Jon Hall - Biography

Biography

Born Charles Felix Locher in Fresno, California, and raised in Tahiti by his father, the Swiss-born actor Felix Locher, he was a nephew of James Norman Hall, one of the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty. Hall began acting in films in 1935 in minor roles, one of which was Charlie Chan in Shanghai. Though rejected for the lead of the Flash Gordon serial He achieved success in 1937 when cast opposite another relative newcomer, Dorothy Lamour, in The Hurricane, which was written by James Norman Hall. His double in The Hurricane was the stuntman and actor Paul Stader.

Contracted to Universal, he maintained his popularity until the end of the 1940s, usually playing leads in adventure films. In 1940, he portrayed Kit Carson in a biographical film of the frontiersman's life. He is notable for having made six popular Technicolor adventure films with Maria Montez: Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), Cobra Woman (1944), Gypsy Wildcat (1944), and Sudan (1945). He is also known in the Universal Monsters fan base for playing Invisible Men in Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge

Jon Hall is perhaps best remembered by later audiences as the star of the television series Ramar of the Jungle, which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in the 1965 cult horror film The Beach Girls and the Monster. He did not play the same character in each one but both were the Invisible title character. He is one of only two actors to have portrayed the monster more than once in the original Universal series, the other being Vincent Price. He made his final two television appearances on Perry Mason: in 1963 he played Max Randall in "The Case of the Festive Falon," and in 1965 he played Lt. Kia in "The Case of the Feather Cloak."