Hal Reid (actor)

Hal Reid
From a 1922 magazine
Born
James Halleck Reid

(1863-04-14)April 14, 1863
Saint Omer, Indiana
DiedMay 22, 1920(1920-05-22) (aged 57)
New York City, New York
OccupationsPlaywright, Actor
Years active1880s–1920
Spouses
Marylee Withers Cole
​
​
(m. 1879)​
Bertha Belle Westbrook
​
​
(m. 1889)​
Marcella Frances Russell Timer
​
​
(m. 1916)​
ChildrenWallace Reid

James Halleck Reid (April 14, 1863 – May 22, 1920) was an American playwright and stage and screen actor. Reid also directed over a dozen films.

Early life and career

Born in 1863, in Saint Omer, Indiana, and raised in Cedarville, Ohio, Reid was the son of dentist Hugh McMillan Reid and America Elizabeth Truitt.

Reid entered the film business in 1910 as an actor, director, and writer, bringing along his teen son Wallace Reid, who had aspirations to be a director or cameraman.[citation needed] Many of his plays saw Broadway openings.

In 1912, Reid was appointed Censor to the Universal Film Corporation.

Reid was at one time said to be actually Harry Preston and that he had served a prison sentence for an unspecified crime. In 1915 Reid visited Leo Frank in a Georgia prison for source material for a film he was making titled Thou Shall Not Kill. Frank was convicted, then kidnapped and lynched for the 1913 murder of Mary Phagan. He was posthumously pardoned in 1986.

Reid married Bertha Westbrook, who collaborated with him on some of his writing. Film actor Wallace Reid was their son.

Selected plays

Filmography

Film Director

References

  1. 1 2 Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (2018). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 556. ISBN 9781538107850.
  2. ↑ Vazzana, Eugene Michael (1995). Silent Film Necrology: Births and Deaths of Over 9000 Performers, Directors, Producers, and Other Filmmakers of the Silent Era, Through 1993. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 275. ISBN 9780786401321.
  3. 1 2 "New York, Marriages, 1686-1980", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HWJV-393Z : 21 January 2020), James Hallock Reid, 1916.
  4. ↑ "United States, Census, 1870", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M624-4MC : Sat Jan 11 03:01:56 UTC 2025), Entry for Hugh M Reed and America E Reed, 1870.
  5. ↑ Higgins, Ray (December 14, 1968). "CRACKER BARREL: Whitelaw Reid Eclipsed Other Reids Of This Area". The Xenia Daily Gazette. p. 4. Retrieved May 2, 2025. "Hal Reid's father, the Cedarville dentist, was named Hugh McMillan Reid, a parental tribute to the celebrated Covenanter preacher and educator."
  6. ↑ "Indiana, Marriages, 1811-2019", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XXFL-PZB : Sat Mar 09 20:11:38 UTC 2024), Entry for Hugh M Reed and America E Truett, 28 Nov 1857.
  7. ↑ "James Halleck Reid". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
  8. ↑ Who Was Who in the Theatre: 1912–76 volume 4 Q-Z page 2,008 compiled from editions originally published annually by John Parker; this 1976 and final version by Gale Research Company
  9. ↑ The Oxford Companion to the American Theatre, 2nd edition p.570 by Gerald Bordman c.1992
  10. ↑ The Unburied Past: Resurrecting the Leo Frank Case A Conversation with Steve Oney (Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; Youtube)
  11. ↑ "Mrs. Bertha W. Reid dies in Newark, N. J." The Springfield Daily Republican. Associated Press. July 29, 1939. p. 9. Retrieved April 30, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 "New Plays by Hal Reid at Two Theatres". The New York Times. May 17, 1903. p. 25.
  13. ↑ "Logan's Luck". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  14. ↑ Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916. Library of Congress. 1918. p. 1299.