Arthur Hoyt (March 19, 1874 – January 4, 1953) was a prolific American character actor, a master of playing fussy, flustered, and henpecked characters, who appeared in more than 275 films over a career that spanned from the silent era to the golden age of Hollywood.
Hoyt had a prominent career in silent films, with major roles in classics like the epic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and the pioneering dinosaur adventure The Lost World (1925), which was directed by his brother, Harry O. Hoyt. With the arrival of sound, he became one of cinema’s most dependable and recognizable milquetoasts.
He is perhaps best remembered today as the comically exasperated motel manager who lectures Clark Gable in Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934). He was also a member of Preston Sturges’ unofficial stock company, appearing in all seven of the director’s classic comedies of the early 1940s, including The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels.
