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Wallace Reid

Wallace Reid

Actor · 1891–1923 · Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

IMDb

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.

Acted in 90

1950s

  1. 1957

    Los ojos del siglo (Volumen I)

    Él mismo (material de archivo)

1930s

  1. 1932

    The Movie Album

    (archive footage)

  2. 1931

    The House That Shadows Built

    (archive footage)

1920s

  1. 1922

    Thirty Days

    John Floyd

  2. Clarence

    Clarence Smith

  3. The Ghost Breaker

    Walter Jarvis, a Ghost Breaker

  4. Nice People

    Captain Billy Wade

  5. The Dictator

    Brooke Travers

  6. Across the Continent

    Jimmy Dent

  7. The World's Champion

    William Burroughs

  8. Rent Free

    Buell Arnister Jr

  9. 1921

    Don't Tell Everything

    Cullen Dale

  10. Forever

    Peter Ibbetson

  11. The Hell Diggers

    Teddy Darman

  12. Too Much Speed

    'Dusty' Rhoades

  13. The Love Special

    Jim Glover

  14. The Charm School

    Austin Bevans

  15. 1920

    Always Audacious

    Perry Dayton / 'Slim' Attucks

  16. What's Your Hurry?

    Dusty Rhoades

  17. Sick Abed

    Reginald Jay

  18. The Dancin' Fool

    Sylvester Tibble

  19. Excuse My Dust

    'Toodles' Walden

  20. Double Speed

    'Speed' Carr

1910s

  1. 1919

    Hawthorne of the U.S.A.

    Anthony Hamilton Hawthorne

  2. The Lottery Man

    Jack Wright

  3. The Valley of the Giants

    Bryce Cardigan

  4. The Love Burglar

    David Strong

  5. You're Fired

    Billy Deering

  6. The Roaring Road

    Walter Thomas 'Toodles' Walden

  7. Alias Mike Moran

    Larry Young

  8. The Dub

    John Craig (The 'Dub')

  9. 1918

    Too Many Millions

    Walsingham Van Doren

  10. The Man from Funeral Range

    Harry Webb

  11. Less Than Kin

    Hobart Lee / Lewis Vickers

  12. The Firefly of France

    Devereux Bayne

  13. Believe Me, Xantippe

    George MacFarland

  14. The House of Silence

    Marcel Levington

  15. The Thing We Love

    Rodney Sheridan

  16. Rimrock Jones

    Rimrock Jones

  17. 1917

    The Devil Stone

    Guy Sterling

  18. Nan of Music Mountain

    Henry de Spain

  19. The Woman God Forgot

    Alvarado

  20. The Hostage

    Lieutenant Kemper

  21. Big Timber

    Jack Fife

  22. The World Apart

    Bob Fulton

  23. The Prison Without Walls

    Huntington Babbs

  24. The Golden Fetter

    James Roger Ralston

  25. 1916

    Joan the Woman

    Eric Trent 1431 / Eric Trent 1917

  26. The Yellow Pawn

    James Weldon

  27. The House with the Golden Windows

    Tom Wells

  28. The Selfish Woman

    Tom Morley

  29. Maria Rosa

    Andreas

  30. The Love Mask

    Dan Derring

  31. To Have and to Hold

    Captain Ralph Percy

  32. 1915

    The Golden Chance

    Roger Manning

  33. Old Heidelberg

    Prince Karl Heinrich

  34. Carmen

    Don Jose

  35. The Chorus Lady

    Danny Mallory

  36. Station Content

    Jim Manning

  37. Enoch Arden

    Walter Fenn

  38. The Lost House

    Ford

  39. The Three Brothers

    Jean Gaudet / Will

  40. 1914

    At Dawn

    The Lieutenant

  41. The Little Country Mouse

    Lieutenant Hawkhurst

  42. The Avenging Conscience

    The Doctor (uncredited)

  43. Arms and the Gringo

    Sullivan

  44. The Den of Thieves

    Wallace

  45. 'Cross the Mexican Line

    Lt. Wallace

  46. Women and Roses

    Wallace

  47. The Spider and Her Web

    Movie

  48. The Heart of the Hills

    Dave - the Woodsman

  49. 1913

    The Powder Flash of Death

    Captain Bruce Douglas

  50. The Spirit of the Flag

    Dr. Reid

  51. The Deerslayer

    Chingachgook

  52. Near To Earth

    Movie

  53. 1912

    His Only Son

    Bob Madden

  54. At Cripple Creek

    Joe Mayfield

  55. Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight

    Basil Underwood

  56. Diamond Cut Diamond

    Clerk

  57. The Victoria Cross

    Lt. Cholmodeley

  58. The Illumination

    Giuseppe's Father

  59. The Seventh Son

    One of the Beecham Brothers

  60. Playmates

    Party Guest at Piano (uncredited)

  61. Indian Romeo and Juliet

    Oniatore / Romeo

  62. Chumps

    George - the Denouement

  63. 1911

    The Mother of the Ranch

    The Mother's Friend Back East

Wrote 4

1910s

  1. 1914

    Women and Roses

    Writer

  2. The Heart of the Hills

    Writer

  3. 1913

    The Spirit of the Flag

    Writer

  4. 1912

    Chumps

    Scenario Writer

Directed 4

1910s

  1. 1914

    The Den of Thieves

    Director

  2. 'Cross the Mexican Line

    Director

  3. Women and Roses

    Director

  4. The Heart of the Hills

    Director

Appearances4

1960s

  1. 1961

    The Legend of Rudolph Valentino

    Self (archive footage)

1940s

  1. 1942

    Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)

    Self (archive footage)

1920s

  1. 1922

    Night Life in Hollywood

    Self

  2. A Trip to Paramountown

    Self