Back from Eternity

John Villiers Farrow, CBE (10 February 1904 – 27 January 1963) was an Australian, later American, 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.

Farrow was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of Lucy Villiers (née Savage), a dressmaker, and Joseph Farrow, a tailor’s trimmer. 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.

He became an American citizen in 1947. In 1953 he was appointed an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was also appointed him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Pius XI.

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.

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. —Wikipedia