Joseph Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. MacDonald, who was sometimes billed as "John Farrell Macdonald", "J.F. Mcdonald" and "Joseph Farrell Macdonald" as well other variations, appeared as an actor in over 325 movies over a 41 year career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.^[1]

MacDonald was the principal director of L. Frank Baum's Oz Film Manufacturing Company, and he can frequently be seen in the films of Frank Capra, Preston Sturges and, especially, John Ford.

Career[link]

Early in his career, MacDonald was a singer in minstrel shows, and he toured the U.S. extensively for two years with stage productions. He made his first silent film in 1911, a dramatic short entitled The Scarlett Letter^[2] made by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), the forerunner of Universal Pictures,.^[3] He continued to act in numerous films each year from that time on, and by 1912 he was directing them as well. The first film he directed was The Worth of a Man,^[4] another dramatic short, again for IMP, and he was to direct 43 more films until his last in 1917, Over the Fence, which he co-directed with Harold Lloyd.^[5] MacDonald had crossed paths with Lloyd several years earlier, when Lloyd was an extra and MacDonald had given him much-needed work – and he did the same with Hal Roach, both of whom appearing in small roles in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which MacDonald directed in 1914. When Roach set up his own studio, with Lloyd as his principal attraction, he hired MacDonald to direct.^[3]

By 1918, MacDonald, who was to become one of the most beloved character men in Hollywood,^[3] had given up directing and was acting full-time, predominantly in Westerns and Irish comedies. He first worked under director John Ford in 1919's A Fight for Love^[6] and was to make three more with the director that same year. In all, Ford would use MacDonald on twenty-five films between 1919 and 1950, during the silent era notably in The Iron Horse (1924), 3 Bad Men (1926) and Riley the Cop (1927).^[3]

With a voice that matched his personality, MacDonald made the transition to sound films easily, with no noticeable drop in his acting output – if anything, it went up. In 1931, for instance, MacDonald appeared in 14 films – among them the first version of The Maltese Falcon, in which he played "Detective Tom Polhaus" – and in 22 of them in 1932. Although he played laborers, policemen, military men and priests, among many other characters, his roles were usually a cut above a "bit part": his characters usually had names, and he was most often credited for his performances. A highlight of this period was his performance as the hobo "Mr. Tramp" in Our Little Girl with Shirley Temple (1935).^[7]

In the 1940s, MacDonald was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in seven films written and directed by Sturges.^[8] His work on Sturges' films was generally uncredited, which was more often the case as his career went on – although the quality of his work was undiminished. He was notable in 1946 in John Ford's My Darling Clementine in which he played the Dodge City bartender.^[3]

MacDonald made his last film in 1951, a comedy called Elopement.^[9] His few television appearances also occurred in that same year. He died in Hollywood on 2 August 1952 at the age of 77. He was married to actress Edith Bostwick until her death in 1943, and they had a daughter, Lorna. His grave is located at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

Selected filmography[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• J. Farrell MacDonald at the Internet Movie Database
• J. Farrell MacDonald at AllRovi
• J. Farrell MacDonald at the TCM Movie Database

Warren Hull
Hull in 1937.
Born	John Warren Hull (1903-01-17)January 17, 1903 Gasport, New York
Died	September 14, 1974(1974-09-14) (aged 71) Waterbury, Connecticut
Occupation	Actor and broadcaster

John Warren Hull (January 17, 1903 – September 14, 1974) was an actor and TV personality, active from the 1930s through the 1960s. He was one of the most popular serial actors in the action-adventure field.

Life and work[link]

A native of Gasport, New York, Hull attended New York University. Later, he left college to study voice and pursue a career in operas and operettas. He also worked frequently as a radio announcer.

The handsome Hull made his screen debut in 1934 for Educational Pictures, a short-subject studio. He co-starred opposite singer Sylvia Froos in the "Young Romance" series of musical comedies filmed in New York; Hull often joined Froos in song. In 1935 Hull was signed to a contract by Warner Bros., and spent the next few years playing leading men both in dramas and musicals. His best appearance of this period came in The Walking Dead (1936), a horror movie starring Boris Karloff and directed by Michael Curtiz. Some of Hull's early appearances have him billed as "J. Warren Hull."

When his Warner contract expired, Hull had no trouble finding work at other studios. He teamed with Patricia Ellis, one of his leading ladies at Warners, for the 1937 Republic Pictures musical Rhythm in the Clouds. He also played romantic leads in a string of features for Monogram Pictures.

In 1938 Columbia Pictures terminated its association with the Weiss Brothers, independent producers who had been making adventure serials for Columbia release, and decided to make its own cliffhangers. Warren Hull was signed for Columbia's first (and probably best) serial production, The Spider's Web (1938), based on a popular magazine character. Hull played three parts: criminologist Richard Wentworth, his masked-and-caped alter ego The Spider, and in a second masquerade, lowlife mobster Blinky McQuade. The personable Hull brought a breezy sense of humor to his serial roles; he is probably the only serial hero who ever laughs on screen! Hull kept audiences following the Spider's thrilling exploits, making The Spider's Web the most popular and profitable serial of the year, outstripping such worthy cliffhangers as Buck Rogers and Dick Tracy Returns by a wide margin, according to a tally published in the Motion Picture Herald.

