Brandon Hurst

Who was Brandon Hurst?

Brandon Hurst was an English stage and film actor. He studied linguistics in his youth and began playing in theatre in 1880s. Much Broadway work from 1900 on until his entry in films. Notably he appeared on stage in 1910 in Two Women costarring Mrs. Leslie Carter and Robert Warwick. He was nearly fifty years old when he acted in his first film Via Wireless as Edward Pinckney in the year 1915 and continued acting in 129 other films until his death 1947. He became well known in the 1920s performing many notable film villain roles, such as the taunting Sir George Carew in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the evil Jehan Frollo in the The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the cuckold Alexei Karenin opposite Greta Garbo in Love which was based on Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and the jester Balkiphedro in the The Man Who Laughs. He appeared also in talkies, but chiefly in minor parts though he returned to a great sinister role as Merlin the Magician in Fox's A Connecticut Yankee.