Alan Hale Sr.

MINI BIO:

Alan Hale studied opera, but was unable to make a career of it, so he pursued acting instead. He started out in silents and worked his way through sound becoming a popular and very busy character actor in the process.  He is probably best known for his role as Little John in both the 1922 (silent) and 1938 (sound) versions of Robin Hood -- and as Errol Flynn's sidekick in Dodge City (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), and Santa Fe Trail (1940), as well as in the aforementioned 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood. He is also known for being the father of Alan Hale Jr who played 'The Skipper' on Gilligan's Island (and who looks remarkably like his father).

Over the course of his 38-year career (1912-1950), he appeared in over 245 films, playing support to an array of stars including Bette Davis, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Douglas Fairbanks. One of his most memorable 'bit parts' was as Danker in It Happened One Night -- the man who gives a ride to Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and much to the annoyance of the couple, starts merrily singing “Young people in LOVE are very seldom hungry!"

Hale was also an inventor -- and is credited with inventing, holding the patent to, and/or financing the creation of auto brakes, hand-held fire extinguishers, greaseless potato chips -- and the folding theater seat!