He is perhaps best remembered for his tenure at Universal Pictures, where he began his career during the silent era.
He was art director for many of Universal's most famous productions of the 1920s and '30's: The Phantom of the Opera (1925), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the original Bela Lugosi Dracula (1931), the original Magnificent Obsession (1935), and the 1936 My Man Godfrey among them, as well as eleven films directed by James Whale, including the original Boris Karloff Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and the 1936 film version of Show Boat.
Hall also worked on the 1929 part-talkie film version of Show Boat, directed by Harry A. Pollard.
He ended his career as art director for the pioneering 1955 TV series Medic.
Hall bought a house from John Wayne in which he lived until his death.