The son of character actor Dennis Hoey (Inspector Lestrade in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series), Michael A. Hoey was born in London and relocated to the U.S. as a child. Growing up in the shadows of the Hollywood studios, he went on to have his own career in the motion picture industry. After working at Warner Brothers in the early 1960s, Hoey collaborated with director Norman Taurog on several Elvis Presley movies and (on his own) wrote and directed the sci-fi shocker The Navy vs. the Night Monsters. In more recent years, he has worked as a writer-producer-director on TV's Fame, as well as having written, directed or edited numerous TV episodes and movies. Since 1997, he and John Moffitt have executive produced the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Film historian Leonard Maltin has defined the character actors who appeared in films of the 30s and 40s as "Hollywood's Real Stars." Roy William Neill, who directed nearly all of the Sherlock Holmes mystery-adventures of the 1940s that starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, had a repertory company of character actors and actresses whom he liked to use. Sherlock Holmes and the Fabulous Faces: The Universal Pictures Repertory Company is a tribute to those 68 men and women whose names appeared below Basil Rathbone's and Nigel Bruce's, and who helped make their films the legendary series it is.
In his previous memoir Elvis, Sherlock, and Me: How I Survived Growing Up in Hollywood, Michael Hoey reminisced about the life and times of his famous father, Dennis Hoey, the iconic Inspector Lestrade of the Rathbone films. His From Gillette to Brett III appearance will look further into the Universal Sherlock Holmes movies, and the actors that starred alongside its two famous stars. Michael Hoey is a living link to these Sherlockian cinematic classics!
The son of character actor Dennis Hoey (Inspector Lestrade in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series), Michael A. Hoey was born in London and relocated to the U.S. as a child. Growing up in the shadows of the Hollywood studios, he went on to have his own career in the motion picture industry. After working at Warner Brothers in the early 1960s, Hoey collaborated with director Norman Taurog on several Elvis Presley movies and (on his own) wrote and directed the sci-fi shocker The Navy vs. the Night Monsters. In more recent years, he has worked as a writer-producer-director on TV's Fame, as well as having written, directed or edited numerous TV episodes and movies. Since 1997, he and John Moffitt have executive produced the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
who directed nearly all of the Sherlock Holmes mystery-adventures of the 1940s that starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, had a repertory company of character actors and actresses whom he liked to use. Sherlock Holmes and the Fabulous Faces: The Universal Pictures Repertory Company is a tribute to those 68 men and women whose names appeared below Basil Rathbone's and Nigel Bruce's, and who helped make their films the legendary series it is.