Hal Reid
actor, director, writer
- Birth name:
- James Halleck Reid
- Born:
- 1862-04-14, St. Omer, Indiana, USA
- Died:
- 1920-05-22, New York City, New York, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
April 14, 1862, a restless storyteller drew first breath in the tiny river town of St. Omer, Indiana. By the time movies learned to talk, Hal Reid had already taught the silent screen to speak in pictures: his 1912 Rip Van Winkle let audiences nap through two decades in twenty minutes, 1913’s The Deerslayer stitched James Fenimore Cooper’s woods onto celluloid, and 1915’s Prohibition uncorked the nation’s coming hangover before the amendment ever passed. Behind the camera he staged scenes; on paper he summoned worlds—directing and scripting with equal verve. Off-set, three women shared his surname in turn: Marcella Frances Russell, the actress known simply as Mrs. Hal Reid, and Marylee (Mae) Withers. The final curtain fell on Reid in New York City on May 22, 1920, but the reels he spun keep turning a century later.
