Wallace Reid
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.
Acting (93 movies)
Joan the Woman
1916
Rent Free
1922
The Love Burglar
1919
The Dancin' Fool
1920
The Affairs of Anatol
1921
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
1961
His Only Son
1912
The Mother of the Ranch
1911
The Seventh Son
1912
Chumps
1912
Playmates
1912
Indian Romeo and Juliet
1912
The Illumination
1912
The Victoria Cross
1912
Fortunes of a Composer
1912
Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight
1912
At Cripple Creek
1912
The Powder Flash of Death
1913
Near To Earth
1913
The Heart of the Hills
1914
The House of Silence
1918
The Dub
1919
Too Many Millions
1918
The Thing We Love
1918
Thirty Days
1922
The Man from Funeral Range
1918
The Spider and Her Web
1914
The Lost House
1915
Station Content
1915
The Chorus Lady
1915
The Yellow Pawn
1916
'Cross the Mexican Line
1914
The Den of Thieves
1914
The Avenging Conscience
1914
At Dawn
1914
The Love Mask
1916
To Have and to Hold
1916
The House with the Golden Windows
1916
The Selfish Woman
1916
The Golden Fetter
1917
The Prison Without Walls
1917
The World Apart
1917
Rimrock Jones
1918
The Squaw Man's Son
1917
The Hostage
1917
The Firefly of France
1918
Believe Me, Xantippe
1918
The Source
1918
Less Than Kin
1918
The Lottery Man
1919
Alias Mike Moran
1919
Double Speed
1920
Too Much Speed
1921
The Charm School
1921
Clarence
1922
The Hell Diggers
1921
Carmen
1915
Enoch Arden
1915
The Woman God Forgot
1917
The Roaring Road
1919
Excuse My Dust
1920
Arms and the Gringo
1914
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
1942
A Trip to Paramountown
1922
Nice People
1922
Big Timber
1917
Old Heidelberg
1915
Hawthorne of the U.S.A.
1919
The Golden Chance
1915
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
Diamond Cut Diamond
1912
The Deerslayer
1913
The Birth of a Nation
1915
The Ghost Breaker
1922
The Love Special
1921
The World's Champion
1922
The Spirit of the Flag
1913
Maria Rosa
1916
Forever
1921
The Valley of the Giants
1919
What's Your Hurry?
1920
The House That Shadows Built
1931
The Three Brothers
1915
The Little Country Mouse
1914
Always Audacious
1920
Sick Abed
1920
You're Fired
1919
The Dictator
1922
The Devil Stone
1917
Night Life in Hollywood
1922
Don't Tell Everything
1921
Nan of Music Mountain
1917
Across the Continent
1922
Directing (56 movies)
A Rose of Old Mexico
1913
The Ways of Fate
1913
The Tattooed Arm
1913
When Jim Returned
1913
The Kiss
1913
The Brothers
1913
The Heart of the Hills
1914
Youth and Jealousy
1913
Her Innocent Marriage
1913
On the Border
1913
A Modern Snare
1913
The Heart of a Cracksman
1913
The Fires of Fate
1913
Cross Purposes
1913
Retribution
1913
The Lightning Bolt
1913
A Hopi Legend
1913
A Flash in the Dark
1914
The Wheel of Life
1914
The Greater Devotion
1914
Fires of Conscience
1914
The Intruder
1914
The Countess Betty's Mine
1914
Breed o' the Mountains
1914
Regeneration
1914
The Mountaineer
1914
The Voice of the Viola
1914
The Way of a Woman
1914
Cupid Incognito
1914
The Test
1914
A Gypsy Romance
1914
When Luck Changes
1913
Via Cabaret
1913
Hearts and Horses
1913
The Skeleton
1914
Pride of Lonesome
1913
A Foreign Spy
1913
Love's Western Flight
1914
The Fruit of Evil
1914
The Den of Thieves
1914
A Wife on a Wager
1914
'Cross the Mexican Line
1914
The Quack
1914
Women and Roses
1914
The Siren
1914
Passing of the Beast
1914
The Man Within
1914
The Wrong Heart
1916
The Harvest of Flame
1913
The Spark of Manhood
1913
The Gratitude of Wanda
1913
The Man Who Saved the Day
1917
The Tribal Law
1912
The Hidden Treasure
1912
Love and the Law
1913
The Mystery of Yellow Aster Mine
1913
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Before the White Man Came | 1912 | Writer |
| The Tribal Law | 1912 | Writer |
| When Jim Returned | 1913 | Writer |
| The Tattooed Arm | 1913 | Writer |
| The Spirit of the Flag | 1913 | Writer |
| Women and War | 1913 | Writer |
| Mental Suicide | 1913 | Writer |
| The Harvest of Flame | 1913 | Writer |
| The Heart of a Cracksman | 1913 | Writer |
| The Cracksman's Reformation | 1913 | Writer |
| A Cracksman Santa Claus | 1913 | Writer |
| The Lightning Bolt | 1913 | Writer |
| A Hopi Legend | 1913 | Writer |
| The Heart of the Hills | 1914 | Writer |
| The Mountaineer | 1914 | Writer |
| Cupid Incognito | 1914 | Writer |
| The Fruit of Evil | 1914 | Writer |
| Women and Roses | 1914 | Writer |