Richard Hale

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Richard Hale (born November 16, 1892 in Rogersville , Tennessee , † May 18, 1981 in Northridge , California ) was an American opera singer ( baritone ) and actor. After three decades at the theater and opera, Hale came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s, where he worked as a character actor until old age.

Life

Richard Hale was born in 1892 in a small town in the US state of Tennessee. Because of his singing talents, he received a scholarship to Columbia University , where he graduated in 1914. Hale then became a member of the theater troupe of Minnie Maddern Fiske , a famous actress at the time. As early as November 1914, Hale made his debut on Broadway , where he could be seen more often as a singer and actor over the next 30 years. In 1921 he appeared as a baritone opera singer in the Aeolian Hall . A successful career as an opera singer followed, which took him across the United States and also to Europe and brought him together with prominent names such as Julia Culp and Esther Dale . In the 1930s he performed at the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge , Massachusetts . Under the direction of Sergei Sergejewitsch Prokofjew , Hale also acted as the narrator in Peter and the Wolf .

In later years, Richard Hale turned increasingly to acting. At the age of 52, he made his film debut in 1944 in the war film None Shall Escape , directed by André De Toth , where he was cast in a supporting role as a rabbi. With his gaunt appearance and his advanced age, Hale was mainly entrusted with the depiction of mostly eccentric small townspeople from the Midwest, but the depiction of Indians was also part of his frequent repertoire. He appeared particularly frequently in westerns. However, it also starred in other films, such as alongside Dean Stockwell and Errol Flynn as narrator Hassan Bey in the adventure film Kim - Secret Service in India (1950) and alongside Marlon Brando and James Mason in the historical drama Julius Caesar (1953), where Hale in the role of the fortune teller warns of the Ides of March . Hale also starred alongside Gary Cooper in William Wyler's pacifism drama Alluring Temptation (1957) and as the father of the disabled Boo Radley (played by Robert Duvall ) in the classic Who Disrupts the Nightingale (1962).

In addition to his film work, Hale also took on numerous guest roles in US television series of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1978, Hale made his last of nearly 140 film and television appearances. He died of cardiovascular disease in 1981 at the age of 88 .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Hale in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
  2. ↑ Newspaper clipping
  3. ↑ Richard Hale in the Internet Movie Database (English)
personal data
SURNAME Hale, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer (baritone) and actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Rogersville , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1981
Place of death Northridge , California