Kenneth Hawks, younger brother of director Howard Hawks by two years, and producer William Hawks by one year, was born in 1898 in Goshen, Indiana. A veteran of World War I in the United States Army Air Service and, later, graduating from Yale University, he began directing films for Fox Film Corporation in 1929, three years after older brother Howard began his directorial career. Kenneth Hawks married actress and future Oscar-winner Mary Astor in 1928. Astor was widowed upon his death. On January 2, 1930, with two films to his credit, Hawks and nine other crew members died in the collision of two camera planes over the Pacific Ocean off Southern California while he was directing the film Such Men are Dangerous.