CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum
His films were full of action and adventure, but for Hollywood director John Villiers Farrow, his own life may have been the biggest adventure of all.
Farrow, an Australian, was a sailor by training and profession; he attended the Royal Naval Academy in England. He was also a successul film maker, screenwriter and novelist who travelled the world as a marine researcher. These travels included a long stint in Tahiti, where he wrote a French-English to Tahitian dictionary that became a standard reference work for many years.
In common with many larger than life characters, it is difficult to separate myth from man when considering Farrow's exploits.
An intriguing aspect of his career as a sailor surrounds his status as an Honorary Commander in the Canadian Navy, a rare distinction. Why Farrow received this distinction is a mystery.
According to the 1946 King's Regulations for government of the Canadian Naval Service , "honorary rank may be granted as a mark of honor or respect for having rendered distinguished service to the Naval Service." It can also be granted "when for educational or administrative purposes granting the rank would tend to promote the general efficiency of the Naval Service." Which of these criteria were applied to the awarding of Farrow's Honorary Commander status is unclear. In the course of his career, he may have been connected with HMCS Discovery in Vancouver, Canada's longest serving Naval Reserve Division, and/or the armed yacht HMCS Elk
He was already a successful film director when the Second World War began. Determined to serve, he joined the Canadian Navy, stating that he was "a fairly competent seaman". Farrow was appointed as an acting lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) in March 1940. Retired RCNVR Submarine Commander Fred Sherwood recalls being in Ottawa in charge of recruitment when Farrow enlisted: –
"Anybody who wanted to join the Navy was to come and see me...I ‘joined’ a lot of people; one was John Farrow, who married Maureen O'Sullivan. Mia Farrow was their daughter."John Farrow was apparently assigned to intelligence, censorship, and press liaison, and worked with the Information group at Naval Service headquarters in Ottawa.
It's interesting to speculate on the activities that may have earned him the eventual rank of Honorary Commander. It's been suggested that he received the distinction because he and his more famous wife were Hollywood royalty and the powers that be at Naval Service Headquarters enjoyed rubbing shoulders with them. Farrow's Hollywood connections also provided access to a powerful pubic relations machine.
John Farrow reportedly went to sea on anti-submarine patrols before he was invalided out of the service early in 1942; the nature and extent of his injury or injuries is uncertain. He maintained his connection with Canada's Navy after returning to Hollyood, entertaining men from Royal Canadian Navy ships when they visited Los Angeles.
Farrow's directorial career prospered - in 1942, he received an Academy Award nomination for his direction of Wake Island. He contributed to the war effort with Commandoes Strike at Dawn, which was shot with extensive cooperation from the Canadian Navy (for more information on "Commandoes" and Canadian naval vessels on film, see We're Going to Put You in the Movies Another wartime morale raiser was The Hitler Gang, Farrow's documentary drama on the Nazis' rise to power.
By the time I was twelve, it was decided that I should adopt a naval career. In the Australia (where I was born) of that time, a boy took examinations for the Naval College at about the age of twelve and a half-and I passed successfully.
But these were the years when disarmament was the mood and when one's instructors were being demobilized and, accordingly, disillusioned. Instead of continuing in the Navy, I joined the Merchant Service as cadet. The ship in which I served voyaged from Sydney to New Zealand, the Fijiian Islands, Honolulu and Canada.
In 1939, World War II broke out, and I immediately joined the Royal Canadian Navy. The war served to postpone my directorial career but not so my writing. I took several crates of research books with me to sea. Once again the long night watches gave me much opportunity to think and plan the actual writing. I have told in my introduction to Pageant of the Popes how, in relieving a fellow officer on the bridge, I would be greeted with the question: "Have you finished off another Pope yet?"
[From the web site Catholic Authors.com]
John Farrow was also a successful author. Damien the Leper, his biography of Father Damien de Veuster, a Catholic priest who worked extensively with lepers in the Hawaiian islands, was reprinted many times, and he also produced a history of the Papacy, Pagenat of the Popes, in addition to writing numerous screenplays.
Postwar, he directed some of his finest films, including a stylish thriller The Big Clock, the well regarded Two Years Before the Mast, and the Western Hondo, starring John Wayne.
In 1953, although he was by now an American citizen, he was appointed an honorary Commander of the British Empire (CBE), a British honour (the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) originally instituted by King George V to honour the many thousands of people who served in numerous non-combatant capacities during the First World War. It is not known what Farrow did to earn his CBE.
During the 1950s, Farrow resisted Senator Joe McCarthy's attempts to conduct a witchhunt for suspected Communist sympathisers amongst members of the Screen Directors' International Guild. He went on to work for several different studios. As co-writer of Around the World in Eighty Days, Farrow shared an Oscar for best screenplay in 1956.
Farrow died of coronary disease on 27 January 1963 at his home in Beverly Hills home and was buried in Holy Cross cemetery
