Paul Hurst

Acting · 0.7 popularity

Age

137

Movies

214

Born: October 14, 1888 – February 27, 1953
From: 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)

Works

214 films

Gone with the Wind

19397.9

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

19367.5

Queen Christina

19346.9

Island of Lost Souls

19326.9

Yellow Sky

19487.0

The Ox-Bow Incident

19437.7

Angel and the Badman

19476.4

In Old Chicago

19386.7

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

19236.6

State's Attorney

19326.9

The Virginian

19466.2

The Sun Shines Bright

19536.5

The Westerner

19407.1

Edison, the Man

19406.8

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

19386.9

Dakota

19455.2

Each Dawn I Die

19396.8

They Drive by Night

19406.9

You Can't Have Everything

19376.5

Whispering Smith

1916

Wake Up and Live

19376.2

Death Valley

19465.7

Torrid Zone

19407.0

The Phantom President

19326.5

Big Jim McLain

19525.0

The Red Raiders

19278.0

Buttons

19273.7

Slave Ship

19375.1

Robin Hood of El Dorado

19365.2

The Gay Deception

19356.4

Outcasts of the Trail

19499.0

The Vivisectionist

1915

Sweepstakes

19315.7

The Secret Six

19315.6

Midnight Manhunt

19454.6

Toughest Man in Arizona

19527.0

Super-Sleuth

19375.6

Alexander's Ragtime Band

19386.8

Coney Island

19436.3

Ali Baba Goes to Town

19376.0

Petticoat Politics

19419.0

The Big Stampede

19325.1

The Old Frontier

195010.0

The Quicksands

191410.0

Tugboat Annie

19337.3

Stingaree

1915

The Gay Desperado

19363.7

Roaring Road

19268.0

Summer Storm

19445.7

Topper Takes a Trip

19386.6

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

19415.6

The Rainbow

19299.0

Murder in the Music Hall

19465.3

Tugboat Annie Sails Again

19406.0

Sundown Jim

194210.0

Something for the Boys

19446.5

In Old Sacramento

19466.8

Mississippi

19356.8

Barbary Coast Gent

19445.5

Caught in the Draft

19415.9

Night in New Orleans

19424.2

Prince of the Plains

19498.0

The Case of the Curious Bride

19356.0

On Your Toes

19394.5

Dudes Are Pretty People

19428.0

Fifty Roads to Town

193710.0

To Mary - with Love

19365.7

Medicine Bend

1916

The Great Mr. Nobody

19416.0

You Can't Beat Love

19376.7

Shadow of the Law

19306.7

Pioneer Marshal

194910.0

Rimrock Jones

1918

Swellhead

19309.0

The Arizona Ranger

19486.7

Calaboose

19437.0

Secrets of a Nurse

19385.5

Cafe Society

19397.5

The Thirteenth Guest

19325.2

The Plainsman and the Lady

19466.0

Heart of Virginia

19487.0

Danger – Love at Work

19377.0

The Line-Up

19343.5

Oh, Yeah!

19295.0

Second Honeymoon

19376.4

The Parson of Panamint

19415.8

We Who Are About to Die

19377.0

Prison Break

19386.1

The Sky's the Limit

19436.3

Hot Curves

19306.8

San Antone Ambush

19497.0

Riffraff

19365.4

The Cossacks

19287.4

Tall, Dark and Handsome

19416.1

Paradise Island

19303.8

Charlie Chan's Courage

19348.7

Carnival

19358.0

Men Are Such Fools

19327.0

Among the Missing

19346.5

Pardon My Stripes

19426.5

Wilderness Mail

19357.0

Castle on the Hudson

19407.0

Remember?

19396.0

Hold That Co-ed

19386.7

Hi'ya, Chum

19436.5

Angel's Holiday

19376.0

Who Killed Doc Robbin?

19484.2

Smashing Through

1918

Girl Rush

19446.0

Broadway Serenade

19396.6

December 7th

19435.8

Lilac Time

19286.8

Hold Your Man

19336.3

Under Colorado Skies

19477.0

The Vanishing Westerner

19505.5

Public Hero Number 1

19356.3

Calm Yourself

19356.0

Officer O'Brien

19305.3

Son of God’s Country

19489.0

Maybe It's Love

19357.0

The Valley of the Giants

19277.0

Terror Aboard

19336.5

The Daring Young Man

193510.0

This Is My Affair

19377.3

California Firebrand

19485.5

Ranger of Cherokee Strip

194910.0

The Women in His Life

19334.3

The Sphinx

19335.1

My Lucky Star

19385.9

No Time to Marry

19387.0

Gun Smugglers

19486.7

Wife, Doctor and Nurse

19377.0

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

19396.6

The Racketeer

19295.1

Law of the Golden West

19497.5

Josette

19387.2

Bad Lands

19395.3

The Last Express

19384.0

Million Dollar Pursuit

19516.5

South of Rio

19497.0

The Cave Men's War

19137.0

The Lady Fights Back

19377.0

Island in the Sky

19387.0

Panama Flo

19327.8

Glove Slingers

19395.7

Grand Slam

19334.6

The Big Race

19349.0

Maker of Men

19317.0

This Woman Is Mine

19414.5

I'd Give My Life

19367.5

Saturday's Millions

19337.0

Midnight Alibi

19346.7

South to Karanga

19407.0

Quick Millions

19397.3

Trouble in Morocco

19376.5

Star Dust

19405.7

It Could Happen to You

19394.8

The Public Defender

19316.4

A Very Honorable Guy

19346.0

His First Command

19298.5

Scared Stiff

19454.7

North of Nome

19368.0

She's No Lady

19378.0

The Ghost That Walks Alone

19444.8

The Single Sin

19317.0

Day of Reckoning

19335.1

Madonna of the Desert

19488.0

Blackmailer

19366.5

The Big Show-Off

19455.3

Hold 'Em Jail

19326.8

Virginia

19419.0

My Pal, the King

19328.0

Spring Parade

19406.9

Borrowed Wives

19305.3

The Runaway Bride

19306.2

The Girl Detective

19155.8

Lightning Bryce

19197.0

A Lass of the Lumberlands

1916

Sailor's Holiday

19296.1

Tomorrow's Youth

193410.0

Tide of Empire

19296.3

Goin' Fishin'

19406.3

Steppin' in Society

19456.0

Lucky Larkin

193010.0

The Driver Of The Deadwood Coach

1912

Shadow of Doubt

19356.6

Take the Stand

19345.5

The Diamond Runners

191610.0

Sequoia

19356.5

The Secret Witness

19314.3

The Third Alarm

193010.0

The Legion of Missing Men

19376.7

Judith of the Cumberlands

1916

Mountain Justice

19307.5

The Hazards of Helen: Episode13, The Escape on the Fast Freight

19155.8

The California Mail

19299.0

The Missourians

19508.0

The Railroad Raiders

1917

Bad Company

19315.0

The Ballad of Paducah Jail

19349.0

The Chief of Police

19149.0

The Red Signal

1915

Kick In

19317.5

The Devil's Saddle

19278.0

The Hazards of Helen

1917

The Further Adventures of Stingaree

1917

Blue Streak O'Neil

19268.0

That's My Line

193110.0

The Fighting Ranger

19267.0

The Lawless Legion

19299.0

The Man Who Would Not Die

1924

The Manager of the B & A

1916

Outlaw's Paradise

19278.0

The Plot at the Railroad Cut

1914