WALTER HIERS tips the beam at 235 pounds. He has played in many comedy
roles, but despite his bulk is capable of appearing in serious parts. It
is easy for him to make his audience laugh, but when occasion demands he
can also arouse sterner emotion.
Hiers was born on July 18, 1893, at Cordele, Georgia. He attended high
school at Savannah, Georgia, and afterward the military academy at Peekskill,
New York. It was while he was at the academy that the thought came to him
that he might serve humanity more effectively as an entertainer than as
a man in army uniform.
Because of his likeable humor and rotund figure, he had been eagerly
sought, while in school, for amateur theatricals and minstrel performances.
He enjoyed the work so much that his original aspiration, after leaving
the military academy, was to act in vaudeville.
Going to New York City, he obtained a part in a vaudeville satire, "The
Villain Still Pursued Her," by Frank Sheridan. This was in 1913. While
playing in this sketch, he was offered the role of the fat country boy in
"The Failure," a D. W. Griffith screen production, and accepted
it.
In 1916 he was engaged by Paramount to take the part of the stout youth
who is the rival of Billy Baxter, in "Seventeen," for the affections
of the baby-talk girl. Before being made a star he appeared in "What's
Your Husband Doing?" "The City Sparrow," "Mrs. Temple's
Telegram?' "The Fourteenth Man," "Sham," "Is Matrimony
a Failure," "Bought and Paid For" and "The Mysterious
Miss Terry."
He worked in "Mr. Billings Spends His Dime," his first starring
vehicle, in December, 1922. Hiers is 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall, He lives
in Los Angeles, and has two hobbies: baseball and football. |