arnold appeared in over 150 movies. although he was labeled "box office poison" in 1938 by an exhibitor publication (he shared this dubious distinction with joan crawford, greta garbo, marlene dietrich, mae west, fred astaire and katharine hepburn), he never lacked for work. rather than continue in leading man roles, he gave up losing weight and went after character parts instead. arnold was quoted as saying, "the bigger i got, the better character roles i received." he was such a sought-after actor, he often worked on two pictures at the same time.