Porter Hall
Highest Rated: 100% Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Lowest Rated: 63% The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend (1949)
Birthday: Sep 19, 1888
Birthplace: Not Available
After working his way through the University of Cincinnati, Porter Hall slaved away as a Pennsylvania steel worker, then turned to acting, spending nearly 20 years building a solid reputation as a touring Shakespearean actor. Hall was 43 when he made his first film, Secrets of a Secretary. Never entertaining thoughts of playing romantic leads, Hall was content to parlay his weak chin and shifty eyes into dozens of roles calling for such unattractive character traits as cowardice, duplicity and plain old mean-spiritedness. Cast as a murder suspect in The Thin Man (1934), Hall's guilt was so transparent that it effectively ended the mystery even before it began. In DeMille's The Plainsman (1936), Hall played Jack McCall, the rattlesnake who shot Wild Bill Hickok in the back (his performance won Hall a Screen Actors Guild award). In the rollicking Murder He Says (1944), Hall portrays the whacked-out patriarch of a family of hillbilly murderers. And in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Hall is at his most odious as the neurosis-driven psychiatrist who endeavors to commit jolly old Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) to the booby hatch. Even with only one scene in Going My Way (1944), Hall manages to pack five reels' worth of venom into his role of a loudmouthed atheist. In real life, Hall was the exact opposite of his screen image: a loyal friend, a tireless charity worker, and a deacon at Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church. Porter Hall died at age 65 in 1953; his last film, released posthumously, was Return to Treasure Island (1954).

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

CREDIT
No Score Yet Tcm Presents Double Indemnity Encore Actor — 2015
No Score Yet Tcm Presents Double Indemnity Actor — 2015
No Score Yet Pony Express Bridger — 1953
No Score Yet Holiday for Sinners Louie — 1952
No Score Yet The Half-Breed Kraemer — 1952
No Score Yet Carbine Williams Sam Markley — 1952
90% Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival) Jacob Q. Boot — 1951
100% Intruder in the Dust Nub Gowrie — 1949
63% The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend Judge O'Toole — 1949
No Score Yet Chicken Every Sunday Sam Howell — 1949
No Score Yet That Wonderful Urge Attorney Ketchell — 1948
No Score Yet You Gotta Stay Happy Mr. Caslon — 1948
80% Unconquered Leach — 1947
No Score Yet Singapore Mr. Bellows — 1947
96% Miracle on 34th Street Mr. Sawyer — 1947
No Score Yet Weekend at the Waldorf Stevens — 1945
No Score Yet Blood on the Sun Arthur Bickett — 1945
No Score Yet Murder, He Says Mr. Johnson — 1945
No Score Yet Mark of the Whistler Joe Sorsby — 1944
97% Double Indemnity Mr. Jackson — 1944
79% Going My Way Belknap — 1944
88% The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Justice of the Peace — 1944
No Score Yet The Woman of the Town Dog Kelley — 1944
No Score Yet The Desperadoes Stanley Clanton — 1943
No Score Yet A Stranger in Town Judge Austin Harkley — 1943
No Score Yet Tennessee Johnson The Weasel — 1942
No Score Yet Mr. and Mrs. North George Reyler — 1942
No Score Yet The Remarkable Andrew Art Slocumb — 1942
100% Sullivan's Travels Mr. Hadrian — 1941
No Score Yet The Dark Command Angus McCloud — 1940
98% His Girl Friday Murphy — 1940
No Score Yet Arizona Lazarus Ward — 1940
95% Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Sen. Monroe — 1939
No Score Yet They Shall Have Music Mr. Flower — 1939
No Score Yet Bulldog Drummond's Peril Dr. Botulian — 1938
No Score Yet This Way Please S.J. Crawford — 1937
No Score Yet Souls at Sea Court Prosecutor — 1937
No Score Yet Hotel Haywire Judge Newhall — 1937
100% Make Way for Tomorrow Harvey Chase — 1937
No Score Yet Bulldog Drummond Escapes Merridew — 1937
No Score Yet True Confession Prosecutor — 1937
No Score Yet Wells Fargo James Oliver — 1937
No Score Yet The Plainsman McCall — 1936
No Score Yet The General Died at Dawn Perrie — 1936
No Score Yet Satan Met a Lady Mr. Ames — 1936
100% The Story of Louis Pasteur Rossignol — 1936
No Score Yet Snowed Under Arthur Layton — 1936
No Score Yet Too Many Parents Mrs. Saunders — 1936
100% The Petrified Forest Jason Maple — 1936
No Score Yet The Princess Comes Across Darcy — 1936
No Score Yet The Case of the Lucky Legs Bradbury — 1935
No Score Yet Murder in the Private Car Murray — 1934
97% The Thin Man MacCauley — 1934
83% The Great Moment President Pierce — 1921

QUOTES FROM Porter Hall CHARACTERS

No quotes approved yet.