Otto Hoffman

Gangly and rugged stage and screen character star 'Otto Hoffman' (qv) was born in New York in 1879. Began as a stage performer in the 1890's. Made his movie debut under the direction of 'Stuart Paton' (qv) in _The White Terror (1915)_ (qv) starring 'Hobart Henley' (qv) for the IMP Film Company. Otto directed only one film, _The Secret of Black Mountain (1917)_ (qv) made in 1917 starring 'Vola Vale' (qv), afterwards he just concentrated on acting he was much better at it. He most often played cadaverous, crafty, menacing characters in more than 200 movies, such as _The Kaiser's Shadow (1918)_ (qv), _The Eagle (1925)_ (qv), _The Valley of the Giants (1927)_ (qv), _The Terror (1928)_ (qv), and _Noah's Ark (1928)_ (qv). His ethnic range in many talkies include _The Desert Song (1929)_ (qv), _Abraham Lincoln (1930)_ (qv), _Cimarron (1931)_ (qv), 'Eddie Cantor' (qv)'s _Kid Millions (1934)_ (qv), _Girl Loves Boy (1937)_ (qv), 'W.C. Fields' (qv)' _My Little Chickadee (1940)_ (qv), and his last film just before he died was as Oscar in _This Is the Life (1944)_ (qv). Married Laura King and has a daughter Eugenie Hoffman.::Paul Rothwell-Smith