Wallace Reid
Acting • Born 1891-04-14 – Died 1923-01-18
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.
Filmography
215 credits
Joan the Woman
Movie • 1916
Eric Trent 1431 / Eric Trent 1917
Rent Free
Movie • 1922
Buell Arnister Jr
The Love Burglar
Movie • 1919
David Strong
The Dancin' Fool
Movie • 1920
Sylvester Tibble
The Affairs of Anatol
Movie • 1921
Anatol Spencer
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Movie • 1961
Self (archive footage)
The Indian Raiders
Movie • 1912
Tom
His Only Son
Movie • 1912
Bob Madden
The Phoenix
Movie • 1910
Young Reporter
The Leading Lady
Movie • 1911
The Reporter
Movie • 1911
Cohn, Jones' Assistant
The Mother of the Ranch
Movie • 1911
The Mother's Friend Back East
War
Movie • 1911
Midas
A Red Cross Martyr; or, on the Firing Lines of Tripoli
Movie • 1912
The Path of True Love
Movie • 1912
The Country Boy
Chumps
Movie • 1912
George - the Denouement
Jean Intervenes
Movie • 1912
Billy Hallock
Indian Romeo and Juliet
Movie • 1912
Oniatore / Romeo
Playmates
Movie • 1912
Party Guest at Piano (uncredited)
The Telephone Girl
Movie • 1912
Jack Watson
The Seventh Son
Movie • 1912
One of the Beecham Brothers
The Illumination
Movie • 1912
Giuseppe's Father
At Scrogginses' Corner
Movie • 1912
Brothers
Movie • 1912
The Victoria Cross
Movie • 1912
Lt. Cholmodeley
The Hieroglyphic
Movie • 1912
Fortunes of a Composer
Movie • 1912
Opera Attendee (uncredited)
Early Days in the West
Movie • 1912
Dan, a Young Pioneer
Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight
Movie • 1912
Basil Underwood
His Mother's Son
Movie • 1913
Kaintuck
Movie • 1912
The Artist
Virginius
Movie • 1912
Icilius
The Gamblers
Movie • 1912
Arthur Ingraham
Before the White Man Came
Movie • 1912
Wathuma - the Leopard
A Man's Duty
Movie • 1912
Dick Wilson - Union Soldier
At Cripple Creek
Movie • 1912
Joe Mayfield
Making Good
Movie • 1912
Billy Burns
The Secret Service Man
Movie • 1912
The Secret Service Man
Hunted Down
Movie • 1912
John Dayton
The Tribal Law
Movie • 1912
Tall Pine aka Jose Seville - Apache Brave
A Daughter of the Redskins
Movie • 1912
Captain Stark, U.S.A.
The Cowboy Guardians
Movie • 1912
An Indian Outcast
Movie • 1912
Wally, a Cowboy
The Hidden Treasure
Movie • 1912
Bill Binks
The Seepore Rebellion
Movie • 1912
Extra
Love and the Law
Movie • 1913
Sheriff John Allen
The Guerilla Menace
Movie • 1913
Captain Bruce Douglas
Calamity Anne Takes a Trip
Movie • 1913
Policeman
Song Bird of the North
Movie • 1913
Fowle - a Mission Worker
Their Masterpiece
Movie • 1913
Jack Sanders
Pirate Gold
Movie • 1913
Pride of Lonesome
Movie • 1913
Edward Daton
The Powder Flash of Death
Movie • 1913
Captain Bruce Douglas
A Foreign Spy
Movie • 1913
The Picket Guard
Movie • 1913
Sentry
Mental Suicide
Movie • 1913
Reid - a Contractor
A Rose of Old Mexico
Movie • 1913
Paul Hapgood
The Eye of a God
Movie • 1913
Frank Hammond
The Ways of Fate
Movie • 1913
Jim Conway
When Jim Returned
Movie • 1913
Jim
The Tattooed Arm
Movie • 1913
Ben Hart
Near To Earth
Movie • 1913
The Brothers
Movie • 1913
Robert Gregory
Youth and Jealousy
Movie • 1913
Ben
The Kiss
Movie • 1913
Ralph Walters
The Heart of the Hills
Movie • 1914
Dave - the Woodsman
The House of Silence
Movie • 1918
Marcel Levington
The Dub
Movie • 1919
John Craig (The 'Dub')
Too Many Millions
Movie • 1918
Walsingham Van Doren
The Wheel of Life
