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A corpulent and imposing character actor of English-Swedish ancestry, J. Albert Hall (the initial stood for "James") grew up in his mother's hometown of Malmö, Sweden, and made his professional debut with the Danish Camille D'Arville Stock Company. In European films from 1913, Hall arrived in America the following year to play supporting roles in a couple of Mary Pickford vehicles: The Eagle's Mate (1914) and Mistress Nell (1915). More importantly, he then played stage star Julia Dean's long-suffering husband in The Random (1916), which according to the trade-paper Variety, had a "good story -- part East Lynne, part Madame X." Hall was reunited with Miss Pickford in the capital-versus-labor melodrama The Eternal Grind (1916) as hero John Bower's capitalist father. His final film, Love's Flame (1920) -- a low-budget melodrama with Vivienne Osborne -- was released posthumously.