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.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.004 |
| Birthday | 1888-09-18 |
| Place of Birth | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
| Also Known As | Clifford Porter Hall, |
1944
Double Indemnity
8.116/1842
A rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy.
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Double Indemnity
1939
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
7.863/1074
After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. Soon, the naive and earnest new...
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1940
His Girl Friday
7.394/852
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wi...
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His Girl Friday
1934
The Thin Man
7.5/471
A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
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The Thin Man
1936
The Princess Comes Across
6.1/15
A Swedish princess boards an ocean liner in Europe en route to an acting career in America and finds herself getting inconveniently attached to a band...
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The Princess Comes Across
1947
Miracle on 34th Street
7.367/766
Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgivin...
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Miracle on 34th Street
1951
Ace in the Hole
7.9/682
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.
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Ace in the Hole
1952
Holiday for Sinners
5.5/4
Three old friends reunite during Mardi Gras and try to forget their problems.
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Holiday for Sinners
1936
Satan Met a Lady
5.9/28
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.
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Satan Met a Lady
1940
Dark Command
6.3/52
When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place, especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local ba...
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Dark Command
1937
Make Way for Tomorrow
7.544/194
At a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed. "Temporarily," Ma moves in with son George's family, Pa with d...
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Make Way for Tomorrow
1944
The Great Moment
5.8/19
The biography of Dr. W.T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia, in the form of ether, accepted by the public and...
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The Great Moment
1944
The Mark of the Whistler
5.9/15
A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who turn out to be the sons of the man's old partner, w...
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The Mark of the Whistler
1944
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
6.8/106
A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married some...
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The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
1937
Bulldog Drummond Escapes
5.9/17
Drummond manages to save a woman from jumping in front of his car but she runs away with his car. He traces her and she asks him to help her out of a...
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Bulldog Drummond Escapes
1941
Sullivan's Travels
7.4/469
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise a...
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Sullivan's Travels
1936
The Petrified Forest
7.057/193
Gabby, the waitress in an isolated Arizona diner, dreams of a bigger and better life. One day penniless intellectual Alan drifts into the joint and th...
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The Petrified Forest
1944
Going My Way
6.7/177
Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy. After being appointed to a r...
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Going My Way
1949
Intruder in the Dust
7.3/40
Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a...
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Intruder in the Dust
1947
Unconquered
6.2/55
England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to escape the gallows, to serve fourteen years as a slav...
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Unconquered
1947
Singapore
5.868/19
After the war, Matt Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. Arrived, he reminisces in flashback about his prewar fiancée...
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Singapore
1936
The Story of Louis Pasteur
6.844/45
A true story about Louis Pasteur, who revolutionized medicine by proving that much disease is caused by microbes, that sanitation is paramount and tha...
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The Story of Louis Pasteur
1945
Blood on the Sun
5.9/35
Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japa...
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Blood on the Sun
1953
Vice Squad
6/17
A Los Angeles police captain (Edward G. Robinson) ties the case of a slain policeman to a bank robbery, all in a day.
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Vice Squad
1945
Week-End at the Waldorf
6/9
Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for...
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Week-End at the Waldorf
1931
Secrets of a Secretary
5.5/2
Society girl becomes a social secretary when her father dies penniless. From a story by Charles Brackett.
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Secrets of a Secretary
1937
This Way Please
5.5/2
A famous singer and matinée idol helps a pretty young theater usher in her dreams of becoming a singer, but when her career begins to take off and she...
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This Way Please
1942
Butch Minds the Baby
0/0
Aloysius 'Butch' Grogan leads a life of criminal activities motivated to provide for a widow and her child. He's on lookout for a gang of safe cracker...
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Butch Minds the Baby
1945
Murder, He Says
6.6/30
Pete Marshall is sent as a replacement to the mountain district town of Plainville when a public opinion surveyor who went there goes missing. Visitin...
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Murder, He Says
1937
Wells Fargo
5.1/11
In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fres...
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Wells Fargo
1936
The General Died at Dawn
6.2/19
China, 1930s, during the ravaging civil war. General Pen entrusts O'Hara, an intrepid American adventurer, with the mission of providing a large sum o...
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The General Died at Dawn
1954
Return to Treasure Island
4.8/6
There's something to be said for finishing what you've started. That's why the gentile Captain Long John Silver is heading back to Treasure Island to...
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Return to Treasure Island
1937
True Confession
5.8/20
A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she...
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True Confession
1939
They Shall Have Music
6/8
The future is bleak for a troubled boy from a broken home in the slums. He runs away when his step father breaks his violin, ending up sleeping in the...
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They Shall Have Music
1938
Bulldog Drummond's Peril
5.7/17
Drummond's wedding with Phyllis is interrupted when the inspector guarding their gifts is killed. He tries to trace the killers and uncovers the myste...
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Bulldog Drummond's Peril
1935
The Case of the Lucky Legs
6/8
A con man who stages phony "lucky legs" beauty contests and leaves town with the money is found with a surgical knife in his heart by Mason.
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The Case of the Lucky Legs
1938
Stolen Heaven
0/0
Two attractive jewel thieves, one female (Olympe Bradna), one male (Gene Raymond) escape together after their latest escapade and hide out in the home...
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Stolen Heaven
1943
A Stranger in Town
6.5/13
In the small town of Crownport local attorney Bill Adams is trying to break up the ring of corrupt town officials by running for mayor. The cards seem...
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A Stranger in Town
1936
Too Many Parents
5/3
Boys are sent to military school in order to get them out of the way of their too-busy-to-bother parents or guardians. Lonely young Philip Stewart wri...
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Too Many Parents
1949
Chicken Every Sunday
6/3
A woman takes in boarders to support her husband's harebrained financial schemes.
