One of the highlights of our collection is a postcard featuring Patrick Willis Fitzgerald, better known by his stage name, Creighton Hale. Born in Cork on May 24, 1889, Fitzgerald was educated in Dublin and London before moving to America in his twenties, where he joined a troupe of actors.
He was discovered by a representative of the Pathé Film Company while performing in a Broadway production of Indian Summer by Charles Frohman. It was there that he adopted the professional name Creighton Hale. He went on to have a successful career in the silent film era, appearing in notable films such as The Cat and the Canary (1927), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and The Marriage Circle (1924), among many others.
As the film industry transitioned to sound, Hale's career began to decline. However, he still made several appearances in Hal Roach's Our Gang series (including School's Out, Big Ears, and Free Wheeling) and had uncredited roles in major talking films such as Larceny, Inc., The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.
Hale was married twice. His first marriage was to Victoire Lowe, with whom he had two children (who were later adopted by Lowe’s second husband). He later married Kathleen Bering.
He passed away on August 9, 1965, in California.
