Brandon Hurst

Brandon Hurst (30 November 1866 – 15 July 1947) was an English stage and film actor born in London, England. In his youth he studied philology, and before pursuing a career in the arts he served seven years in the British army, five of which were spent with the King's Dragoon Guards in India.

Hurst began performing in theater in the 1880s and went on to appear on Broadway from 1900 to 1922. His stage credits include The Night Call, Montmartre, The Lady of the Lamp, Her Honor the Mayor, and Rich Man, Poor Man. His most prominent Broadway appearance came in 1910 with Two Women, in which he performed alongside Mrs. Leslie Carter and Robert Warwick.

He was nearly fifty years old when he made his film debut, playing Edward Pinckney in Via Wireless (1915). Over the course of his screen career he appeared in 129 additional films. During the 1920s he became recognized for portraying antagonists and anti-heroes, taking on roles such as Sir George Carew in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Jehan Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Alexei Karenin opposite Greta Garbo in Love (1927), and Barkilphedro in The Man Who Laughs (1928). Among his sound-era work, he played the sinister Merlin the Magician in Fox's A Connecticut Yankee (1931). Hurst continued acting until the end of his life, with his final film, Two Guys from Texas, released in 1948, the year after his death.