Movie • 1914
The Prospector
Fires of Conscience
Movie • 1914
Ray - the Prospector
The Greater Devotion
Movie • 1914
'Devotion'
A Flash in the Dark
Movie • 1914
A Miner
The Thing We Love
Movie • 1918
Rodney Sheridan
Thirty Days
Movie • 1922
John Floyd
Breed o' the Mountains
Movie • 1914
Joe Mayfield
The Man from Funeral Range
Movie • 1918
Harry Webb
Her Innocent Marriage
Movie • 1913
Will Wayne
A Modern Snare
Movie • 1913
Ralph - the New Sheriff
On the Border
Movie • 1913
Bill Reeves - the Cowboy
Regeneration
Movie • 1914
The Artist
The Voice of the Viola
Movie • 1914
Wallace
The Way of a Woman
Movie • 1914
Pierre
The Mountaineer
Movie • 1914
Jim - the Mountaineer
The Spider and Her Web
Movie • 1914
Cupid Incognito
Movie • 1914
Jack Falkner
A Gypsy Romance
Movie • 1914
Jose - King of the Gypsies
The Test
Movie • 1914
The Poor Man
The Skeleton
Movie • 1914
Jack - the Young Husband
When Luck Changes
Movie • 1913
Cal Jim
Via Cabaret
Movie • 1913
Harry Reeder
Hearts and Horses
Movie • 1913
Bill Walters
In Love and War
Movie • 1913
David - the Journalist
Women and War
Movie • 1913
The Boy
The Fruit of Evil
Movie • 1914
The Daughter of a Crook
Movie • 1914
Neal
Women and Roses
Movie • 1914
Wallace
The Quack
Movie • 1914
Wallace Rosslyn
The Siren
Movie • 1914
Dane Northrop
Man's Duty
Movie • 1913
Bill, the Selfish One
The Man Within
Movie • 1914
The Outlaw
Passing of the Beast
Movie • 1914
Jacques - the Woodsman
An Even Exchange
Movie • 1913
Joe
The Animal
Movie • 1913
The Animal
The Harvest of Flame
Movie • 1913
The Inspector
The Spark of Manhood
Movie • 1913
Humphrey Van Weyden
The Mystery of Yellow Aster Mine
Movie • 1913
Reid - Rosson's Brother
The Gratitude of Wanda
Movie • 1913
Wally
The Wall of Money
Movie • 1913
Wallace - McQuarrie's Son
The Heart of a Cracksman
Movie • 1913
Gentleman Crook
The Cracksman's Reformation
Movie • 1913
Gentleman Crook
The Fires of Fate
Movie • 1913
Wally - the Doctor
Cross Purposes
Movie • 1913
Wally
Retribution
Movie • 1913
Reid
A Cracksman Santa Claus
Movie • 1913
Gentleman Crook
The Lightning Bolt
Movie • 1913
Reid
A Hopi Legend
Movie • 1913
Whoso Diggeth a Pit
Movie • 1914
Wally
The Intruder
Movie • 1914
The Woodsman
The Countess Betty's Mine
Movie • 1914
Wallace
Love's Western Flight
Movie • 1914
Wally - the Ranch Owner
The Yellow Pawn
Movie • 1916
James Weldon
The Wall of Flame
Movie • 1916
Wallace - the Fire Inspector
The Wrong Heart
Movie • 1916
The Craven
Movie • 1915
Bud Walton
The Lost House
Movie • 1915
Ford
Station Content
Movie • 1915
Jim Manning
A Yankee from the West
Movie • 1915
Billy Milford aka Hell-in-the Mud
The Chorus Lady
Movie • 1915
Danny Mallory
A Wife on a Wager
Movie • 1914
Wally Bristow
'Cross the Mexican Line
Movie • 1914
Lt. Wallace
The Den of Thieves
Movie • 1914
Wallace
The City Beautiful
Movie • 1914
The Country Boy
Down by the Sounding Sea
Movie • 1914
John Ward - the Man from the Sea
The Avenging Conscience
Movie • 1914
The Doctor (uncredited)
Moonshine Molly
Movie • 1914
Lawson Keene
The Second Mrs. Roebuck
Movie • 1914
Samuel Roebuck
Sierra Jim's Reformation
Movie • 1914
Tim - the Pony Express Rider
The High Grader
Movie • 1914
Dick Raleigh
Down the Hill to Creditville
Movie • 1914
Marcus Down
Her Doggy
Movie • 1914
The Doctor (unconfirmed)
Her Awakening
Movie • 1914
Bob Turner
For Her Father's Sins
Movie • 1914
Frank Bell
