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)

Gone with the Wind

7.9

The Ox-Bow Incident

7.7

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

7.5

Island of Lost Souls

6.9

Queen Christina

6.8

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

6.5

Yellow Sky

6.9

Angel and the Badman

6.4

They Drive by Night

6.9

The Westerner

7.0

Each Dawn I Die

6.8

The Sun Shines Bright

6.5

In Old Chicago

6.4

Dakota

5.1

Alexander's Ragtime Band

6.6

Big Jim McLain

4.9

Topper Takes a Trip

6.4

December 7th

5.7

Edison, the Man

6.6

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

6.7

The Virginian

6.1

Hold Your Man

6.1

The Thirteenth Guest

5.2

The Sky's the Limit

6.2

The Big Stampede

4.8

Ali Baba Goes to Town

6.1

Caught in the Draft

5.8

The Secret Six

5.8

This Is My Affair

7.3

The Racketeer

4.9

Riffraff

5.0

The Sphinx

4.8

Castle on the Hudson

6.8

Midnight Manhunt

4.5

Something for the Boys

6.2

Shadow of the Law

6.4

Who Killed Doc Robbin?

4.0

Spring Parade

6.8

Summer Storm

5.1

Tide of Empire

5.9

Public Hero Number 1

6.2

Torrid Zone

6.3

The Gay Deception

6.4

Prison Break

5.1

State's Attorney

6.7

Tugboat Annie

7.0

Mississippi

6.7

Paradise Island

3.5

Tall, Dark and Handsome

5.4

Second Honeymoon

5.8

The Cossacks

7.3

Hold That Co-ed

6.3

My Lucky Star

5.3

Slave Ship

4.8

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

6.3

Coney Island

5.3

Day of Reckoning

5.0

Million Dollar Pursuit

5.8

Bad Company

4.6

Terror Aboard

6.0

Borrowed Wives

4.6

Remember?

5.8

This Woman Is Mine

3.2

The Gay Desperado

2.8

Scared Stiff

4.5

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

5.7

Broadway Serenade

6.2

Island in the Sky

7.0

Shadow of Doubt

6.2

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

5.8

We Who Are About to Die

6.8

Lilac Time

6.2

The Public Defender

6.0

On Your Toes

3.9

The Phantom President

5.5

The Arizona Ranger

6.0

Hold 'Em Jail

6.8

Barbary Coast Gent

4.6

Super-Sleuth

5.0

Murder in the Music Hall

4.6

The Women in His Life

4.0

The Girl Detective

5.8

Night in New Orleans

4.0

Danger – Love at Work

7.3

Hot Curves

5.7

Bad Lands

3.7

Wake Up and Live

5.3

The Runaway Bride

5.0

Officer O'Brien

3.7

Josette

6.7

Sailor's Holiday

5.2

You Can't Have Everything

5.7

Robin Hood of El Dorado

4.7

Oh, Yeah!

4.3

The Great Mr. Nobody

5.3

The Parson of Panamint

5.0

In Old Sacramento

6.0

Panama Flo

7.0

Star Dust

4.7

Grand Slam

3.7

The Ghost That Walks Alone

4.0

Angel's Holiday

5.5

Midnight Alibi

6.0

Sweepstakes

4.5

Secrets of a Nurse

3.0

The Big Show-Off

4.5

Tugboat Annie Sails Again

5.5

The Legion of Missing Men

5.0

The Red Raiders

8.0

The Secret Witness

3.0

Take the Stand

4.0

Among the Missing

6.5

You Can't Beat Love

6.0

Death Valley

5.0

To Mary - with Love

4.5

Wife, Doctor and Nurse

6.0

Goin' Fishin'

6.0

Quick Millions

7.5

Charlie Chan's Courage

8.0

Calm Yourself

4.5

Trouble in Morocco

6.0

Hi'ya, Chum

6.0

Sequoia

6.0

It Could Happen to You

1.5

I'd Give My Life

6.0

The Plainsman and the Lady

3.0

Girl Rush

5.0

Mountain Justice

5.0

The Lady Fights Back

6.0

A Very Honorable Guy

2.0

Cafe Society

6.0

Maybe It's Love

6.0

San Antone Ambush

4.0

Madonna of the Desert

6.0

North of Nome

6.0

No Time to Marry

6.0

The Last Express

1.0

California Firebrand

3.0

The Missourians

6.0

Kick In

6.0

The Vanishing Westerner

2.0

Law of the Golden West

6.0

Pardon My Stripes

6.0

Blackmailer

5.0

Buttons

1.0

His First Command

7.0

Steppin' in Society

0.0

Roaring Road

0.0

Petticoat Politics

0.0

The Driver Of The Deadwood Coach

0.0

The Railroad Raiders

0.0

The Hazards of Helen

0.0

A Lass of the Lumberlands

0.0

Toughest Man in Arizona

0.0

Whispering Smith

0.0

The Quicksands

0.0

The Chief of Police

0.0

Rimrock Jones

0.0

Stingaree

0.0

The Further Adventures of Stingaree

0.0

The Red Signal

0.0

The Plot at the Railroad Cut

0.0

Judith of the Cumberlands

0.0

The Diamond Runners

0.0

Medicine Bend

0.0

Swellhead

0.0

Ranger of Cherokee Strip

0.0

That's My Line

0.0

Calaboose

0.0

Virginia

0.0

The Devil's Saddle

0.0

The Single Sin

0.0

The California Mail

0.0

Men Are Such Fools

0.0

The Lawless Legion

0.0

Lucky Larkin

0.0

The Cave Men's War

0.0

My Pal, the King

0.0

She's No Lady

0.0

Lightning Bryce

0.0

Blue Streak O'Neil

0.0

Tomorrow's Youth

0.0

Dudes Are Pretty People

0.0

Prince of the Plains

0.0

Glove Slingers

0.0

Pioneer Marshal

0.0

The Valley of the Giants

0.0

The Daring Young Man

0.0

South of Rio

0.0

The Vivisectionist

0.0

Maker of Men

0.0

Son of God’s Country

0.0

Gun Smugglers

0.0

Smashing Through

0.0

The Old Frontier

0.0

Sundown Jim

0.0

Under Colorado Skies

0.0

Carnival

0.0

Outcasts of the Trail

0.0

Saturday's Millions

0.0

Heart of Virginia

0.0

Fifty Roads to Town

0.0

The Big Race

0.0

Outlaw's Paradise

0.0

The Fighting Ranger

0.0

South to Karanga

0.0

The Manager of the B & A

0.0

The Third Alarm

0.0

The Ballad of Paducah Jail

0.0