- Born
- Died
- Place
Paul Hurst
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)
As director
Outlaw's Paradise
Haunted Range
Roaring Road
Blue Streak O'Neil
The Midnight Message
The Fighting Ranger
The Law of the Snow Country
The Demon Rider
A Western Engagement
The Were-Tiger
The Fighting Cub
Folly of Youth
Branded a Bandit
The Passing of Wolf MacLean
Battling Bunyan
The Man Who Would Not Die
Golden Silence
South of Northern Lights
The Heart of a Texan
Rangeland
Table Top Ranch
The Crow's Nest
Shadows of the West
King Fisher's Roost
Lightning Bryce
The Tiger's Trail
Play Straight or Fight
The Woman in the Web
The Further Adventures of Stingaree
The Railroad Raiders
As actor
The Sun Shines Bright
Toughest Man in Arizona
Big Jim McLain
Million Dollar Pursuit
The Missourians
The Old Frontier
The Vanishing Westerner
Ranger of Cherokee Strip
Prince of the Plains
Pioneer Marshal
San Antone Ambush
South of Rio
Law of the Golden West
Outcasts of the Trail
Who Killed Doc Robbin?
The Arizona Ranger
Madonna of the Desert
Son of God’s Country
Gun Smugglers
California Firebrand
Yellow Sky
Heart of Virginia
Angel and the Badman
Under Colorado Skies
The Plainsman and the Lady
The Virginian
Death Valley
In Old Sacramento
Murder in the Music Hall
Steppin' in Society