Porter Hall
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.
Miracle on 34th Street
as Granville SawyerKris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow...
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
as Senator MonroeAfter the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his...
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Going My Way
as Mr. BelknapYouthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining...
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Double Indemnity
as Mr. JacksonA rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he...
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His Girl Friday
as MurphyWalter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s...
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Make Way for Tomorrow
as Harvey ChaseAt a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed....
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The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
as Jacob Woodson, Justice of the PeaceA small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild...
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Ace in the Hole
as Jacob Q. BootAn arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.
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Sullivan's Travels
as Mr. HadrianSuccessful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious...
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The Thin Man
as Herbert MacCaulayA husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get...
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Unconquered
as LeachEngland, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to...
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The Petrified Forest
as Jason MapleGabby, the waitress in an isolated Arizona diner, dreams of a bigger and better life. One day...
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Pony Express
as Jim BridgerBuffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from...
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The Desperadoes
as Banker ClantonPopular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker. They...
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The Plainsman
as Jack McCallWild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.
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Blood on the Sun
as Arthur BickettNick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world...
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Carbine Williams
as Sam MarkleyDavid Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually...
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The Story of Louis Pasteur
as Dr. RossignolA true story about Louis Pasteur, who revolutionized medicine by proving that much disease is...
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Dark Command
as Angus McCloudWhen transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the...
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Arizona
as Lazarus WardPhoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine...
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Souls at Sea
as Court ProsecutorMichael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave...
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Trail of the Vigilantes
as Sheriff KorleyA reporter goes undercover to break up an outlaw gang.
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Satan Met a Lady
as Milton AmesIn the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying...
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Intruder in the Dust
as Nub GowrieRural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not...
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The Great Moment
as President Franklin PierceThe biography of Dr. W.T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have...
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Singapore
as Mr. BellowsAfter the war, Matt Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls....
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They Shall Have Music
as Mr. FlowerThe future is bleak for a troubled boy from a broken home in the slums. He runs away when his...
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Secrets of a Secretary
as DrunkSociety girl becomes a social secretary when her father dies penniless. From a story by Charles...
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Bulldog Drummond's Peril
as Dr. BotulianDrummond's wedding with Phyllis is interrupted when the inspector guarding their gifts is...
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The General Died at Dawn
as Peter PerrieChina, 1930s, during the ravaging civil war. General Pen entrusts O'Hara, an intrepid American...
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You Gotta Stay Happy
as Mr. CaslonIndecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to...
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The Woman of the Town
as Mayor Dog KilleyBat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of...
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The Mark of the Whistler
as Joe SorsbyA drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men...
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Murder, He Says
as Mr. JohnsonPete Marshall is sent as a replacement to the mountain district town of Plainville when a public...
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That Wonderful Urge
as Attorney KetchellWhen an heiress finds out that the friendly young man she's met at Sun Valley is really an...
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Vice Squad
as Jack HartrampfA Los Angeles police captain (Edward G. Robinson) ties the case of a slain policeman to a bank...
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King of Gamblers
as George KramerWorking for a slick restaurateur who has fallen for her, a down-on-life songstress falls instead...
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Bulldog Drummond Escapes
as Norman MerridewDrummond manages to save a woman from jumping in front of his car but she runs away with his...
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Wells Fargo
as James OliverIn the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company,...
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King of Alcatraz
as Matthew TalbotA convict who has just escaped from Alcatraz Prison takes over a passenger ship. Two of the...
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The Remarkable Andrew
as Chief Clerk Art SlocumbWhen Andrew Long, hyper-efficient small town accountant, finds a $1240 discrepancy in the city...
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A Stranger in Town
as Judge Austin HarkleyIn the small town of Crownport local attorney Bill Adams is trying to break up the ring of...
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Men with Wings
as Hiram F. JenkinsReporter Nicholas Ranson is jubilant when, on 17 Dec 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,...
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Henry Goes Arizona
as Banker Edward G. Walsh (uncredited)A New Yorker moves West when he inherits an Arizona ranch.
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And Sudden Death
as District AttorneyAn heiress with a penchant for speeding runs afoul of a traffic cop. Romance develops between...
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The Case of the Lucky Legs
as Col. BradburyA con man who stages phony "lucky legs" beauty contests and leaves town with the money is found...
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Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police
as Man in Drummond's DreamCaptain Drummond and his girlfriend want to marry but a hidden treasure in the house in which...
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Kiss and Tell
as Bill FranklinFilm adaptation of the Broadway hit, about the comic mayhem that erupts in a small town when a...
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Week-End at the Waldorf
as StevensAnything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets...
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True Confession
as Mr. HartmanA writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough...
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Grand Jury Secrets
as Anthony PeltonA newspaper reporter gets involved with shady stock promoters when he listens in on a jury room...
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Return to Treasure Island
as Maximillian 'Maxie' HarrisThere's something to be said for finishing what you've started. That's why the gentile Captain...
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The Half-Breed
as KraemerAn Apache of mixed blood tries to make peace between Indians and whites.
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The Princess Comes Across
as DarcyA Swedish princess boards an ocean liner in Europe en route to an acting career in America and...
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The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
as Judge O'TooleSaloon-bar singer Freddie gets very angry whenever boyfriend Blackie seems to be playing around....
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Murder in the Private Car
as Alden MurrayRuth Raymond works on the telephone switchboard of a large NYC office building. One day, a...
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Holiday for Sinners
as LouieThree old friends reunite during Mardi Gras and try to forget their problems.
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The Arkansas Traveler
as Mayor DanielsThe Arkansas Traveler, an itinerant printer, returns to a small town to help save The Daily...
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Chicken Every Sunday
as Sam HowellA woman takes in boarders to support her husband's harebrained financial schemes.
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The Cheat
as Leslie (uncredited)Elsa Carlyle is impulsive and a gambler. Though loved by her husband Jeff, she's spoiled and...
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Wild Money
as Bill CourtA tightwad accountant for a newspaper becomes friends with a reporter. The bookkeeper goes on...
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Bring on the Girls
as Dr. EfringtonA millionaire joins the Navy hoping to find a girl who'll marry him for himself, not for his...
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Prison Farm
as Chiston R. BradbyShirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her...
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Let's Make a Million
as SpencerA wealthy mama's boy finds himself the victim of con artists involved in an oil stocks racket.
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This Way Please
as S.J. CrawfordA famous singer and matinée idol helps a pretty young theater usher in her dreams of becoming a...
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The Parson of Panamint
as Jonathan RandallAs he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled...
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Butch Minds the Baby
as Brandy SmithAloysius 'Butch' Grogan leads a life of criminal activities motivated to provide for a widow and...
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Stolen Heaven
as 'Von' OfferTwo attractive jewel thieves, one female (Olympe Bradna), one male (Gene Raymond) escape...
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Scandal Street
as James WilsonJoe McKnight temporarily leaves his fiancée, Nora Langdon, for an expedition in a South American...
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Dangerous to Know
as Mayor BradleyRacketeer Steve Recka, art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying,...
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Snowed Under
as Arthur LaytonAlan Tanner's new play opens in a week, but Tanner just can't finish the third act. He's...
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Tom Sawyer, Detective
as Uncle Silas PhelpsThe further adventures of Twain's most beloved fictional characters of Tom Sawyer and his...
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Standing Room Only
as Hugo FarenhallDuring WWII, an executive and his secretary arrive in Washington, DC on business but, because of...
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Mr. and Mrs. North
as George HeylerMarried sleuths (Gracie Allen, William Post Jr.) find a corpse in their closet and round up...
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