Hall was born in 1920 in New York City to Joseph Patrick Hall, an engineer from Ireland, and his wife, Mary Ellen ( Mullen) Hall. The fourteenth of sixteen children, he was nicknamed "Huntz" because of his nose. He attended Catholic schools and started performing on radio at five years of age. Hall was then cast along with the other Dead End Kids in the 1937 film
Dead End, directed by
William Wyler and starring
Humphrey Bogart. Hall served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1943, he appeared in the USN training film "Don't Kill Your Friends" as moronic Ensign
Dilbert the Pilot, who carelessly causes the death of a civilian and three servicemen. In 1948, Hall was arrested for possession of marijuana. His trial, held in 1949, resulted in a
hung jury. Hall later played the increasingly buffoonish Horace DeBussy "Sach" Jones in 48 of "
The Bowery Boys" films, gaining top billing when his longtime partner,
Leo Gorcey, left the series in 1956. Hall and Gorcey reunited in
Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar (1966) and
The Phynx (1969). He was one of the celebrities featured on the cover of
The Beatles' 1967 album, ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1971, he co-starred with Art Metrano and Jamie Farr in the CBS situation comedy The Chicago Teddy Bears''. His plans to produce a movie series, "The Ghetto Boys" (a take on the "
Bowery Boys"), fell through. In 1973, Hall took part in Princess Grace of Monaco's Council for Drug Abuse, part of the Catholic Office of Drug Education. In 1976, he appeared in
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and in 1977 he played Jesse Lasky in
Ken Russell's film
Valentino. His later films included
Gas Pump Girls (1979) and
The Escape Artist (1982), the latter reuniting him with Gabriel Dell. His final film appearance was in ''Auntie Lee's Meat Pies'' in 1993. ==Filmography==