Actor · Acting

Paul Hurst

Born 1888-10-14

Died 1953-02-27

📍 Traver, California, USA

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)

Filmography 204

The Sun Shines Bright

Toughest Man in Arizona

Million Dollar Pursuit

The Missourians

as John X. Finn

The Old Frontier

as Skipper Horton

The Vanishing Westerner

as Waldorf Worthington

Pioneer Marshal

Ranger of Cherokee Strip

as Sheriff Jug Mason

San Antone Ambush

as Happy Daniels

Outcasts of the Trail

as Doc Meadowlark

Law of the Golden West

Prince of the Plains

as Sheriff Hank Hartley

as Sergeant Hasty Jones

as Drunk (uncredited)

Son of God’s Country

The Arizona Ranger

Heart of Virginia

Who Killed Doc Robbin?

California Firebrand

as Chuck Waggoner

Madonna of the Desert

as Pete Connors

Under Colorado Skies

as Lucky John Hawkins

Angel and the Badman

as Frederick Carson

The Plainsman and the Lady

as Sergeant Dailey

In Old Sacramento

as Stagecoach Driver

Murder in the Music Hall

as Captain Spotts

Midnight Manhunt

Steppin' in Society

The Big Show-Off

as Herbert Trafagan, aka "The Devil", a wrestler

Something for the Boys

as Defense Plant Foreman (uncredited)

Barbary Coast Gent

as Jake Compton

The Ghost That Walks Alone

as Sheriff Slim Carson

The Sky's the Limit

as Dock Foreman (uncredited)

The Ox-Bow Incident

as World War I Ghost Soldier

as Archie Billings

as Ed the bartender

Night in New Orleans

as Sergeant Casper Riordan

Dudes Are Pretty People

Pardon My Stripes

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

This Woman Is Mine

as Second Mate Mumford

The Parson of Panamint

as Jake Waldren

Caught in the Draft

The Great Mr. Nobody

as Michael O'Connor

Petticoat Politics

as Slats O'Dell

Tall, Dark and Handsome

Tugboat Annie Sails Again

South to Karanga

They Drive by Night

as Pete Haig (uncredited)

Edison, the Man

as Mac, Amalgamated Lab Tech

Castle on the Hudson

as Guard (uncredited)

Gone with the Wind

as Yankee Deserter

as Chuck Brenner

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

as Empire State Building Guard

as Variety Club Bartender

Each Dawn I Die

Broadway Serenade

as Reynolds, a Drunk

Topper Takes a Trip

as Charlie - the Bartender

Secrets of a Nurse

as Arlington Bysshe 'Slice' Cavanaugh

The Last Express

as Asst. Dist. Atty. Springer

Hold That Co-ed

as A. Adolphus Heyman

Alexander's Ragtime Band

as Bill Mulligan

Island in the Sky

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

as Florabelle's Father

No Time to Marry

Second Honeymoon

as Dennis Huggins

Ali Baba Goes to Town

Danger – Love at Work

as NYC policeman

Wife, Doctor and Nurse

Wake Up and Live

You Can't Have Everything

as Truck Driver (uncredited)

The Legion of Missing Men

as Motorcycle Cop

You Can't Beat Love

as Foreman Butch Mehaffey

Angel's Holiday

Fifty Roads to Town

This Is My Affair

Trouble in Morocco

as Tiger Malone

We Who Are About to Die

The Gay Desperado

as American Detective

To Mary - with Love

as Inspector Killian

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

as 1st Deputy (uncredited)

Robin Hood of El Dorado

The Gay Deception

as Bell Captain

The Daring Young Man

as Prison Guard

as Detective Roscoe

Public Hero Number 1

The Case of the Curious Bride

as Fibo Morgan (uncredited)

Shadow of Doubt

as Lt. Sackville

Maybe It's Love

as Expressman (uncredited)

The Ballad of Paducah Jail

as Escaped Felon

Tomorrow's Youth

Among the Missing

as Capt. W.F. 'Big Bill' Connors

as Denny O'Brien

as Babe the Butcher

Charlie Chan's Courage

as Undetermined Role

A Very Honorable Guy

as Detective Sgt. Doyle

as Skipper O'Neal

Queen Christina

as Swedish Soldier Betting on 6 (uncredited)

The Women in His Life

as Paul, Perez's Second Bodyguard

Day of Reckoning

Saturday's Millions

as Doc Maloney, Trainer

as Aubrey C. Mitchell (uncredited)

as Detective Terrence Aloysius Hogan

as Man Who Speaks Final Line of the Film

Island of Lost Souls

as Capt. Donahue

Men Are Such Fools

The Big Stampede

as 'Arizona' Frank Bailey

The Phantom President

as Sailor (uncredited)

The Thirteenth Guest

as Detective Grump

State's Attorney

as Police Captain Morgan

My Pal, the King

The Secret Witness

as Officer Brannigan

The Public Defender

as Mexican Bandit

as Detective Whip Fogarty

as Nick Mizoski - the Gouger

The Third Alarm

as 'Beauty' Johnson

Paradise Island

as 'Slug', Baseball Player

Shadow of the Law

The Runaway Bride

as Sergeant Daly

Mountain Justice

Officer O'Brien

as Captain Antrim

as Pete Brierson

His First Command

as Sgt. Westbrook

as Mehaffy - Policeman

as Railroad-Yard Superintendent

Sailor's Holiday

The California Mail

The Lawless Legion

as (uncredited)

as Slugger McGlue

The Valley of the Giants

The Red Raiders

as Sergeant Murphy

The Devil's Saddle

as 'Swig' Moran

Blue Streak O'Neil

as Checking Board Tabulator (uncredited)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

as Emeralda's Torturer (uncredited)

Lightning Bryce

as Powder Solvang

Smashing Through

The Further Adventures of Stingaree

The Railroad Raiders

as Steve Arnold (as Paul C. Hurst)

The Hazards of Helen

as Benton - a Foreman

The Manager of the B & A

as Roger Oakley (as Paul C. Hurst)

Judith of the Cumberlands

as Blatchley Turrentine

as Murray Sinclair

Whispering Smith

as Murray Sinclair

A Lass of the Lumberlands

as Howie - Stingaree's Partner

The Vivisectionist

as Bart - Jardine's Servant

as Chief Dispatcher

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

The Girl Detective

as Blair / Thompson / Michaels / Snake Henely / Mike Donegal / Bat Dorgan / Kelly / Dalton / Blake

The Plot at the Railroad Cut

as Benton, the Foreman

The Cave Men's War

The Driver Of The Deadwood Coach

as Bad Bill - a Desperado