Tall, heavy-set character actor Alan Dinehart dropped out of school to
join a repertory company. He had extensive stage experience (including
some 27 appearances on Broadway) and, by the time he was signed by Fox
in 1931, he had worked not only as an actor but as a stage manager and
writer. On screen he appeared for the most part in "B" pictures,
notable exceptions being the MGM musical blockbuster
Zum Tanzen geboren (1936) and the 20th
Century-Fox classic family drama
Shirley auf Welle 303 (1938).
Dinehart specialized in portraying blustering or shifty businessmen,
crooked politicians or racketeers. While he is usually described as a
supporting player, he actually started out in the early 1930s playing
leading roles opposite some of the major female stars of the period.
However, Dinehart's characters were rarely sympathetic. In
Street of Women (1932) he essayed
an architect who, bored with his society wife, indiscreetly keeps a
mistress (Kay Francis) on the side.
In Supernatural (1933) he was true
to form as the phony spiritualist fleecing a wealthy socialite, played
by Carole Lombard; and in
Ein feiner Herr (1934) he was an
urbane con artist in competition with
James Cagney. On rarer occasions Alan found
gainful employment as more benevolent characters, point in case his
theatrical impressario
Theodore von Eltz in
Dance, Girl, Dance (1933). All
of these performances attracted good reviews from Mordaunt Hall of the
New York Times, ranging from "excellent" to "bearing up valiantly".
In unlikely contrast to his self-styled image of "Hollywood's most
versatile villain", Dinehart had strong comedic inclinations,
co-authoring several comedy plays towards the later stages of his
career. The last and most successful of these, "Separate Rooms"
(1940-1941), with Dinehart top-billed alongside
Glenda Farrell and
Lyle Talbot, became one of the
longest-running non-musical plays on Broadway at the time, finally
closing after 613 performances. Alan's son,
Mason Alan Dinehart, followed in his
father's footsteps and also became an actor, featured in several
westerns and on television from the late 1940's.
