Charles Daniel Hall Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Charles D. Hall ( April 20, 1888 – April 8, 1970) was a British-American art director and production designer. He is perhaps best remembered for his tenure at Universal Pictures, where he began his career during the silent era. He was art director for many of Universal's most famous productions of the 1920s and '30's: The Phantom of the Opera (1925), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the original Bela Lugosi Dracula (1931), the original Magnificent Obsession (1935), and the 1936 My Man Godfrey among them, as well as eleven films directed by James Whale, including the original Boris Karloff Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and the 1936 film version of Show Boat. Hall also worked on the 1929 part-talkie film version of Show Boat, directed by Harry A. Pollard.Hall left Universal in the late 1930s and went to United Artists, where he worked for producer Hal Roach on such films as Topper Takes a Trip, the first of the two sequels to 1937's Topper. He then worked for a time on mostly B-films.Hall later moved into working in television. He ended his career as art director for the pioneering 1955 TV series Medic.Hall bought a house from John Wayne in which he lived until his death. From the late 1950s-60's Hall is known for his watercolor paintings.He was nominated for two Academy Awards, but neither nomination was for one of his famous films. They were for the films Captain Fury and Merrily We Live.
Art Director, Production Designer, Special Effects
Star Sign
Taurus
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Fact
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Noted exponent of low key set design, under contract at Universal 1923-37. Also worked for Chaplin (1925-31) and Hal Roach. With United Artists, 1938-49. Roach also occasionally worked at United Artists, sometimes with Hall.
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Purchased his home in Hollywood from then-rising star John Wayne.
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Suffered severe sleep deprivation while working on Dracula (1931). He would stay and lock himself in his studio overnight on the Universal lot.
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His great-grandnephew, Matthew Charles Hall, is the director of several horror films that were inspired by Charles. The short film In the Land of Phantoms (2008) is dedicated to his memory.
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Painted landscapes /seascapes in his spare time.
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Spent his early film career at Universal Pictures, but left in 1937. Carl Laemmle, Universal's founder, had recently been ousted from power, and Universal's new bosses had butchered James Whale's film The Road Back (1937), on which Hall had served as production designer. The bosses had caved in to pressure from the Nazis, who had threatened to have this anti-Nazi film, based on a German novel, boycotted overseas if its content was not toned down.
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Arrived in the USA from Canada circa. 1910.
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Began his career with Fred Karno's music hall troupe in England as a scenic designer. Later worked with fellow British music hall veterans Charles Chaplin as production designer from 1918 to 1936, and with Stan Laurel on two films in 1940.