Wallace Reid
Acting
Biography
Wallace Reid was an American actor in silent film referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover". Wallace Reid appeared in several films with his father, and as his career in film flourished, he was soon acting and directing with and for early film mogul Allan Dwan. In 1913, while at Universal Pictures, Reid met and married actress Dorothy Davenport. He was featured as Jeff, the blacksmith, in The Birth of a Nation (1915) and had an uncredited role in Intolerance (1916), both directed by D. W. Griffith; he worked with leading ladies such as Florence Turner, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Elsie Ferguson, and Geraldine Farrar en route to becoming one of Hollywood's major heartthrobs. Already involved with the creation of more than 100 motion picture shorts, Reid was signed by producer Jesse L. Lasky and starred in over 60 films for Lasky's Famous Players film company, which later became Paramount Pictures. Frequently paired with actress Ann Little, his action-hero role as the dashing race-car driver drew young girls and older women alike to theaters to see his daredevil auto thrillers such as The Roaring Road (1919), Double Speed (1920), Excuse My Dust (1920), and Too Much Speed (1921). While en route to a location in Oregon during filming of The Valley of the Giants (1919), Reid was injured in a train wreck near Arcata, California and needed six stitches to close a 3-inch (8 cm) scalp wound. To keep on filming, he was prescribed morphine for relief of his pain and Reid soon became addicted, but kept on working at a frantic pace in films that were growing more physically demanding, and changing from 15–20 minutes in duration to as much as an hour. Reid's morphine addiction worsened at a time when drug rehabilitation programs were non-existent. He died in a sanatorium while attempting to recover.
Born: April 14, 1891
Place of Birth: Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Known For
Filmography
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as John Floyd
as Self
as Clarence Smith
as Walter Jarvis, a Ghost Breaker
as Captain Billy Wade
as Self
as Brooke Travers
as Jimmy Dent
as William Burroughs
as Buell Arnister Jr
as Cullen Dale
as Peter Ibbetson
as Anatol Spencer
as Teddy Darman
as 'Dusty' Rhoades
as Jim Glover
as Austin Bevans
as Perry Dayton / 'Slim' Attucks
as Dusty Rhoades
as Reginald Jay
as Sylvester Tibble
as 'Toodles' Walden
as 'Speed' Carr
as Anthony Hamilton Hawthorne
as Jack Wright
as Bryce Cardigan
as David Strong
as Billy Deering
as Walter Thomas 'Toodles' Walden
as Larry Young
as John Craig (The 'Dub')
as Walsingham Van Doren
as Harry Webb
as Van Twiller Yard
as Hobart Lee / Lewis Vickers
as Devereux Bayne
as George MacFarland
as Marcel Levington
as Rodney Sheridan
as Rimrock Jones
as Guy Sterling
as Henry de Spain
as Alvarado
as Lieutenant Kemper
as Lord Effington, aka Hal
as Jack Fife
as Bob Fulton
as Huntington Babbs
as James Roger Ralston
as Eric Trent 1431 / Eric Trent 1917
as James Weldon
as Boy Killed in Battle (uncredited)
as Tom Wells
as Tom Morley
as Andreas
as Dan Derring
as Captain Ralph Percy
as Roger Manning
as Prince Karl Heinrich
as Don Jose
as Danny Mallory
as Jim Manning
as Walter Fenn
as Ford
as Jeff, the Blacksmith
as Jean Gaudet / Will
as The Lieutenant
as Lieutenant Hawkhurst
as The Doctor (uncredited)
as Sullivan
as Wallace
as Lt. Wallace
as Dave - the Woodsman
as Captain Bruce Douglas
as Dr. Reid
as Chingachgook
as Bob Madden
as Joe Mayfield
as Basil Underwood
as Clerk
as Opera Attendee (uncredited)
as Lt. Cholmodeley
as Giuseppe's Father
as One of the Beecham Brothers
as Party Guest at Piano (uncredited)
as Oniatore / Romeo
as George - the Denouement
as The Mother's Friend Back East