Acting
Community Rating
6.1
TMDB estimate
Born
October 5, 1905
Died
September 15, 1991 (age 85)
Born in
Bronxville, New York, USA
John Hoyt was an American film, theatre, and television actor, October 5, 1905 – September 15, 1991. He began his acting career on Broadway, later appearing in numerous films and television series. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films The Lawless (1950), When Worlds Collide (1951), Julius Caesar (1953), Blackboard Jungle (1955), Spartacus (1960), Cleopatra (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), Flesh Gordon (1974), and the television series Gimme a Break! (1981-87). Hoyt was born John McArthur Hoysradt in Bronxville, New York, the son of Warren J. Hoysradt, an investment banker, and his wife, Ethel Hoysradt, née Wolf. He attended the Hotchkiss School and Yale University, where he served on the editorial board of campus humor magazine The Yale Record. He received a bachelor's and a master's degree from Yale. He worked as a history instructor at the Groton School for two years. Hoyt shortened his surname in 1945, the year before his film debut in O.S.S. He became a familiar face in film noir and played the strict Principal Warneke in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, starring Glenn Ford. He played an industrialist in the 1951 film When Worlds Collide. Hoyt appeared in one Shakespearean film: MGM's Julius Caesar, reprising the role of Decius Brutus (or Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus), whom he had played in the 1937 Mercury Theatre production. In 1952, he played Cato in Androcles and the Lion. In 1953, he portrayed Elijah in the biblical film Sins of Jezebel. He had featured roles in the big-budget sixties epics Spartacus and Cleopatra.

Freeing “Trapped”
as Self (archive footage)
2019

Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn
as Carmine
2013

Mulberry Street
as Big Vic
2006

The Last Request
as Big Joe
2006

The Pompatus of Love
as Big Toe
1996

Creepy Classics
as Mr. Franz - (archive footage)
1987

Alvin Goes Back to School
1986

The NBC All Star Hour: Let's All Be There
1985

Desperately Seeking Susan
as Space Commander
1985

Forty Days of Musa Dagh
1982

Gimme a Break!
as Stanley Kanisky
1981

Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes
as Barlow
1980

The Forgotten City of the Planet of the Apes
as Barlow
1980

Nero Wolfe
as Hewitt
1979

A Great Ride
as Jukebox Drunk
1979

In Search of Historic Jesus
as Synagogue Man #1
1979

The Winds of Kitty Hawk
as Prof. Samuel Langley
1978

The Rhinemann Exchange
as German scientist
1977

Meeting of Minds
1977

Matt Helm
as Same Rae
1975