Biography
Creighton Hale was an Irish-American actor whose career spanned silent films to the late 1950s. Born Patrick Fitzgerald (also credited as Patrick C. Fitzgerald and Patrick Wills Fitzgerald) in County Cork, Ireland, he trained in Dublin and London before emigrating to the United States around 1910. He began in theatre and made his screen debut in the 1914 serial The Exploits of Elaine.
Hale gained prominence in silent features directed by D.W. Griffith, including Way Down East (1920) as Professor Sterling and Orphans of the Storm (1921) as Picard. He also appeared in The Cat and the Canary and other notable silents. With the advent of sound, his roles shifted to supporting and uncredited parts in films such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1943) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), as well as appearances in the Our Gang series.
