Movies List
TV Show List
The Sun Shines Bright

as Jimmy Bagby

1953
The Vanishing Westerner

as Waldorf Worthington

1950
Prince of the Plains

as Sheriff Hank Hartley

1949
San Antone Ambush

as Happy Daniels

1949
South of Rio

as Andy Weems

1949
Madonna of the Desert

as Pete Connors

1948
Son of God’s Country

as Eli Walker

1948
Angel and the Badman

as Frederick Carson

1947
Death Valley

as Sergeant Dailey

1946
Midnight Manhunt

as Murphy

1945
Scared Stiff

as Sheriff

1945
Girl Rush

as Muley

1944
December 7th

as World War I Ghost Soldier

1943
Calaboose

as Ed the bartender

1943
Night in New Orleans

as Sergeant Casper Riordan

1942
Tall, Dark and Handsome

as Biff Sage

1941
Caught in the Draft

as Sgt. Burns

1941
The Great Mr. Nobody

as Michael O'Connor

1941
The Westerner

as Chickenfoot

1940
Bad Lands

as Curly Tom

1939
Cafe Society

as Bartender

1939
Alexander's Ragtime Band

as Bill Mulligan

1938
Topper Takes a Trip

as Charlie - the Bartender

1938
Island in the Sky

as Happy

1938
Secrets of a Nurse

as Arlington Bysshe 'Slice' Cavanaugh

1938
Prison Break

as Soapy

1938
Paul Hurst Paul Hurst

Birthday

1888-10-15

Place of Birth

Traver, California, USA

Biography

Paul Hurst (October 15, 1888 - February 27, 1953) was an American character actor of prodigious output who also directed and wrote silent films. Much of his early work was in low budget western films. A native of central California, Hurst had a first-hand knowledge of Western lore, growing up surrounded by the multi-million acre Lux & Miller ranches which ran cattle throughout the state. Visiting San Francisco as a young man, Hurst became involved in amateur theatricals and thereafter traveled to Los Angeles to join in the emerging film industry there. He began appearing in films as early as 1912, most of them Westerns. By 1916, he was directing them as well (some sources report that he served in the First World War as a member of the French Foreign Legion, but the dates of his film projects make this story highly suspect). In the early 1920s, Hurst wrote several scenarios for films he directed and appeared in. He proved adept at working as a director for some of the cheapest producers along Gower Gulch, where movies were normally shot on location in a week or less and where stunt men were often the highest paid folks on the set. Within a few years, he focused all of his energies into acting, notably becoming one of the few successes to emerge from Hollywood's Poverty Row. Hurst quickly became one of the more prolific and familiar characters in American movies. With his blocky build and squinty demeanor, and with a raspy voice that enhanced his memorability once sound pictures came in, Hurst played villains and cops and comedy sidekicks in more than 250 films. His most famous role was that of the deserter shot dead on the stairway of Tara by Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939). Hurst was the sidekick to Monte Hale in a number of B-Westerns. Former Gower Gulch veteran John Wayne hired Hurst for Big Jim McLain (1952) knowing that Hurst was ill with terminal cancer. In 1953, at the age of 64, due to his health problems, Paul Hurst committed suicide. Date of Death: 27 February 1953, Hollywood, California  (suicide)
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