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Jon Hall (born Charles Felix Locher, February 23, 1915 – December 13, 1979) was an American film actor known for playing a variety of adventurous roles, as in 1937's The Hurricane, and later when contracted to Universal Pictures, including Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge and six movies he made with Maria Montez. He was also known to 1950s fans as the creator and star of the Ramar of the Jungle television series which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in two 1960s sci-fi films in his later years, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966).
Born in Fresno, California and raised in Tahiti by his father, the Swiss-born actor Felix Maurice Locher, Hall was a nephew of writer James Norman Hall, co-author (with Charles Nordhoff) of the novel Mutiny on the Bounty (1932).
Hall originally intended to go into the diplomatic service and was educated in England and Switzerland. A friend from Tahiti, writer Gouvernor Morris, suggested that he try acting.
Hall began his career using the name "Charles Locher". His first performance was in a local theatre production of M'Lord the Duke, replacing Robert Taylor; Taylor had just signed with MGM.
His appearance on stage in Murder on a Mountain at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre in Beverly Hills earned him a contract at Warner Bros. He followed it with What? No Yacht? at the Bliss Hayden. Nothing seems to have happened with the Warners contract: His first film was Women Must Dress (1935) at Monogram Pictures.
In April 1935, he signed with 20th Century Fox for a role in Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt. He did not appear in that movie, but he did have an uncredited bit in Here's to Romance and he played the romantic male lead in Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935). After that, the studio released him from his contract.
Hall recalled, "for the next three years I took whatever jobs in pictures they'd give me." He had supporting roles in Westerns: The Mysterious Avenger (1936), at Columbia; Winds of the Wasteland (1936), with John Wayne at Republic Pictures, and in the serial The Clutching Hand (1936). He had the lead in a low-budget adventure movie, The Lion Man (1936), based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He was rejected for the lead of the Flash Gordon serial.
He changed his screen name to "Lloyd Crane" and in 1936 signed a contract with Major Pictures, a company run by producer Emmanuel Cohen, who distributed through Paramount. Other actors who had deals with Cohen included Bing Crosby, Mae West, and Gary Cooper. He made two pictures for Cohen, Mind Your Own Business (1936) and The Girl from Scotland Yard (1937). Then Cohen dropped him.
Samuel Goldwyn was preparing a big budget spectacular, The Hurricane (1937), based on a novel by Nordhoff and Hall and directed by John Ford. They were having trouble finding someone to play the native whose wrongful imprisonment is the focus of the drama. Then Ford introduced Hall to Goldwyn: Goldwyn signed Hall to a long-term contract and cast him as Terangi: Hurricane was a big success.
Goldwyn paid Hall $150 a week, which eventually rose to $200 a week.
Paramount borrowed Hall for the musical Lady in the Dark (1944), in which he played the role originated on Broadway by Victor Mature.
Hall was diagnosed with incurable bladder cancer which caused him extreme pain. He died of suicide on December 13, 1979.
Hall has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Motion Pictures at 1724 Vine Street and for television at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard.