Biographie

By the mid-1940s, his personal and professional life were at such a low point that he was seriously considering committing suicide. His plan was to jump from the mountains above Santa Monica, but on his walk he met a priest and told him the whole story. The priest encouraged him to make a novena, instead. At the end of the nine days of prayer, he was offered an acting job from Universal Studios and never looked back.

He was the only member of the supporting cast of Batman (1966) to be in every single episode of the series.

Strikingly handsome in his youth, Hamilton--along with John Barrymore, Fredric March and Brian Donlevy--modeled as the Arrow (Shirt) Collar Man, and received more fan mail in the 1920s than box-office king Rudolph Valentino.

He was a distant cousin of Margaret Hamilton, with whom he appeared in By Your Leave (1934).

He made 268 films, both sound and silent, and played opposite such stars as Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Constance Bennett, Ann Sothern and Jean Arthur.