Wallace Reid
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William Wallace Halleck Reid (April 15, 1891 – January 18, 1923)<ref name=Fleming-2007-ch1> Template:Harvp </ref> was an American actor in silent film, referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover".<ref> Template:Cite magazine </ref> He also had a brief career as a racing driver.<ref name=Menefee-2011> Template:Cite book </ref><ref name=OldRaceCars/><ref name=ChampCarStats/>
Early life
Reid was born in St. Louis, Missouri, into a show business family. His mother, Bertha Westbrook, was an actress, and his father, James Halleck "Hal" Reid, worked successfully in a variety of theatrical jobs, mainly as playwright and actor, traveling the country.<ref name=Fleming-2007-ch1/> As a boy, Wallace Reid was performing on stage at an early age, but acting was put on hold while he obtained an education at Freehold Military School in Freehold Township, New Jersey. He later graduated from Perkiomen Seminary in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania in 1909. A gifted all-around athlete, Reid participated in a number of sports while also following an interest in music, learning to play the piano, banjo, drums, and violin. As a teenager, he spent time in Wyoming, where he learned to be an outdoorsman.<ref name=Fleming-2007-ch1/>
Career
Reid was drawn to the burgeoning movie industry by his father, who shifted from the theater to writing films, directing them, and acting in them. In 1910, Reid appeared in his first film, The Phoenix, an adaptation of a Milton Nobles play, filmed at Selig Polyscope Studios in Chicago. Reid used the script from a play his father had written and approached the very successful Vitagraph Studios, hoping to be given the opportunity to direct. Instead, Vitagraph executives capitalized on his sex appeal, and in addition to having him direct, cast him in a major role. Although Reid's good looks and powerful physique made him the perfect ‘matinée idol’, he was equally happy with roles behind the scenes and often worked as a writer, cameraman, and director.<ref name=Menefee-2011/>
Reid was arrested in Portland, Oregon in 1921 for violating Prohibition law.<ref name=Chandler-Kennedy-2016> Template:Cite book </ref>
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 he had an uncredited role in Intolerance (1916),<ref> Template:Cite web </ref> both directed by D. W. Griffith; he worked with leading ladies such as Florence Turner, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Elsie Ferguson, and Geraldine Farrar, becoming one of Hollywood's major heartthrobs.Template:Citation needed
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 fans 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). Across the Continent (1922), one of his auto-racing films, was chosen as the opening night film for San Francisco's Castro Theatre, which opened on 22 June 1922.Template:Citation needed
Reid loved racing so much that he even entered a vehicle into the 1922 Indianapolis 500; he eventually withdrew before qualifying.<ref name=OldRaceCars> Template:Cite web </ref><ref name=ChampCarStats> Template:Cite web </ref>
Death
While en route to a location in California during filming of The Valley of the Giants (1919), Reid was injured in a train wreck near Arcata, California, and he needed six stitches to close a Template:Convert scalp wound.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfnp To continue filming, he was prescribed morphine for relief of his pain, and Reid soon became addicted.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He continued 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.<ref name=chasin>Template:Cite book</ref> Reid's morphine addiction worsened at a time when rehabilitation programs were non-existent.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfnp<ref name=chasin/>
On January 18, 1923, he died from influenza in a sanatorium, aged 31, while attempting to recover from his addiction.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Reid was interred in the Azalea Terrace of the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.Template:Sfnp
Aftermath
His widow, Dorothy Davenport (billed as Mrs. Wallace Reid), co-produced and appeared in Human Wreckage (1923), making a national tour with the film to publicize the dangers of drug addiction. She and Reid had two children: a son, Wallace Reid Jr., born in 1917; and a daughter, Betty Mummert, whom they adopted in 1922 as a three-year-old.<ref> Template:Cite web </ref>
Wallace Reid's contribution to the movie industry has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.<ref> Template:Cite book </ref>
Popular culture
In the biopic Valentino (1977), Reid is portrayed as a bicycle-riding, childish movie star.
The 1980 documentary Hollywood episode "Single Beds and Double Standards" presented Reid's addiction as recalled by people who worked with him: Karl Brown, Henry Hathaway, Gloria Swanson, and stuntman Bob Rose. Later in 2011 this would later by summarised further in the second episode of Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood.
A biography appeared in 2007,Template:Sfnp the first work on Reid's life since his mother's personal recollections were published shortly after the actor's death.
A section of the book Hollywood Babylon that gave a biographic sketch of Reid was criticized in 2018 on the "You Must Remember This" podcast hosted by Karina Longworth.<ref> Template:Cite podcast </ref>
Filmography
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
External links
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- Pages with broken file links
- 1891 births
- 1923 deaths
- 20th-century American male actors
- American male film actors
- American male silent film actors
- Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
- Deaths from influenza in the United States
- Drug-related deaths in California
- Infectious disease deaths in California
- Male actors from St. Louis
- Paramount Pictures contract players
- American vaudeville performers