Gangly and rugged stage and screen character star Otto Hoffman was born
in New York in 1879. Began as a stage performer in the 1890's. Made his
movie debut under the direction of
Stuart Paton in
The White Terror (1915) starring
Hobart Henley for the IMP Film Company. Otto directed
only one film,
The Secret of Black Mountain (1917) made in 1917 starring
Vola Vale, afterwards he just concentrated on acting he was much better at
it. He most often played cadaverous, crafty, menacing characters in
more than 200 movies, such as
The Kaiser's Shadow (1918),
The Eagle (1925),
The Valley of the Giants (1927),
The Terror (1928), and
Noah's Ark (1928).
His ethnic range in many talkies include
The Desert Song (1929),
Abraham Lincoln (1930),
Cimarron (1931),
Eddie Cantor's
Kid Millions (1934),
Girl Loves Boy (1937),
W.C. Fields'
My Little Chickadee (1940), and his last film
just before he died was as Oscar in
This Is the Life (1944). Married
Laura King and has a daughter Eugenie Hoffman.