Biography

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), L'aigle noir (1925), The Valley of the Giants (1927), Terror (1928), and L'arche de Noé (1928). His ethnic range in many talkies include Le chant du désert (1929), La révolte des esclaves (1930), Cimarron (1931), Eddie Cantor's Le gosse aux millions (1934), Girl Loves Boy (1937), W.C. Fields' Mon petit poussin chéri (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.

- IMDb mini biography by: Paul Rothwell-Smith