Arthur Hoyt

Extremely prolific actor/director of the silent screen, on Broadway from 1905. Hoyt joined the acting fraternity through the recommendations of an uncle, who worked as dramatic editor for a Cleveland tabloid. Signed by theatrical producer George C. Tyler (1868-1946), he began on stage (earning $10 per week), playing up to ten different parts. He made his Hollywood debut in 1916 with Universal. Short, balding and usually bespectacled, he managed to forge a 30-year career by playing a succession of 'little men', be they mild-mannered professors, henpecked husbands or easily intimidated minor officials. Looking perpetually befuddled was Hoyt's stock-in-trade. He was particularly effective as Professor Summerlee in _The Lost World (1925)_ (qv) (directed by his younger brother 'Harry O. Hoyt' (qv)), as the confused motel owner of _It Happened One Night (1934)_ (qv) and as Mayor Tillinghast in _The Great McGinty (1940)_ (qv). The better part of Hoyt's screen career, however, consisted of uncredited bits. For his last seven years in the business (1940-47), he was regularly employed as a member of 'Preston Sturges' (qv) personal entourage of stock players at Paramount.::I.S.Mowis