Alfred Olaf Hytten
BILL CROUCH writes about another actor who appeared in Bonnie Scotland
The Scottish born screen actor played minor and uncredited roles in over 300 films, often playing butlers.
Aged 54 he played Admiral Sir Fabian Prentiss in the 1942 ‘Sherlock Holmes and the voice of Terror’ with Glasgow born Mary Gordon playing housekeeper Mrs Hudson (which was one of her ten appearances, as Mrs Hudson in Sherlock Holmes movies from 1939-1945.)
Six years before that, they had both appeared in The Little Minister and the year after they met again in the Laurel and Hardy feature Bonnie Scotland, where Olaf played a recruiting sergeant in the Caledonian Highlanders.
“Aye, you two come away wi’ me”
Again, there is no doubt that there is a strong Scottish accent, more surprising perhaps since Olaf was the son of a Norwegian father and an English mother - and probably left Glasgow for England as a teenager.
He was born on 3rd March 1888 at 24 Kenmure Street in the Burgh of East Pollokshields on the south side of the city of Glasgow. This would have been within a two mile radius of where we would find Robert Watson and Mary Clark Gilmour (Gordon).
Father Christian Olaf Hytten, born in Norway, was employed as a shipbroker in Glasgow when Olaf was born.
By 1894 the family had moved nearer the River Clyde to 76 Ardgowan Street. At this time the Clyde was undeniably the centre of shipping in the UK behind London and Liverpool and Glasgow ports sat squarely on the fastest and safest route to the North Americas.
At some point in the early 1900s the family (three children) moved to England.
Olaf was a soldier with English regiments in WW1.
In 1915, as a Second Lieutenant he joined his battalion at Gallipoli where he was wounded. In 1917 he was promoted to Acting Captain and saw action in Palestine. He survived the war holding the rank of Captain.
Younger brother Edwin died in action in France on 12th November 1916, aged 26 and is buried in the churchyard at Lower near Ypres.
After the war Olaf moved to USA and a career in the movies. He moved to Los Angeles when he was 35. He died aged 67 on March 11 1955 of a heart attack at 20th Century Fox film studio. His remains are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery Los Angeles. For the last 32 years of his life he lived in Los Angeles but kept his British citizenship.