Hal Reid (actor)
Hal Reid | |
|---|---|
 From a 1922 magazine | |
| Born | James Halleck Reid April 14, 1863 Saint Omer, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | May 22, 1920 (aged 57) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupations | Playwright, Actor |
| Years active | 1880s–1920 |
| Spouses | Marylee Withers Cole
(m. 1879)Bertha Belle Westbrook
(m. 1889)Marcella Frances Russell Timer
(m. 1916) |
| Children | Wallace Reid |
James Halleck Reid[1] (April 14, 1863 – May 22, 1920) was an American playwright and stage and screen actor. Reid also directed over a dozen films.
Early life and career
Born in 1863,[1] in Saint Omer, Indiana,[2][3] and raised in Cedarville, Ohio,[4] Reid was the son of dentist Hugh McMillan Reid and America Elizabeth Truitt.[5][6][3]
Reid entered the film business in 1910 as an actor, director, and writer, bringing along his teen son Wallace Reid, who had aspirations to be a director or cameraman. Many of his plays saw Broadway openings.[7]
In 1912, Reid was appointed Censor to the Universal Film Corporation.[8]
Reid was at one time said to be actually Harry Preston and that he had served a prison sentence for an unspecified crime.[9] In 1915 Reid visited Georgia convicted murderer Leo Frank in prison for source material of a film he was making Thou Shall Not Kill. Frank was convicted, then pardoned for the 1913 murder of Mary Phagan in a famous Georgia murder case.[10]
Reid married Bertha Westbrook, who collaborated with him on some of his writing. Film actor Wallace Reid was their son.[11]
Selected plays
- At Cripple Creek
- A Mother's Love
- A Child Wife
- Custer's Last Fight (1905)
- For Love of a Woman
- Human Hearts (original title Logan's Luck, 1895)[12][13]
- In Convict Stripes
- Knobs o'Tennessee (1899)
- A Working Girl's Wrong
- A Wife for a Day
- A Wife's Secret (1903)
- For a Human Life (1906)
- A Millionaire's Revenge (1906)
- The Prince of the World
- The Avenger (1907)
- The Gypsy Girl (1905)
- The Shoemaker (1907)
- Sweet Molly O! (1907)
- The Cow Puncher (1906)
- Roanoak
- The Peddler (1902)
- The German Immigrants
- The Heart of Virginia
- The Singing Girl from Killarney (1907)
- The Pride of Newspaper Row
- From Broadway to Bowery (1907)
Filmography
- The Girl from Arizona (1910), short
- Becket (1910), short
- Human Hearts (1910), short
- Wig Wag (1911), short
- One Touch of Nature (1911), short
- The Path of True Love (1912), short
- Jean Intervenes (1912), short
- Indian Romeo and Juliet (1912), short
- The Hobo's Redemption (1912), short
- Cardinal Wolsey (1912), short
- Father Beauclaire (1912), short
- Virginius (1912), short
- A Nation's Peril (1912), short
- Rip Van Winkle (1912), short
- Every Inch a Man (1912), short
- The Deerslayer (1913), short
- Dan (1914)
- Time Lock No. 776 (1915)
- Mothers of Men (1917)
- Little Miss Hoover (1918)
- The Two Brides (1919)
Film Director
- The Victoria Cross (1912) *short
- Old Love Letters (1912)*short
- Love in the Ghetto (1912)*short
- Father Beauclaire (1912)*short
- Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight (1912)*short
- Kaintuck(1912)*short
- Virginius (1912)*short
- Votes for Women (1912)*short
- A Man's Duty (1912)*short
- At Cripple Creek (1912)*short
- Thou Shalt Not Kill (1913)*short
- The Deerslayer (1913)*short
- Time Lock No. 776 (1915)*feature
- Prohibition (1915)*feature
- Thou Shalt Not Kill (1915)*feature; based on the Leo Frank case
References
- ^ a b Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (2018). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 556. ISBN 9781538107850.
- ^ Vazzana, Eugene Michael (1995). Silent Film Necrology: Births and Deaths of Over 9000 Performers, Directors, Producers, and Other Filmmakers of the Silent Era, Through 1993. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 275. ISBN 9780786401321.
- ^ a b "New York, Marriages, 1686-1980", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HWJV-393Z : 21 January 2020), James Hallock Reid, 1916.
- ^ "United States, Census, 1870", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M624-4MC : Sat Jan 11 03:01:56 UTC 2025), Entry for Hugh M Reed and America E Reed, 1870.
- ^ Higgins, Ray (December 14, 1968). "CRACKER BARREL: Whitelaw Reid Eclipsed Other Reids Of This Area". The Xenia Daily Gazette. p. 4. Retrieved May 2, 2025. "Hal Reid's father, the Cedarville dentist, was named Hugh McMillan Reid, a parental tribute to the celebrated Covenanter preacher and educator."
- ^ "Indiana, Marriages, 1811-2019", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XXFL-PZB : Sat Mar 09 20:11:38 UTC 2024), Entry for Hugh M Reed and America E Truett, 28 Nov 1857.
- ^ "James Halleck Reid". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
- ^ Who Was Who in the Theatre: 1912–76 volume 4 Q-Z page 2,008 compiled from editions originally published annually by John Parker; this 1976 and final version by Gale Research Company
- ^ The Oxford Companion to the American Theatre, 2nd edition p.570 by Gerald Bordman c.1992
- ^ The Unburied Past: Resurrecting the Leo Frank Case A Conversation with Steve Oney (Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; Youtube)
- ^ "Mrs. Bertha W. Reid dies in Newark, N. J." The Springfield Daily Republican. Associated Press. July 29, 1939. p. 9. Retrieved April 30, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Logan's Luck". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
- ^ Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916. Library of Congress. 1918. p. 1299.
External links
