Arch Hall Jr.

Arch Hall Jr. was born on December 2, 1943 in Van Nuys, the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, the only child of actor, writer and producer Arch Hall Sr. He began his career as a teen film actor and musician, appearing in a number of early 1960s films that were all produced by his father. Most of Hall Jr.'s films featured his particular musical abilities, a teenager's tenor voice and guitar riffs played with swamp blues inflection. Hall was also the front man for the rock n' roll combo Arch Hall Jr. and the Archers. The band, formed with high school friend Alan O'Day (who later wrote No. 1 pop hits in the 1970s) played in a number of Sunset Strip clubs such as the Whisky-a-Go-Go and Pandora's Box.

For the most part, Hall appeared in six feature films in the 1960s. The films produced by the Halls and their associates, which at one point included cult director Ray Dennis Steckler, are considered B-movies. Hall's roles ranged from a dune buggy-driving teenager to a rock n' roll singing spy wearing a white dinner jacket. His first film was that of being the leader of a teenage gang of car thieves in the 1961 independent film The Choppers (1961). His second role was Eegah (1962) as the lead protagonist, which has won him the most recognition, due in part to the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 featuring the movie in a 1993 episode, and the late night comedy horror series Elvira's Movie Macabre.

His third role was that of playing a young musician named Bud Eagle who tries to make a living and deal with the corruption of the music business in Los Angeles in Wild Guitar (1962). In The Sadist (1963), Hall portrayed a psychopathic killer, named Charlie Tibbs, who terrorizes a trio of helpless people in a remote auto junkyard in the desolate Antelope Valley area of California which also netted him some praise for his performance which was loosely based on teenage spree killer Charles Starkweather.

In the comedy spoof The Nasty Rabbit (aka: Spies-a-Go-Go) (1964), Hall played Britt Hunter, a secret government agent trying to locate a Russian spy trying to use a rabbit to unleash a deadly virus at a remote Dude Ranch. In the western Deadwood '76 (1965) Hall played a drifter named Billy May who is mistaken for outlaw Billy the Kid which leads to some drastic consequences.

After appearing in his last film, Hall quit his acting career and became an airline pilot (his father had flown with the Army Air Force during the Second World War). In 1967, he went to work as a pilot for the cargo carrier Flying Tiger Airlines as an apprentice co-pilot on the L-1049H, and eventually became a captain flying the Boeing 747. In 1989, Flying Tiger was purchased by FedEx and Hall flew the DC-10 until he retired in 2003. He also flew airplanes for a private company with businesses in the U.S. and Japan.

Hall wrote the novel Apsara Jet, which was published in 2001 under the pen name Nicolas Merriweather (a name often used by his father). The book draws on Hall's knowledge of both commercial airlines and Southeast Asia in telling the story of a Vietnam War vet who gets involved in the illegal drug trade.

A career-spanning 51-page interview with Hall appears in the book Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers (McFarland & Co., 2005) by Tom Weaver. Hall's anthology, Wild Guitar, was released on Norton Records. The anthology, with liner notes and biography, collects the original '60s output of Arch Hall Jr. and the Archers, much of which was unreleased at the time.