by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
Popular mustachioed silent screen leading man Hallam Cooley excelled in playing that Hollywood cliché "the other man," in what we today would call polite situation comedy. Onscreen from the early 1910s, after years of touring with various stock companies, Cooley came into his own in the mid-'20s, notably in lightweight fare opposite the likes of Laura La Plante, Pauline Garon, and Colleen Moore. Less visible after the advent of sound, he left acting to head a very successful Hollywood talent agency.
