Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall (August 15, 1920[ – January 30, 1999) was an American radio, stage, and movie performer who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and in the later "Bowery Boys" movies, during the late 1930s to the late 1950s.
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Life and career
Hall was born in 1920 in New York City[Social Security Death Index] to Joseph Patrick Hall, an engineer from Ireland, and his wife, Mary Ellen ( Mullen) Hall.[Leonard Getz in his 2006 book From Broadway to the Bowery published by McFarland & Company uses August 15, but the more authoritative Social Security Death Index uses August 18, 1920. The Independent uses August 15, 1919, and the New York Times lists his age as 78, which would make his birth year 1920. Walker and Roat's biography uses 1919. As was the case with many actors, their resumes often conflict with official documents submitted to the government.] The fourteenth of sixteen children, he was nicknamed "Huntz" because of his nose.[
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He appeared on Broadway in the 1935 production of Dead End, a play written and directed by Sidney Kingsley.
Hall served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1943, he appeared in the USN training film "Don't Kill Your Friends" as moronic Ensign Dilbert the Pilot, who carelessly causes the death of a civilian and three servicemen.
In 1948, Hall was arrested for possession of marijuana. His trial, held in 1949, resulted in a hung jury.
Hall later played the increasingly buffoonish Horace DeBussy "Sach" Jones in 48 of "The Bowery Boys" films, gaining top billing when his longtime partner, Leo Gorcey, left the series in 1956. Hall and Gorcey reunited in Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar (1966) and The Phynx (1969).
He was one of the celebrities featured on the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1971, he co-starred with Art Metrano and Jamie Farr in the CBS situation comedy The Chicago Teddy Bears. His plans to produce a movie series, "The Ghetto Boys" (a take on the "Bowery Boys"), fell through. In 1973, Hall took part in Princess Grace of Monaco's Council for Drug Abuse, part of the Catholic Office of Drug Education.[David Ragan. "Who's Who in Hollywood 1900-1976", Arlington House, 1976, p. 176.]
In 1976, he appeared in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and in 1977 he played Jesse Lasky in Ken Russell's film Valentino. His later films included Gas Pump Girls (1979) and The Escape Artist (1982), the latter reuniting him with Gabriel Dell. His final film appearance was in Auntie Lee's Meat Pies in 1993.[
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Behind Sach: The Huntz Hall Story by Jim Manago, published by BearManor Media in 2015, is the first biography of Hall.
Death
Hall died from cardiac disease on January 30, 1999, at the age of 78 in Los Angeles, California.
Filmography
Film