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Chicken Every Sunday
1936
Snowed Under
7/3
Alan Tanner's new play opens in a week, but Tanner just can't finish the third act. He's retreated to a snowbound cottage to work, but blonde neighbor...
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Snowed Under
1944
Standing Room Only
5/2
During WWII, an executive and his secretary arrive in Washington, DC on business but, because of the housing shortage, are unable to find hotel rooms....
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Standing Room Only
1938
The Arkansas Traveler
6/2
The Arkansas Traveler, an itinerant printer, returns to a small town to help save The Daily Record, a newspaper started by Mr. Allen, an old friend wh...
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The Arkansas Traveler
1938
Men with Wings
6/3
Reporter Nicholas Ranson is jubilant when, on 17 Dec 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright take their first airplane flight....
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Men with Wings
1945
Kiss and Tell
5.6/5
Film adaptation of the Broadway hit, about the comic mayhem that erupts in a small town when a 15-year old high-schooler (Shirley Temple) is wrongly s...
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Kiss and Tell
1938
Tom Sawyer, Detective
5.2/4
The further adventures of Twain's most beloved fictional characters of Tom Sawyer and his friend, Huckleberry Finn.
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Tom Sawyer, Detective
1937
Souls at Sea
6/10
Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.
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Souls at Sea
1934
Murder in the Private Car
5.4/12
Ruth Raymond works on the telephone switchboard of a large NYC office building. One day, a private detective informs her that she is actually the daug...
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Murder in the Private Car
1953
Pony Express
5.6/24
Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten...
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Pony Express
1938
Dangerous to Know
6.167/6
Racketeer Steve Recka, art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying, his beautiful friend and hostess (read:mistress), wit...
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Dangerous to Know
1936
The Plainsman
6.3/33
Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.
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The Plainsman
1948
That Wonderful Urge
6.5/11
When an heiress finds out that the friendly young man she's met at Sun Valley is really an investigative reporter, she ruins his career by falsely cla...
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That Wonderful Urge
1940
Arizona
6.2/26
Phoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine when she falls for California bound Peter Muncie. But P...
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Arizona
1938
Prison Farm
5.7/3
Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy friend (Lloyd Nolan). The male crook is sentence to...
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Prison Farm
1939
Henry Goes Arizona
6/2
A New Yorker moves West when he inherits an Arizona ranch.
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Henry Goes Arizona
1939
Grand Jury Secrets
0/0
A newspaper reporter gets involved with shady stock promoters when he listens in on a jury room session.
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Grand Jury Secrets
1943
The Desperadoes
5.7/28
Popular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker. They plan to have the bank robbed after emptying it, and wh...
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The Desperadoes
1949
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
5.8/13
Saloon-bar singer Freddie gets very angry whenever boyfriend Blackie seems to be playing around. She always packs a six-shooter, so this is bad news f...
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The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
1937
Wild Money
0/0
A tightwad accountant for a newspaper becomes friends with a reporter. The bookkeeper goes on vacation, and while there he learns of a kidnapping cons...
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Wild Money
1941
The Parson of Panamint
5/3
As he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled old prospector Chuckawalla Bill Redfield recalls the tow...
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The Parson of Panamint
1940
Trail of the Vigilantes
0/0
A reporter goes undercover to break up an outlaw gang.
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Trail of the Vigilantes
1943
The Woman of the Town
6/3
Bat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of Dodge City. Preferring socializing to peacekeeping, Master...
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The Woman of the Town
1937
King of Gamblers
7/1
Working for a slick restaurateur who has fallen for her, a down-on-life songstress falls instead for a crusading crime reporter, unaware that her empl...
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King of Gamblers
1936
And Sudden Death
0/0
An heiress with a penchant for speeding runs afoul of a traffic cop. Romance develops between the two, but it's soon complicated when he believes she...
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And Sudden Death
1945
Bring on the Girls
6.1/5
A millionaire joins the Navy hoping to find a girl who'll marry him for himself, not for his money. A beautiful gold-digger who works at a resort hote...
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Bring on the Girls
1952
The Half-Breed
5/1
An Apache of mixed blood tries to make peace between Indians and whites.
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The Half-Breed
1931
The Cheat
6/15
Elsa Carlyle is impulsive and a gambler. Though loved by her husband Jeff, she's spoiled and selfish, concerned with social standing. Meanwhile, Jeff...
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The Cheat
1942
The Remarkable Andrew
8.2/2
When Andrew Long, hyper-efficient small town accountant, finds a $1240 discrepancy in the city budget, his superiors try to explain it away. When he i...
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The Remarkable Andrew
1938
Scandal Street
0/0
Joe McKnight temporarily leaves his fiancée, Nora Langdon, for an expedition in a South American jungle. Nora gets a position as librarian in the smal...
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Scandal Street
1938
King of Alcatraz
5.7/3
A convict who has just escaped from Alcatraz Prison takes over a passenger ship. Two of the ship's crew hatch a plot to overpower him and rescue the s...
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King of Alcatraz
1939
Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police
6.1/15
Captain Drummond and his girlfriend want to marry but a hidden treasure in the house in which they want to celebrate their marriage is complicating th...
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Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police
1948
You Gotta Stay Happy
6.5/13
Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face the wedding night, she flees into the adjacent hotel...
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You Gotta Stay Happy
1936
Let's Make a Million
0/0
A wealthy mama's boy finds himself the victim of con artists involved in an oil stocks racket.
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Let's Make a Million
1942
Mr. and Mrs. North
4.5/6
Married sleuths (Gracie Allen, William Post Jr.) find a corpse in their closet and round up suspects.
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Mr. and Mrs. North
1952
Carbine Williams
6.4/17
David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine autom...
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