- Jon Hall, The Hurricane, 1936. After his contract star Joel McCrea turned down the Polynesian sailor (“I don’t look native, I look like an Irish cop”), the sun-kissed handsome Errol Flynn topped producer Sam Goldwyn’s list for Terangi. With the proviso: If it was out like Flynn, it would be in like the Alaskan Mala. Except it wasn’t. Mala made two dozen films as, mainly, Inuit and Hawaiian characters. Hall’s mother was from Tahiti, where he was raised. Goldwyn insisted this for the Fresno kid’s debut. Rubbish! Well, his first as Jon Hall, perhaps, having made eight as Charles Locher (his birth name) or Lloyd Crane. Wasn’t it publicity enough that Hall was related to the Hurricane novelist, James Norman Hall,.. and next-door neighbour of the epic’s director, John Ford.
Birth year: 1906Death year: 1952Other name: Ray MalaCasting Calls: 1