Porter Hall
Birthday: 1888-09-18
Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Clifford Porter Hall (September 19, 1888 – October 6, 1953) was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. Hall played movie villains or comedic incompetent characters. Hall was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and began his career touring as a stage actor with roles in productions of The Great Gatsby and Naked in 1926. Hall made his film debut in the 1931 drama Secrets of a Secretary. He made his last onscreen appearance in the 1954 film Return to Treasure Island, which was released after his death. He was probably best remembered for four roles: a senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, an atheist in Going My Way, the nervous, ill-tempered Granville Sawyer, who administers a psychological test to Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, and a train passenger who encounters a man (Fred MacMurray) who has just committed a murder in Double Indemnity. On October 6, 1953, Hall died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California at the age of 65. His interment was at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery. Hall had two children, David and Sarah Jane.
Movies
Double Indemnity
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replaceme...
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His Girl Friday
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star...
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The Thin Man
A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed f...
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The Princess Comes Across
A Swedish princess boards an ocean liner in Europe en route to an acting career in America and finds...
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Miracle on 34th Street
Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at M...
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Ace in the Hole
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career....
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Holiday for Sinners
Three old friends reunite during Mardi Gras and try to forget their problems....
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Satan Met a Lady
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress...
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Dark Command
When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place,...
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Make Way for Tomorrow
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The Great Moment
The biography of Dr. W.T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia...
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The Mark of the Whistler
A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who t...
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The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell ...
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Bulldog Drummond Escapes
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Sullivan's Travels
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterp...
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The Petrified Forest
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Going My Way
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Intruder in the Dust
Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowin...
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Unconquered
England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to esc...
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Singapore
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The Story of Louis Pasteur
A true story about Louis Pasteur, who revolutionized medicine by proving that much disease is caused...
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Blood on the Sun
Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domin...
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Vice Squad
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Week-End at the Waldorf
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Secrets of a Secretary
Society girl becomes a social secretary when her father dies penniless. From a story by Charles Brac...
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This Way Please
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Butch Minds the Baby
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Murder, He Says
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Wells Fargo
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The General Died at Dawn
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Return to Treasure Island
There's something to be said for finishing what you've started. That's why the gentile Captain Long ...
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True Confession
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They Shall Have Music
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Bulldog Drummond's Peril
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The Case of the Lucky Legs
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Stolen Heaven
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A Stranger in Town
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Too Many Parents
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Chicken Every Sunday
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Snowed Under
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Standing Room Only
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The Arkansas Traveler
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Men with Wings
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Kiss and Tell
Film adaptation of the Broadway hit, about the comic mayhem that erupts in a small town when a 15-ye...
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Tom Sawyer, Detective
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Souls at Sea
Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave tra...
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Murder in the Private Car
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Pony Express
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Dangerous to Know
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The Plainsman
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That Wonderful Urge
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Arizona
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Prison Farm
Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy f...
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Grand Jury Secrets
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The Desperadoes
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The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
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Wild Money
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The Parson of Panamint
As he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled old pr...
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The Woman of the Town
Bat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of Dodge Ci...
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King of Gamblers
Working for a slick restaurateur who has fallen for her, a down-on-life songstress falls instead for...
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And Sudden Death
An heiress with a penchant for speeding runs afoul of a traffic cop. Romance develops between the tw...
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Bring on the Girls
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The Half-Breed
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The Cheat
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The Remarkable Andrew
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Scandal Street
Joe McKnight temporarily leaves his fiancée, Nora Langdon, for an expedition in a South American jun...
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King of Alcatraz
A convict who has just escaped from Alcatraz Prison takes over a passenger ship. Two of the ship's c...
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Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police
Captain Drummond and his girlfriend want to marry but a hidden treasure in the house in which they w...
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You Gotta Stay Happy
Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face th...
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Let's Make a Million
A wealthy mama's boy finds himself the victim of con artists involved in an oil stocks racket....
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Mr. and Mrs. North
Married sleuths (Gracie Allen, William Post Jr.) find a corpse in their closet and round up suspects...
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Carbine Williams
David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually deve...
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