He appeared in more than 200 films, and is perhaps most familiar to today's audiences from Charlie Chan mysteries, adventure serials (notably The Phantom as the Phantom's father), It's a Wonderful Life (as the relieved bank manager mopping his brow in Mr. Potter's office), and the Three Stooges short Micro-Phonies (as singer Christine McIntyre's wealthy father).

By 1933 he was a member of the Los Angeles company appearing in the hit play The Drunkard, under his real name of Sam Ethridge, and broke into movies with the small, independent Monogram Pictures.

[2] While most of the actors returned to the live theater, Ethridge continued to work in pictures.

Under the screen name Sam Flint, he became familiar for his weathered face, distinguished mustache, and dignified bearing, typecasting him profitably as authority figures: doctors, lawyers, judges, ship's captains, military officers, bankers, racetrack stewards, and senior officials.

Flint was married to actress Ella Ethridge, whom he met after she watched him in a play in Galveston, Texas.