Photo of Wallace Reid
Acting

Wallace Reid

Profession
Acting
Born
April 14, 1891 · Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Died
January 18, 1923

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.

Known for

The Birth of a Nation poster
The Birth of a Nation
Film · 1915 · ★ 5.9
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages poster
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Film · 1916 · ★ 7.1
The Avenging Conscience poster
The Avenging Conscience
Film · 1914 · ★ 5.9
Joan the Woman poster
Joan the Woman
Film · 1916 · ★ 5.7
Carmen poster
Carmen
Film · 1915 · ★ 6.1
The Affairs of Anatol poster
The Affairs of Anatol
Film · 1921 · ★ 5.9
The Roaring Road poster
The Roaring Road
Film · 1919 · ★ 6.1
The Woman God Forgot poster
The Woman God Forgot
Film · 1917
Excuse My Dust poster
Excuse My Dust
Film · 1920
Hawthorne of the U.S.A. poster
Hawthorne of the U.S.A.
Film · 1919
The Golden Chance poster
The Golden Chance
Film · 1915
Enoch Arden poster
Enoch Arden
Film · 1915

Filmography