Hall played multiple prominent roles on the gothicsoap operaDark Shadows (1966–71) and appeared on One Life to Live (1982–83). In 2006, a biography titled Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow was released.[2]
Early life
Hall was born Shirley Grossman in Philadelphia in 1922,[3] the only child of Eleanor and Joseph Grossman. Her father was from Latvia and her mother, who had acted in the Yiddish theatre, was from South Africa. Both were from Jewish immigrant families.[1]
When Hall was eight, her parents separated, but they never divorced. Hall became interested in acting as an escape from a painful childhood, and auditioned for plays in New York City while still attending Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia. She enrolled at Temple University but did not matriculate. She landed her first professional job with a summer stock company on Long Island in 1942.
In 1946, she married fellow actor Ted Brooks in Philadelphia.[4] They separated in 1949 and she returned to New York. In 1952, she married writer Sam Hall. Their son Matthew was born in 1958. She had always used the stage name Shirley Grayson, but Sam Hall called her Grayson "like an old Army buddy," as she said in an interview. She eventually adopted Grayson Hall as her professional name.[1]
Having guest-starred on various television programs during the mid-1950s, Hall made her film debut in 1961 in Run Across the River. She also appeared in Satan in High Heels as a cabaret club owner, but she later disavowed the film.
Hall's best-known television role was as Dr. Julia Hoffman on Dark Shadows. She portrayed the loyal confidant and friend of the vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). Other key roles that she played on the show were those of Countess Natalie Dupres; Magda Rakosi, a Gypsy; Hoffman, a Mrs. Danvers–type housekeeper; Julia Collins; and Constance Collins, sister of Brutus Collins.[8] She also appeared in both Dark Shadows feature films: in House of Dark Shadows again as Dr. Julia Hoffman, and in Night of Dark Shadows as a new character, housekeeper Carlotta Drake.
Her last onscreen role was as Euphemia Ralston (Delila's scheming mother) on the soap opera One Life to Live from July 1982 until April 1983.[5]
Death
After a six-month battle with lung cancer, Hall died at New York Hospital in Manhattan in 1985 at the age of 62. A simple marker near her Rhinebeck, New York home reads "Grayson Hall — August 7, 1985."[10]
^Hall also gave 1923 and 1925 as her year of birth on various documents, but elementary school and census records substantively establish 1922 as the correct year.
^Marriage, announcement (May 26, 1946). "Newspapers.com". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 35. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022.
