Henry Hull

Henry Watterson Hull, born October 3, 1890, in Louisville, Kentucky, was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television across more than five decades. He died on March 8, 1977, at his daughter's residence in Cornwall. The youngest of four children born to William Madison Hull and Elinor Bond Vaughn Hull, he was named for his godfather, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Louisville journalist Henry Watterson. His father had worked as a drama critic in Louisville before becoming a press agent for David Belasco following the family's relocation to New York City in 1902. Hull attended DeWitt Clinton High School and the High School of Commerce, studied engineering at Columbia, and earned a degree from Cooper Union. By 1910, the family had settled in Barkhamsted, Connecticut.

Hull's stage career began in earnest after he was inspired by the work of his brother Shelley, a popular leading man. In 1912, Hull joined the Greek Repertory Company operated by his sister-in-law Margaret Anglin, who was married to his brother Howard. Anglin's touring company focused on productions of Greek tragedies, and Hull later credited her with providing the foundation of his dramatic training. He returned to New York City in 1913 to appear on Broadway in John Frederick Ballard's Believe Me, Xantippe alongside John Barrymore. His Broadway activity continued actively from 1911 through 1948 and included starring roles in The Masque of Kings and 39 East. In 1916, Hull and his wife, Juliet Fremont, appeared together in The Man Who Came Back at the Playhouse Theatre, a production that ran for more than a year. His 1919 appearance in 39 East took place at the Broadhurst Theatre and featured Tallulah Bankhead among the cast. Hull also appeared in the musical Manhattan Mary, the play When We Are Young, and other productions during this period.

Among his most significant stage achievements was creating the role of Jeeter Lester in the long-running 1933 Broadway production of Tobacco Road, based on Erskine Caldwell's novel. Hull also served as a book writer for Broadway in addition to his performing work. In 1956, he undertook a one-man touring show presenting readings from the works of Mark Twain, a writer he had met in Louisville during visits to his godfather Henry Watterson.

Hull appeared in 74 films between 1917 and 1966, functioning primarily as a lead actor on stage and a character actor on screen. He starred as the title character in Universal Pictures's Werewolf of London in 1935. Among his other notable film roles, he played Abel Magwitch in the 1934 adaptation of Great Expectations and Charles Rittenhouse, a wealthy industrialist, in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat in 1944. He appeared in Tod Browning's final directorial effort, Miracles for Sale, in 1939, the same year he played the uncle of Nancy Kelly's character in Jesse James opposite Tyrone Power. Hull portrayed the aging architect Henry Cameron in The Fountainhead and appeared as a doctor sought out by Humphrey Bogart's character in High Sierra. He was also cast in Colorado Territory, a Western remake of the High Sierra story starring Joel McCrea, and played a desert prospector who aids Robert Ryan's character in Inferno in 1953. His final film appearance was in The Chase in 1966, which starred Marlon Brando and Robert Redford.

Hull's television work included guest appearances on CBS's Appointment with Adventure, the NBC Western series The Restless Gun starring John Payne, and the syndicated crime drama U.S. Marshal. In 1958, he appeared as Moss in the Trackdown episode "Three Legged Fox," and in 1959 he played Obadiah in the Wagon Train episode "The Kitty Angel Story." Hull appeared twice on Bonanza in 1960, once as Sheriff B. Banneman in "The Gunmen" and once as a scout for General John Charles Fremont in "The Mission," a role that carried personal resonance given that Fremont was the grandfather of Hull's wife in real life. On December 13, 1960, he guest-starred on NBC's Laramie as Ben Parkinson, an embittered rancher who challenges series lead Slim Sherman, played by John Smith, to a duel after Parkinson's youngest son accidentally dies on Sherman ranch land. Hull returned to Laramie for the series finale, "The Road to Helena," which aired May 21, 1963, playing David Franklin, a man hiring Sherman to guide him and his daughter to Helena, Montana, so he can return money he had previously stolen.

Hull's family connections to the theater extended beyond his own career. His brother Shelley Hull was a prominent leading man who died of influenza on January 14, 1919, at age 34, during the Spanish influenza epidemic, while performing in the World War I play Under Orders. Shelley's widow, Josephine Hull, went on to become a successful stage performer and an Academy Award-winning character actress.