ALAN HALE SR.

Alan Hale, Sr. was born Rufus Alan MacKahan in Washington, D.C. in 1892. At 19 he got a part in a western, and under his stage name of Alan Hale he quickly settled in as one of the top character actors, appearing in over 80 movies between 1913 and 1917. He married actress Gretchen Hartman in 1914, and she herself appeared in 60 movies, but she pretty much retired when they had three children, one of whom was named Alan Hale Mackahan Jr., but was later called Alan Hale, Jr. Hale, Sr. took a break from movies from 1918 to 1921 (I could not discover what he was doing, but maybe he was just making babies!), but returned to making lots of movies, most notably appearing as Little John in the 1922 Robin Hood, opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. In the mid-1920s, he temporarily quit acting again and he directed seven movies, but he soon returned to acting. He had supporting roles (sometimes very minor) in many of the most memorable films of the 1930s. He became great friends with Errol Flynn, and he appeared in 13 of his movies, most notably reprising his role as Little John in the 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood, and though he was 16 years older, he looked little different. Hale continued appearing in movies throughout the 1940s, and ironically his final film came in 1950's Rogues of Sherwood Forest, where he played Little John for the third time, and he passed away soon after, having appeared in 236 movies in all! Meanwhile, his son, Alan Hale Jr. had grown to be almost a duplicate to his dad, and he appeared in many small roles starting from 1941, but never in a movie with his dad. Sometime after his father passed away he dropped the "Jr", and of course he got his big break in 1964 when he was cast as Jonas Grumby in a new TV show called Gilligan's Island, and he was strongly identified with that character (known as 'The Skipper') the rest of his life. He passed away in 1950 at the age of 57.