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.

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.

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