Creighton Hale

Career

Born Patrick Fitzgerald in County Cork, Ireland, he was educated in Dublin and London, and later attended Ardingly College in Sussex. He immigrated to America in his early twenties, traveling with a troupe of actors. While starring in Charles Frohman's Broadway production of Indian Summer, Hale was spotted by a representative of the Pathe Film Company. He eventually became known professionally as Creighton Hale, although the derivation of those names remains unknown. His first movie was The Exploits of Elaine in 1914. He starred in hit films such as Way Down East, Orphans of the Storm, and The Cat and the Canary.

It was generally thought that in 1923 Hale starred in an early pornographic "stag" film On the Beach (a.k.a. Getting His Goat and The Goat Man). In the film, three nude women agree to have sex with him, but only through a hole in the fence. However, photographs of the scene clearly show that the man in the film is not Hale, but another actor who also wore glasses.

However, when talkies came about, his career declined. He made several appearances in Hal Roach's Our Gang series (School's Out, Big Ears, Free Wheeling), and also played unbilled bits in major talking films such as Larceny, Inc., The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.

Personal life

His two sons, Creighton Hale Jr. and Robert Lowe Hale, from his first marriage to Victoire Lowe were adopted by Lowe's second husband, actor John Miljan. After his divorce, Hale married Kathleen Bering in Los Angeles in 1931. He died in the Los Angeles County city of South Pasadena at age 83 and was buried at Duncans Mills Cemetery in Northern California.