Wallace Reid: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol

E.J. Fleming

McFarland, Oct 25, 2013 - Performing Arts - 312 pages

For a decade Wallace Reid was the most recognized face in Hollywood, the most universally beloved actor in silent film. Today all that is widely remembered of “Wally” Reid is that he died in a padded sanitarium cell, the victim of a fatal morphine addiction. Of all the actors who have enjoyed great fame only to vanish from the public eye, Reid perhaps fell the fastest and the hardest. This first full biography recounts Reid’s complicated childhood, his disrupted family history and his rise to film stardom despite these restricting factors. It documents his myriad talents and accomplishments, most notably his gift for brilliant onscreen acting. The text explores in depth how the modern studio, however unconsciously, turned the popular star, a well-adjusted man with a loving family, into a drug-dependent mental patient within three years. His death rocked the foundations of Hollywood, and the huge new industry that he helped build nearly died with “Dashing Wally Reid.”

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Wallace Reid: the life and death of a Hollywood idol

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Wallace Reid (1891-1923) was one of Hollywood's early casualties. Originally pursuing a career of writing and directing in early films, he inevitably became a matinee idol with his pre-Valentino ...

Contents

• 1 Family and Youth: 3
• 2 Finding the Movies: 22
• 3 Dorothy and the Davenports: 35
• 4 Santa Barbara and Marriage: 47
• 5 The Birth of a Star: 64
• 6 Laskys Diamond: 78
• 7 Stardom: 90
• 8 War and Work: 102
• 9 Wheres Wally?: 118
• 10 Accident and Addiction: 134
• 11 GoodTime Wally Faces the Abyss: 152
• 12 Barely Hanging On: 167
• 13 The Industry Teeters and Wally Falls: 192
• 14 The Curtain Falls on a Tragedy: 210
• 15 Human Wreckage: 226
• Filmography: 241
• Chapter Notes: 261
• Selected Bibliography: 281
• Index: 289

About the author

E.J. Fleming has been researching Hollywood for decades and has penned biographies of Carole Landis and Wallace Reid, among other books. He lives in the country in Connecticut.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Wallace Reid: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol
• Author: E.J. Fleming
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: McFarland, 2013
• ISBN: 0786482664, 9780786482665
• Length: 312 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General; Performing Arts / Film / General