Biography
Gangly, bald-pated stage actor Otto Hoffman inaugurated his screen career with producer
Thomas Ince in 1916. After directing Ince's
Secret of Black Mountain (1917), Hoffman concentrating on acting. He was seen as cadaverous, crafty, menacing, and sometimes near-moronic types in such silents as
Human Wreckage (1918),
The Eagle (1925),
The Terror (1928) and
Noah's Ark (1929). His ethnic range in talkies embraced the Riffian Hasse in
Desert Song (1929), frontiersman Murch Rankin in
Cimarron (1931), and Gandhi parody "Khook" in
Eddie Cantor's
Kid Millions (1934). Otto Hoffman spent his last film years in bit roles, most often cast as pawnbrokers or caretakers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide