after his military service as a pilot and graduated from Yale in 1919.

In 1920, Kenneth and Howard Hawks moved to Los Angeles . Kenneth Hawks initially worked at Paramount Pictures as assistant to director Clarence G. Badger . In 1926 he followed his brother to Fox Film Corporation , where he soon made a name for himself as a supervising producer. He participated in the production of films such as More Pay - Less Work , Fugitives , The Exalted Flapper and Etappe 1918 . He also provided initial script ideas and occasionally worked as a film editor.

In 1926 he met the actress Mary Astor , whom he married in 1928.

When in 1929 the filming of the film Masked Emotions, director David Butler had to interrupt filming due to a family accident, Hawks took over the direction and shot the film to the end. In the same year he made his real directorial debut with Big Time .

While shooting his next film Such Men Are Dangerous , Hawks was killed in a mid-air plane collision when two planes with film cameras, which were supposed to film a third plane with a parachutist , crashed over the sea. In addition to Hawks, nine other people died, including director Max Gold and cameraman Conrad Wells . Actor Hoot Gibson had also planned to fly, but had to vacate his seat at the last minute for a representative from the skydiving company. The bright sun that day, which could have blinded one or both of the pilots, was suspected as a possible cause of the collision. A mistake by the pilots could not be ruled out.

Kenneth Hawks' body was recovered from the crashed plane on January 6th. He was cremated and his ashes scattered off Point Vincente in the Pacific .

Filmography (selection)

Director

Supervising Producer

  • 1929: stage 1918

Web links

Commons : Kenneth Hawks  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Todd McCarthy: Howard Hawks: The Gray Fox of Hollywood . Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-80211-598-0 , page 31 ff.
  2. ↑ a b Robert Schnakenberg: Howard Hawks . In: The great film directors and their secrets . Metrolite, 2010, ISBN 978-3-84930-026-5 .
  3. ↑ a b H.Hugh Wynne: The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies . In: mlsandy.home.tsixroads.com, accessed February 11, 2018
  4. ↑ Parker v. James Granger, Inc., 4 Cal.2d 668 . In: Supreme Court of California Resources, accessed February 11, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Hawks, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hawks, Kenneth Neil (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Goshen , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1930
Place of death off Redondo Beach , California