Arch W. Hall Sr. on AllMovie

B-movie actor/writer/producer/director Arch Hall Sr. reportedly assumed his onscreen moniker after staring at a hallway with an arch. A graduate of the University of South Dakota, Hall became a radio writer-actor and did a stint as a pilot in the Army Air Force prior to entering films as a bit player around 1938. His near-legendary exploits were later satirized by writer-producer Jack Webb in The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961), a service comedy starring Robert Mitchum in the title role. Hall himself went on to produce, write, and/or direct such low-budget classics as The Choppers (1961), Eegah! (1962), Wild Guitar (1962), and Deadwood '76 (1965), often under the pseudonyms of Nicholas Merriwether or William Waters. His son, Arch Hall Jr. (born 1945), co-wrote and played leading roles in many of the films. Hall's little misadventures were released by his own company, Fairway Productions, located in Burbank, CA. His death was attributed to a heart attack.