Pleased with Hull's performance, Columbia cast him as Mandrake the Magician in its 1939 serial. Universal Pictures starred the now-established serial hero in The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) and Columbia put him back in the mask and cloak for The Spider Returns (1941).

In the mid-1940s Hull returned to radio announcing, appearing with frequency on such programs as The Hit Parade and Vox Pop. Hull was also the emcee of Spin to Win, only the second game show created by the team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. During the next two decades he hosted TV-hit programs as Top Dollar, Who in the World, and Beat the Odds; he is best remembered as the host of Strike It Rich.

Warren Hull died in Waterbury, Connecticut at age of 71, of heart failure. He is honored with a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Partial filmography[link]

• Miss Pacific Fleet (1935)
• Rhythm in the Clouds (1937)
• Hawaii Calls (1938)
• The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady (1940)

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Warren Hull at AllRovi
• Warren Hull at the Internet Movie Database
• Warren Hull at Find a Grave

Polly Ann Young (October 25, 1908 – January 21, 1997) was an American film actress.

Actresses Loretta Young and Sally Blane were her sisters, and, of the three, Polly Ann was the least successful. Between 1917 and 1941 she featured in 34 movies, some of them minor uncredited roles. Among her most notable movie roles, was as John Wayne's leading lady in The Man From Utah (1934). Her last film was the 1941 Poverty Row horror movie Invisible Ghost where she played alongside Bela Lugosi.

Young married Carter Hermann in 1935, and they had four children. Her husband died in the 1970s and she died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, aged 88. Her sisters Sally and Loretta also died of cancer. She was a half-sister to Georgiana Young Montalban, wife of actor Ricardo Montalban.

External links[link]

• Polly Ann Young at the Internet Movie Database

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Eva Novak
A picture of Eva Novak taken in the early 1920s.
Born	Eva Barbara Novak (1898-02-14)February 14, 1898 St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Died	April 17, 1988(1988-04-17) (aged 90) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, USA
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1917 - 1966
Spouse	William Reed

Eva Novak while filming on a set during her stay in Australia.

Eva Barbara Novak (14 February 1898 – 17 April 1988) was an American film actress, being quite popular during the silent film era. She was the younger sister of actress Jane Novak and daughter of Joseph, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Novak.

She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, starting her film acting career in 1917, with her first film role being in L-KO's Roped into Scandal, followed by another seven films that same year. She would appear in seventeen films in 1918, and another eight in 1919. In 1920 she starred opposite Tom Mix in The Daredevil, one of six film roles she would have that year, and one of ten films in which she starred opposite Tom Mix.

In 1921 she married stuntman William Reed, meeting while on location for a film, and being interested in stunt performing herself, having been taught by Tom Mix to perform many of her own stunts. From 1921 to 1928 she appeared in and starred in 48 films, including an early version of Boston Blackie. She also co-starred with Betty Bronson and Jack Benny in The Medicine Man and appeared in the 1922 film Chasing the Moon which was an early forerunner of the 1950s film D.O.A. In the late 1920s, she and her husband moved to Australia where she made numerous films, including The Romance of Runnibede. However, with the advent of "talking films", her popularity faded. She would continue to act, but mostly in obscure roles.

She appeared in 123 films between 1917 to 1965, retiring in the latter. She was residing in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles at the time of her death from pneumonia, on April 17, 1988.

Selected filmography[link]

• The King of the Kitchen (1918)
• The Freckled Fish (1919)
• Sky High (1922)
• Listen Lester (1924)
• A Beautiful Sinner (1925)
• Say It with Babies (1926)
• The Romance of Runnibede (1927)
• For the Term of his Natural Life (1927)

External links[link]

• Eva Novak at the Internet Movie Database
• Eva Novak at Find a Grave

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eva Novak

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Sid Jordan (12 August 1889 – 30 September 1970) was an American film actor. He appeared in 130 films between 1913 and 1944. Sid Jordan was introduced to acting through his close friend Tom Mix, when both men were serving as "Night Marshalls" of Dewey, Oklahoma. Ironically, it was Sid Jordan's father (Col. John Jordan) who helped Sid and Tom Mix obtain their jobs as Night Marshalls, as John Jordan was Sheriff of Washington County, Dewey Oklahoma. Sid and Tom made their first film together in Oklahoma, then starred in many films together in Los Angeles, along with Victoria Forde, Tom Mix's wife at that time.

He was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma and died in Hemet, California.

Selected filmography[link]

• The Man from Texas (1915)
• Sky High (1922)
• The Johnstown Flood (1926)

External links[link]

• Sid Jordan at the Internet Movie Database

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