Howard, Noel

(December 25, 1920, Paris, France-February 7, 1987, Los Angeles, California, USA)

   The son of American sculptor Cecil Howard, he stud­ied painting in France before joining the U.S. Air Force as a pilot during World War II. After being discharged, he met director Victor Fleming, who hired him as an assistant director (1948 Joan of Arc, USA). He had an important career as a second unit director (1951 Decision Before Dawn, Anatole Litvak, USA; 1955 Land of the Pharaohs, Howard Hawks, USA; 1957 Love in the Afternoon, Billy Wilder, USA; The Spirit of St Louis, Billy Wilder, USA; 1958 Ggi, Vincente Minnelli, USA; 1959 The Journey, Anatole Litvak, USA; Solomon and Shebah, King Vidor, USA; 1961 King of Kings, Nicholas Ray, USA; 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean, USA; 1963 55 Days of Peking, Nicholas Ray, USA; 1967 Custer of the West / short version: A Good Day for Fighting, Robert Siodmak, UK / USA; 1968 A Flea in Her Ear / La Puce à l'Oreille, Jacques Charon, USA / France) but also worked as a production designer (1953 Act of Love / Un Acte d'Amour, Anatole Litvak, USA / France), associ­ate producer (1957 The Happy Road / La Route joyeuse; Gene Kelly, USA / France; 1962 Phaedra / Faidra, Jules Dassin, USA / Greece), co-screenwriter (1973 Les Malheurs de la Comtesse, TV, Bernard Deflandre), and director. He wrote a book about the shooting of Land of the Pharaohs: 1977 Hollywood sur Nil (Fayard; re-edited in 2001 and 2008 by Ramsay).

 Filmography

        ◘ D'où viens-tu, Johnny? (co-director with Ber­nard Paul)

        ◘ La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo / Lo scac-chiere di Dio / Le meravigliose avventure di Marco polo / Marko Polo / UK and USA: Marco the Magnificent, co-director with Denys de La Patellière; also actor; France / Italy / Yugoslavia / Afghanistan; shot in 1963-1964)

 Television Filmography

1968 ◘ Journey to the Unknown (episode "One on a Desert Island", UK)