A Mother's Influence
Movie • 1914
Wallace Burton - the Son
The Niggard
Movie • 1914
Elmer Kent
The Odalisque
Movie • 1914
Curtiss
Another Chance
Movie • 1914
Detective Flynn
Over the Ledge
Movie • 1914
Bob
At Dawn
Movie • 1914
The Lieutenant
The Joke on Yellentown
Movie • 1914
The Exposure
Movie • 1914
The Reporter
To Have and to Hold
Movie • 1916
Captain Ralph Percy
The Love Mask
Movie • 1916
Dan Derring
The Selfish Woman
Movie • 1916
Tom Morley
The House with the Golden Windows
Movie • 1916
Tom Wells
The Golden Fetter
Movie • 1917
James Roger Ralston
The Man Who Saved the Day
Movie • 1917
John King
The Tell-Tale Arm
Movie • 1917
The Prison Without Walls
Movie • 1917
Huntington Babbs
The World Apart
Movie • 1917
Bob Fulton
The Squaw Man's Son
Movie • 1917
Lord Effington, aka Hal
The Hostage
Movie • 1917
Lieutenant Kemper
Rimrock Jones
Movie • 1918
Rimrock Jones
Believe Me, Xantippe
Movie • 1918
George MacFarland
The Firefly of France
Movie • 1918
Devereux Bayne
Less Than Kin
Movie • 1918
Hobart Lee / Lewis Vickers
The Source
Movie • 1918
Van Twiller Yard
His Extra Bit
Movie • 1918
The Husband
Alias Mike Moran
Movie • 1919
Larry Young
The Lottery Man
Movie • 1919
Jack Wright
Double Speed
Movie • 1920
'Speed' Carr
The Charm School
Movie • 1921
Austin Bevans
Too Much Speed
Movie • 1921
'Dusty' Rhoades
The Hell Diggers
Movie • 1921
Teddy Darman
Clarence
Movie • 1922
Clarence Smith
Baby's Ride
Movie • 1914
Father
Carmen
Movie • 1915
Don Jose
Enoch Arden
Movie • 1915
Walter Fenn
The Woman God Forgot
Movie • 1917
Alvarado
The Roaring Road
Movie • 1919
Walter Thomas 'Toodles' Walden
Excuse My Dust
Movie • 1920
'Toodles' Walden
Arms and the Gringo
Movie • 1914
Sullivan
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Movie • 1942
Self (archive footage)
A Trip to Paramountown
Movie • 1922
Self
Nice People
Movie • 1922
Captain Billy Wade
Big Timber
Movie • 1917
Jack Fife
Old Heidelberg
Movie • 1915
Prince Karl Heinrich
Hawthorne of the U.S.A.
Movie • 1919
Anthony Hamilton Hawthorne
The Golden Chance
Movie • 1915
Roger Manning
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Movie • 1916
Boy Killed in Battle (uncredited)
Diamond Cut Diamond
Movie • 1912
Clerk
Every Inch a Man
Movie • 1912
Robert Chapman - the Son
The Deerslayer
Movie • 1913
Chingachgook
The Birth of a Nation
Movie • 1915
Jeff, the Blacksmith
The Ghost Breaker
Movie • 1922
Walter Jarvis, a Ghost Breaker
The Love Special
Movie • 1921
Jim Glover
The World's Champion
Movie • 1922
William Burroughs
The Spirit of the Flag
Movie • 1913
Dr. Reid
Maria Rosa
Movie • 1916
Andreas
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Movie • 1913
Dorian Gray
Forever
Movie • 1921
Peter Ibbetson
The Valley of the Giants
Movie • 1919
Bryce Cardigan
What's Your Hurry?
Movie • 1920
Dusty Rhoades
The House That Shadows Built
Movie • 1931
(archive footage)
The Three Brothers
Movie • 1915
Jean Gaudet / Will
The Little Country Mouse
Movie • 1914
Lieutenant Hawkhurst
Always Audacious
Movie • 1920
Perry Dayton / 'Slim' Attucks
Sick Abed
Movie • 1920
Reginald Jay
You're Fired
Movie • 1919
Billy Deering
The Dictator
Movie • 1922
Brooke Travers
The Devil Stone
Movie • 1917
Guy Sterling
Night Life in Hollywood
Movie • 1922
Self
Don't Tell Everything
Movie • 1921
Cullen Dale
Nan of Music Mountain
Movie • 1917
Henry de Spain
Across the Continent
Movie • 1922
Jimmy Dent