Hal Skelly

Hal Skelly, born James Harold Skelley on May 31, 1891, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, was an American stage and film actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1918 to 1934. He was the son of James and Martha Skelley, and the family relocated to Davenport, Iowa when he was four years old. He had four sisters and three brothers. Skelly received his education at Sacred Heart School in Davenport and St. Bede Academy in Peru, Illinois. At fifteen he left home to join the circus, and at sixteen he appeared in his first stage production, The Time, the Place and the Girl, at the LaSalle Theater in Chicago. For his professional name, he shortened his middle name Harold to Hal and removed the final letter from Skelley.

Before establishing himself on Broadway, Skelly accumulated experience across a wide range of performing disciplines, including medicine shows, musical comedy, burlesque, Lew Dockstader's minstrels, and opera. His eccentric dancing earned him the nickname "Tumbling Harold Skelly" while working with the A.M. Zinn musical comedy company in San Francisco. He also spent a year with Barnum and Bailey and toured China and Japan with the Raymond Teale Company, a musical comedy troupe. During this period he briefly served as a backup first baseman for the Boston Braves and worked as a prizefight manager.

Skelly made his Broadway debut in Fiddlers Three in 1918, playing Sam Wigglesbury. He went on to appear in ten additional Broadway productions. Subsequent credits included The Night Boat in 1920 as Freddie Ides, The Girl in the Spotlight in 1920 as Watchem Tripp, Orange Blossoms in 1922 as Jimmy Flynn, Mary Jane McKane from 1923 to 1924 as Joe McGillicudy, and Betty Lee from 1924 to 1925 as Wallingford Speed. His most prominent stage role came in 1927 when he starred as Skid Johnson in Burlesque, appearing alongside Barbara Stanwyck in what was her first Broadway hit. The production ran through 1928. His later Broadway work included Melody in 1933 as François Trapadoux, The Ghost Writer in 1933 as Bill Harkins, Queer People in 1934 as Theodore Anthony White, and Come What May in 1934 as Chet Harrison.

Following the success of Burlesque, Paramount Pictures invited both Skelly and Stanwyck to reprise their roles in a film adaptation. Stanwyck declined, but Skelly accepted, playing Skid Johnson in the 1929 talkie The Dance of Life, retitled from Burlesque because studio executives considered the original title inappropriate. He appeared in a total of ten films, among them Woman Trap in 1929, Behind the Make-Up in 1930, and The Shadow Laughs in 1933. He was also featured on two film soundtracks, those of The Dance of Life and Men Are Like That.

Skelly died on June 16, 1934, in West Cornwall, Connecticut, when the truck he was driving was struck by the New York to Pittsfield train of the New Haven Railroad at a grade crossing. Reports at the time indicated he had been staying with friends and was searching for a missing dog. His widow, Eunice, returned his body to New York City, where his funeral was held at the Actor's Chapel at Saint Malachy's Catholic Church in Manhattan. His mother and his brother Hugh accompanied his remains to Davenport for burial at St. Marguerite's Cemetery, now known as Mount Calvary Cemetery. He was forty-three years old at the time of his death.