
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)

Branded a Bandit

The Midnight Message

The Further Adventures of Stingaree

The Red Signal

The Woman in the Web

The Demon Rider

A Lass of the Lumberlands

Haunted Range

Shadows of the West

Roaring Road

Lightning Bryce

The Passing of Wolf MacLean

Blue Streak O'Neil

A Western Engagement

The Heart of a Texan

Rangeland

King Fisher's Roost

Table Top Ranch

Battling Bunyan

The Tiger's Trail

The Railroad Raiders

The Crow's Nest

Folly of Youth

The Red Raiders

Charlie Chan's Courage

風と共に去りぬ

牛泥棒

オペラハット

Quick Millions

Danger – Love at Work

This Is My Affair

Tugboat Annie

西部の男

Island in the Sky

The Cossacks

Dudes Are Pretty People

Panama Flo

His First Command

Island of Lost Souls

Yellow Sky

They Drive by Night

クリスチナ女王

We Who Are About to Die

Hold 'Em Jail

Edison, the Man

Castle on the Hudson

Each Dawn I Die

Torrid Zone

Alexander's Ragtime Band

農園の寵児

State's Attorney

Spring Parade

Mississippi

In Old Chicago

Topper Takes a Trip

ノートルダムのせむし男

Josette

The Sun Shines Bright

Something for the Boys

拳銃無宿

The Gay Deception

Shadow of the Law

Hold That Co-ed

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

Among the Missing

Broadway Serenade

Shadow of Doubt

The Sky's the Limit

Lilac Time

Public Hero Number 1

Coney Island

Hold Your Man

Trouble in Morocco

Hi'ya, Chum

Terror Aboard

Sequoia

Midnight Alibi

Cafe Society

The Virginian

The Public Defender

Maybe It's Love

The Arizona Ranger

You Can't Beat Love

Madonna of the Desert

North of Nome

No Time to Marry

In Old Sacramento

Wife, Doctor and Nurse

The Missourians

Kick In

Goin' Fishin'

Law of the Golden West

Pardon My Stripes

The Case of the Curious Bride

Ali Baba Goes to Town

Tide of Empire

The Girl Detective

Million Dollar Pursuit

December 7th

Second Honeymoon

Remember?

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

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

Tall, Dark and Handsome

Hot Curves

You Can't Have Everything

Caught in the Draft

The Secret Six

Angel's Holiday

Tugboat Annie Sails Again

Prison Break

The Phantom President

Wake Up and Live

My Lucky Star

The Great Mr. Nobody

Summer Storm

Sailor's Holiday

ダコタ荒原

The Legion of Missing Men

Girl Rush

The Runaway Bride

Mountain Justice

Death Valley

The Parson of Panamint

Saturday's Millions

Super-Sleuth

Blackmailer

South to Karanga

The Thirteenth Guest

The Racketeer

Big Jim McLain

Riffraff

The Big Stampede

The Sphinx

Star Dust

Take the Stand

Bad Company

Borrowed Wives

Barbary Coast Gent

Murder in the Music Hall

Sweepstakes

The Big Show-Off

Slave Ship

To Mary - with Love

Calm Yourself

Midnight Manhunt

Day of Reckoning

Oh, Yeah!

Robin Hood of El Dorado

Scared Stiff

Secrets of a Nurse

Glove Slingers

San Antone Ambush

This Woman Is Mine

Grand Slam

On Your Toes

Bad Lands

Officer O'Brien

The Ghost That Walks Alone

Night in New Orleans

Who Killed Doc Robbin?

The Women in His Life

Paradise Island

The Plainsman and the Lady

California Firebrand

The Gay Desperado

The Secret Witness

The Line-Up

A Very Honorable Guy

The Vanishing Westerner

The Last Express

Buttons

Steppin' in Society

Roaring Road

Petticoat Politics

The Driver Of The Deadwood Coach

The Railroad Raiders

The Hazards of Helen

A Lass of the Lumberlands

Toughest Man in Arizona

Whispering Smith

Rimrock Jones

Stingaree

The Further Adventures of Stingaree

The Red Signal

The Plot at the Railroad Cut

Judith of the Cumberlands

Medicine Bend

The Swellhead

Ranger of Cherokee Strip

That's My Line

Calaboose

Virginia

The Devil's Saddle

The Single Sin

The California Mail

Men Are Such Fools

The Lawless Legion

Lucky Larkin

The Cave Men's War

My Pal, the King

She's No Lady

Lightning Bryce

Blue Streak O'Neil

Tomorrow's Youth

Prince of the Plains

Pioneer Marshal

The Valley of the Giants

The Daring Young Man

South of Rio

The Vivisectionist

Maker of Men

Son of God’s Country

Gun Smugglers

Smashing Through

The Old Frontier

Sundown Jim

Under Colorado Skies

Carnival

Outcasts of the Trail

Heart of Virginia

Fifty Roads to Town

The Big Race

The Manager of the B & A

The Third Alarm

The Ballad of Paducah Jail