[7] Farrow started writing while working as a sailor, and became interested in screenwriting after a chance voyage in the South Seas with the filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty.

Re-entering the United States, allegedly by jumping ship at San Francisco, he found his way to Hollywood, where from 1927, his nautical expertise brought him work as a script consultant and technical adviser.

At that studio, he also made The Showdown (1928), The Four Feathers (1929), The Wheel of Life (1929), A Dangerous Woman (1929), and Wolf Song (1929) with Gary Cooper.

Farrow began to work increasingly at RKO: Inside the Lines (1930); The Common Law (1931) with Constance Bennett, and a big hit - A Woman of Experience (1931) with Helen Twelvetrees.

On 27 January 1933, while dancing at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, he was arrested for breach of his visa, as part of a general crackdown against illegal immigrants in the film industry.

Following this, he accompanied his wife, Maureen O'Sullivan, to Europe, where she was making A Yank at Oxford (1938), lectured on Father Damien, about whom Farrow had written a book (published in 1937), and received a papal knighthood.

[19] On his return to Hollywood, Farrow resumed working as a B-picture director for Warner Bros., with West of Shanghai (1937) with Boris Karloff and She Loved a Fireman (1937) with Dick Foran and Ann Sheridan.

He was reunited with Karloff in The Invisible Menace (1938), then made Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938) with John Litel and Sheridan, the first film for Peggy Ann Garner.

He did some uncredited work on Comet Over Broadway (1938), starring Francis, when director Busby Berkeley fell ill. Farrow left his contract for a number of months, ostensibly to finish a book he was writing on the history of the papacy, and also due to disputes over the script for his next film, another starring Kay Francis, Women in the Wind (1939).

RKO then announced Farrow would direct a film version of the director's book Damien the Leper produced by Sisk and starring Joseph Calleia,[23] but it was never made.

"[24] Farrow went on to direct Full Confession (1939) with Victor McLaglen, Reno (1939), Married and in Love (1940), and A Bill of Divorcement (1940) - a remake of the 1932 Katharine Hepburn film, with Maureen O'Hara in the lead.

[28] Farrow was invalided out of the Royal Canadian Navy with typhus in January 1942 at the rank of commander, but remained in the naval reserve.

The association began brilliantly with Wake Island (1942), which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director, and was one of the year's biggest hits.

[3] Farrow followed it with another war film shot in Canada for Columbia, Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942), which also proved popular.

[6] He directed The Hitler Gang (1944), Two Years Before the Mast (filmed 1944, not released until 1946) with Ladd, and You Came Along (1945), from a script co-written by Ayn Rand.

In May 1945, Farrow was briefly recalled to active duty, travelling to Britain for work in connection with the director of special services.

[35] Ladd was meant to star in Farrow's California (1947), but dropped out over money and was replaced by Ray Milland; it was a big hit.

He was reunited with Ladd for a military drama, Beyond Glory (1948), then returned to noir with Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), starring Edward G. Robinson from a Cornell Woolrich novel, and Alias Nick Beal (1949), with Milland.

As a change of pace, he produced and directed a comedy with Betty Hutton, Red, Hot and Blue (1949), followed by a popular Western with Milland, Copper Canyon (1950).

Farrow did some uncredited work on the Alan Ladd Western, Red Mountain (1951), when William Dieterle fell ill.

Hughes liked Farrow's work enough to hire him again for His Kind of Woman (1951), also with Mitchum, although the film was extensively reshot by Richard Fleischer.

He wound up his contract with a final movie with Ladd, Botany Bay (1952), a half-successful attempt to repeat Two Years Before the Mast.

[47] Death John Farrow died of a heart attack[48] in Beverly Hills, California on 27 January 1963 at the age of 58, and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.