[2] Hicks was a character actor appearing in bit parts and small supporting roles in nearly 300 films between 1933 and 1956.

He often appeared as a smooth-talking confidence man, or swindler as in the W.C. Fields film The Bank Dick (1940).

Hicks appeared once in the syndicated western television series The Cisco Kid.

Broadway plays in which Hicks acted included The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1954), On Borrowed Time (1953), Time for Elizabeth (1948), All the King's Horses (1934), The Little Black Book (1932), Nona (1932), Torch Song (1930), Goin' Home (1928), No Trespassing (1926), and The Wisecrackers (1925).

[3] On June 1, 1957, Hicks suffered a heart attack after an automobile accident and was dead on arrival at Santa Monica Receiving Hospital.