Hal 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.
Also recorded as James Halleck Reid
Hal Reid

Paramount Pictures · The Allentown Democrat 31 December 1918 P 8 Via · Public domain
- Name
- Hal Reid
- Birth Name
- James Halleck Reid
- Born
- 14 April 1863
- Birthplace
- Saint Omer, Indiana, U.S.
- Died
- 22 May 1920
- Place of death
- New York City, U.S.
- Occupation
- Playwright, Actor
- Full name
- James Halleck Reid.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Languages
- English.
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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.
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wikidata · Q3125894
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Hal Reid • Birth Name — James Halleck Reid • Born — 14 April 1863 • Birthplace — Saint Omer, Indiana, U.S. • Died — 22 May 1920 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Occupation — Playwright, Actor • Years Active — 1880s–1920 • Children — Wallace Reid
Early life and career
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. 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 Georgia convicted murderer Leo Frank in prison for source material of a film he was making Thou Shall Not Kill. Frank was convicted, then pardoned for the 1913 murder of Mary Phagan in a famous Georgia murder case. Reid married Bertha Westbrook, who collaborated with him on some of his writing. Film actor Wallace Reid was their son.
Selected plays
Selected plays
• At Cripple Creek • A Mother's Love (1903) • A Child Wife • Custer's Last Fight (1905) • For Love of a Woman • Human Hearts (original title Logan's Luck, 1895) • In Convict Stripes • Knobs o'Tennessee (1899) • A Working Girl's Wrong (1903) • A Wife for a Day • A Wife's Secret (1903) • For a Human Life (1906) • A Millionaire's Revenge (1906) • The Prince of the World • The Avenger (1907) • The Gypsy Girl (1905) • The Shoemaker (1907) • Sweet Molly O! (1907) • The Cow Puncher (1906) • Roanoak • The Peddler (1902) • The German Immigrants • The Heart of Virginia • The Singing Girl from Killarney (1907) • The Pride of Newspaper Row • From Broadway to Bowery (1907)
Filmography
Filmography
• The Girl from Arizona (1910), short • Becket (1910), short • Human Hearts (1910), short • Wig Wag (1911), short • One Touch of Nature (1911), short • The Path of True Love (1912), short • Jean Intervenes (1912), short • Indian Romeo and Juliet (1912), short • The Hobo's Redemption (1912), short • Cardinal Wolsey (1912), short • Father Beauclaire (1912), short • Virginius (1912), short • A Nation's Peril (1912), short • Rip Van Winkle (1912), short • Every Inch a Man (1912), short • The Deerslayer (1913), short • Dan (1914) • Time Lock No. 776 (1915) • Mothers of Men (1917) • Little Miss Hoover (1918) • The Two Brides (1919)
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Cedarville.
Birth place
New York City.
Death place
Film Director
• The Victoria Cross (1912) *short • Old Love Letters (1912)*short • Love in the Ghetto (1912)*short • Father Beauclaire (1912)*short • Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight (1912)*short • Kaintuck(1912)*short • Virginius (1912)*short • Votes for Women (1912)*short • A Man's Duty (1912)*short • At Cripple Creek (1912)*short • Thou Shalt Not Kill (1913)*short • The Deerslayer (1913)*short • Time Lock No. 776 (1915)*feature • Prohibition (1915)*feature • Thou Shalt Not Kill (1915)*feature; based on the Leo Frank case
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (2018). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 556. .
- 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. .
- 3."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.The Broadway League. James Halleck Reid. Internet Broadway Database.
- 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. 9. July 29, 1939.
- 12.Internet Broadway Database. Logan's Luck.
- 13.Library of Congress. Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916. 1299. 1918.
- 14.New Plays by Hal Reid at Two Theatres. The New York Times. 25. May 17, 1903.
References
Citations
References
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authority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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