Wallace Reid
January 18, 1923 (aged 31)
Wally Reid
- Actor
- singer
- race car driver
1910–1923
2, including Wallace Reid Jr.
- Hal Reid (father)
Early life[edit]
Reid was born in St. Louis, Missouri, into a showbusiness 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.[1] 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.[1]
Death[edit]
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 3-inch (8 cm) scalp wound.[9][10]
To continue filming, he was prescribed morphine for relief of his pain, and Reid soon became addicted.[11] 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.[12]
Reid's morphine addiction worsened at a time when rehabilitation programs were non-existent.[13][10][12]
On January 18, 1923, he died from influenza in a sanatorium, aged 31, while attempting to recover from his addiction.[14]
[15][16]
Wallace Reid was interred in the Azalea Terrace of the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[17]
Aftermath[edit]
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.[18]
Wallace Reid's contribution to the movie industry has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[19]
Popular culture[edit]
In the biopic Valentino (1977), Reid is portrayed as a bicycle-riding, childish movie star. In the 1980 documentary Hollywood episode "Single beds and double standards", Reid's story is recalled by people who worked with him: Karl Brown, Henry Hathaway, Gloria Swanson,and stuntman Bob Rose.
A biography appeared in 2007,[20] the first work on Reid's life since his mother's personal recollections were published shortly after the actor's death.
A episode of Hollywood Babylon that gave a biographic sketch of Reid was criticized in a 2018 podcast by Karina Longworth.[21]
Filmography[edit]
(see Wallace Reid filmography)