Quick Facts
Biography
Ernest Thurston Hall (May 10, 1882 – February 20, 1958) was an American film actor.
Early years
Hall was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Stage
Hall "toured with various New England stage companies during his teens, then went to London, where he formed a small stage troupe with which he toured New Zealand and South Africa."
At 22 in 1904, Hall was in the first stage production of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. His Broadway credits include The Only Girl (1914), Have a Heart (1917), Civilian Clothes (1919), The French Doll (1922), Still Waters (1926), Buy, Buy, Baby (1926), Mixed Doubles (1927), Behold the Bridegroom (1927), The Common Sin (1928), Sign of the Leopard (1928), Security (1929), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), Everything's Jake (1930), Philip Goes Forth (1931), Chrysalis (1932), Thoroughbred (1933), Re-echo (1934), They Shall Not Die (1934), Spring Freshet (1934), All Rights Reserved (1934), and Rain from Heaven (1934).
In 1925, Hall took a troupe to Australia to perform the play So This Is London.
Film
Hall's film career began with his work in silent films in 1915. He appeared in 250 films between 1915 and 1957 and is remembered for his portrayal, during the later stages of his career, of often pompous or blustering authority figures. Early in his silent career, he supported Theda Bara in her vamp-costume dramas.
Television
Hall's best-known television role was as Mr. Schuyler, the boss of Cosmo Topper (played by Leo G. Carroll), in the 1950s television series, Topper (1953–1956).
Personal life
Hall was married to Quenda Hackett (1897–1984).
Partial filmography
- The Mirror (1915)
- Cleopatra (1917)
- Flare-Up Sal (1918)
- We Can't Have Everything (1918)
- The Brazen Beauty (1918)
- The Squaw Man (1918)
- The Exquisite Thief (1919)
- The Unpainted Woman (1919)
- The Iron Trail (1921)
- Fair Lady (1922)
- Wildness of Youth (1922)
- The Royal Oak (1923)
- The Great Well (1924)
- The Black Room (1935)
- Metropolitan (1935)
- Love Me Forever (1935)
- The Black Room (1935)
- The Public Menace (1935)
- A Feather in Her Hat (1935)
- Crime and Punishment (1935)
- Case of the Missing Man (1935)
- Too Tough to Kill (1935)
- Pride of the Marines (1936)
- The King Steps Out (1936)
- Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
- Venus Makes Trouble (1937)
- Murder in Greenwich Village (1937)
- It Can't Last Forever (1937)
- Counsel for Crime (1937)
- I Promise to Pay (1937)
- Penitentiary (1938)
- There's Always a Woman (1938)
- The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
- The Affairs of Annabel (1938)
- Campus Confessions (1938)
- Going Places (1938)
- You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)
- Each Dawn I Die (1939)
- Million Dollar Legs (1939)
- Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
- First Love (1939)
- The Great McGinty (1940)
- Blondie on a Budget (1940)
- The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady (1940)
- Kiddie Kure (1940 Our Gang short)
- The Invisible Woman (1940)
- The Great Lie (1941)
- She Knew All the Answers (1941)
- Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941)
- Hold That Ghost (1941)
- Design for Scandal (1941)
- Pacific Blackout (1941)
- The Great Man's Lady (1942)
- Counter-Espionage (1942)
- Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
- This Land Is Mine (1943)
- I Dood It (1943)
- Wilson (1944) as Senator Edward H. 'Big Ed' Jones
- In Society (1944)
- Brewster's Millions (1945)
- West of the Pecos (1945)
- Lady on a Train (1945) (uncredited)
- Colonel Effingham's Raid (1946)
- Without Reservations (1946)
- She Wrote the Book (1946)
- The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
- Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
- The Son of Rusty (1947)
- It Had to Be You (1947)
- King of the Gamblers (1948)
- Rim of the Canyon (1949)
- Girls' School (1950) as Colonel Selby Matthews
- Belle of Old Mexico (1950) as Horatio Huntington
- Federal Agent at Large (1950) as 'Big Bill' Dixon
- Bright Leaf (1950) as Phillips
- Chain Gang (1950) as John McKelvey
- One Too Many (1950) as Kenneth Simes
- The Bandit Queen (1950) as Governor
- Belle Le Grand (1951) as Parkington
- Whirlwind (1951) as Big Jim Lassiter
- Texas Carnival (1951) as Mr. Gaytes
- One Big Affair (1952) as Mr. 'G'
- Night Stage to Galveston (1952) as Colonel James Bellamy
- Skirts Ahoy! (1952) as Thatcher Kinston
- Carson City (1952) as Charles Crocker
- It Grows on Trees (1952) as John Sleamish--Bank President (uncredited)
- Woman of the North Country (1952) as Mayor Spencer (uncredited)
- The WAC from Walla Walla (1952) as Col. Mayfield
- The Band Wagon (1953) as Colonel Tripp (uncredited)
- Wonder Valley (1953)
- Affair in Reno (1956) as J.B. Del Monte
- The Go-Getter (1956) as Mr. Higgins