Paul Hurst

Acting · 0.8 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

The Ox-Bow Incident

19437.7

Queen Christina

19346.9

Yellow Sky

19487.0

Angel and the Badman

19476.4

Island of Lost Souls

19326.9

In Old Chicago

19386.7

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

19236.6

The Westerner

19407.1

The Virginian

19466.2

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

19386.9

The Sun Shines Bright

19536.5

Dakota

19455.2

Edison, the Man

19406.8

You Can't Have Everything

19376.5

They Drive by Night

19406.9

State's Attorney

19326.9

The Vivisectionist

1915

Each Dawn I Die

19396.8

Roaring Road

19268.0

The Quicksands

191410.0

The Gay Deception

19356.4

Sweepstakes

19315.7

Stingaree

1915

Wake Up and Live

19376.2

Whispering Smith

1916

Pioneer Marshal

194910.0

Buttons

19273.7

Slave Ship

19375.1

Big Jim McLain

19525.0

Death Valley

19465.7

Petticoat Politics

19419.0

The Red Raiders

19278.0

Toughest Man in Arizona

19527.0

Calaboose

19437.0

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

19415.6

Torrid Zone

19407.0

Alexander's Ragtime Band

19386.8

The Great Mr. Nobody

19416.0

Robin Hood of El Dorado

19365.2

Sundown Jim

194210.0

Swellhead

19309.0

Mississippi

19356.8

Something for the Boys

19446.5

Super-Sleuth

19375.6

Outcasts of the Trail

19499.0

Rimrock Jones

1918

Dudes Are Pretty People

19428.0

The Big Stampede

19325.1

Cafe Society

19397.5

Wilderness Mail

19357.0

The Rainbow

19299.0

The Secret Six

19315.6

Midnight Manhunt

19454.6

Ali Baba Goes to Town

19376.0

Hi'ya, Chum

19436.5

Smashing Through

1918

The Cossacks

19287.4

The Daring Young Man

193510.0

Castle on the Hudson

19407.0

The Plainsman and the Lady

19466.0

Pardon My Stripes

19426.5

Tugboat Annie

19337.3

San Antone Ambush

19497.0

Coney Island

19436.3

Topper Takes a Trip

19386.6

Medicine Bend

1916

Remember?

19396.0

You Can't Beat Love

19376.7

December 7th

19435.8

To Mary - with Love

19365.7

We Who Are About to Die

19377.0

The Valley of the Giants

19277.0

Shadow of the Law

19306.7

Hold Your Man

19336.3

The Line-Up

19343.5

The Gay Desperado

19363.7

Law of the Golden West

19497.5

Hot Curves

19306.8

The Phantom President

19326.5

Murder in the Music Hall

19465.3

Caught in the Draft

19415.9

In Old Sacramento

19466.8

Summer Storm

19445.7

Men Are Such Fools

19327.0

The Case of the Curious Bride

19356.0

Tugboat Annie Sails Again

19406.0

Oh, Yeah!

19295.0

Danger – Love at Work

19377.0

The Vanishing Westerner

19505.5

Prince of the Plains

19498.0

The Sky's the Limit

19436.3

Son of God’s Country

19489.0

Barbary Coast Gent

19445.5

Grand Slam

19334.6

Calm Yourself

19356.0

The Cave Men's War

19137.0

The Girl Detective

19155.8

Scared Stiff

19454.7

The Old Frontier

195010.0

Paradise Island

19303.8

This Is My Affair

19377.3

Prison Break

19386.1

The Arizona Ranger

19486.7

Public Hero Number 1

19356.3

Virginia

19419.0

Tall, Dark and Handsome

19416.1

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

19396.6

Officer O'Brien

19305.3

Island in the Sky

19387.0

Second Honeymoon

19376.4

The Parson of Panamint

19415.8

The Thirteenth Guest

19325.2

The Big Race

19349.0

Broadway Serenade

19396.6

Gun Smugglers

19486.7

Ranger of Cherokee Strip

194910.0

On Your Toes

19394.5

Charlie Chan's Courage

19348.7

Lilac Time

19286.8

Maker of Men

19317.0

Fifty Roads to Town

193710.0

Wife, Doctor and Nurse

19377.0

Under Colorado Skies

19477.0

Hold That Co-ed

19386.7

The Women in His Life

19334.3

Maybe It's Love

19357.0

The Racketeer

19295.1

Who Killed Doc Robbin?

19484.2

Riffraff

19365.4

Terror Aboard

19336.5

South of Rio

19497.0

A Very Honorable Guy

19346.0

Quick Millions

19397.3

Glove Slingers

19395.7

Carnival

19358.0

The Ghost That Walks Alone

19444.8

My Lucky Star

19385.9

I'd Give My Life

19367.5

Saturday's Millions

19337.0

Night in New Orleans

19424.2

Angel's Holiday

19376.0

Star Dust

19405.7

Tomorrow's Youth

193410.0

The Last Express

19384.0

The Secret Witness

19314.3

The Public Defender

19316.4

Heart of Virginia

19487.0

California Firebrand

19485.5

A Lass of the Lumberlands

1916

Josette

19387.2

Borrowed Wives

19305.3

It Could Happen to You

19394.8

Girl Rush

19446.0

My Pal, the King

19328.0

The Diamond Runners

191610.0

The Driver Of The Deadwood Coach

1912

Tide of Empire

19296.3

This Woman Is Mine

19414.5

Trouble in Morocco

19376.5

Secrets of a Nurse

19385.5

The Sphinx

19335.1

The Single Sin

19317.0

Blackmailer

19366.5

No Time to Marry

19387.0

Sailor's Holiday

19296.1

Judith of the Cumberlands

1916

Day of Reckoning

19335.1

Hold 'Em Jail

19326.8

Bad Lands

19395.3

Spring Parade

19406.9

The Railroad Raiders

1917

Among the Missing

19346.5

The Big Show-Off

19455.3

Goin' Fishin'

19406.3

Midnight Alibi

19346.7

Shadow of Doubt

19356.6

North of Nome

19368.0

Lucky Larkin

193010.0

The Red Signal

1915

Panama Flo

19327.8

Steppin' in Society

19456.0

Bad Company

19315.0

Take the Stand

19345.5

His First Command

19298.5

The Lady Fights Back

19377.0

The Runaway Bride

19306.2

The California Mail

19299.0

The Legion of Missing Men

19376.7

Lightning Bryce

19197.0

Madonna of the Desert

19488.0

Million Dollar Pursuit

19516.5

She's No Lady

19378.0

Mountain Justice

19307.5

The Third Alarm

193010.0

The Fighting Ranger

19267.0

Sequoia

19356.5

The Lawless Legion

19299.0

The Devil's Saddle

19278.0

Kick In

19317.5

The Missourians

19508.0

Blue Streak O'Neil

19268.0

South to Karanga

19407.0

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

19155.8

The Ballad of Paducah Jail

19349.0

The Hazards of Helen

1917

The Further Adventures of Stingaree

1917

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

The Chief of Police

19149.0

That's My Line

193110.0