Larry Parks

He made only two more films before retiring permanently. A few of Reid's films:. Following his admission before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Columbia Pictures dropped him. Wallace Reid's contribution to the motion-picture industry has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Following his Oscar nomination, he made a few more movies that did little in the box office, until he appeared in the sequel, Jolson Sings Again in 1949, which was another hit. Deaths like his were almost always covered up by the film studios, but his widow made his tragic story known in a 1923 film titled Human Wreckage. He made several forgettable films untl he won the role of Al Jolson in the 1946 biographical film The Jolson Story, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Beyond the adoration of moviegoers, Wallace Reid was admired and respected by fellow actors as well as the studio executives who employed him.

Having attended the University of Illinois, Parks played in stock companies for several years before signing a Hollywood contract in 1941. A happy, well-adjusted man, he had been close to his parents and was dedicated to his wife and children. Born Samuel Lawrence Klausman Parks in Olathe, Kansas, his career was virtually ended when he admitted in 1951 to having been a member of a Communist party cell. Unlike the self-destructive behavior of other stars of that era such as Barbara La Marr, Jack Pickford and Jeanne Eagels whose death resulted from drugs and/or alcohol abuse, historical records point to Wallace Reid being a victim of medical ignorance. Larry Parks (December 13, 1914 - April 13, 1975) was an American actor. Dead at age thirty-one, Wallace Reid was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. By late 1922 his health had deteriorated badly and after contracting the flu, he fell into a coma from which he never recovered.

Reid's morphine dependency deepened at a time when proper help for any form of addiction was non-existent. The powerful drug almost immediately led to a deadly addiction but Reid kept on working at a frantic pace in films that were growing more physically demanding and changing from 15-20 minutes in duration to as much as an hour. However, in 1919, while working on location in Oregon, Reid was injured in a train wreck and in order to keep on filming he was prescribed morphine for his pain. His action hero role as the dashing race car driver saw young girls and older women alike flocking to theaters to see his daredevil auto thrillers such as the 1919 hit, The Roaring Road, the two 1920 successes, Double Speed and Excuse My Dust, and in the same genre in 1921, Too Much Speed.

Lasky and would star in another sixty plus films for Lasky's Famous Players film company. Already involved with the creation of more than a hundred motion picture shorts, Reid was signed by producer Jesse L. Griffith and starred opposite leading ladies such as Florence Turner, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Elsie Ferguson, and Geraldine Farrar en route to becoming one of Hollywood's major heartthrobs. In 1913, while at Universal Pictures, Reid met and married actress Dorothy Davenport (1895-1977). In 1915-16 he performed in both masterpieces from director D.W.

Wallace Reid appeared in several films with his father and as his career in film flourished, he was soon acting and directing with and for early film mogul, Allan Dwan. Although Reid's good looks and powerful physique made him the perfect "matinee idol," he was equally happy with roles behind the scenes and often worked as a writer, cameraman, and director. Instead, Vitagraph executives capitalized on his sex appeal and in addition to having him direct, they cast him in a major role. Hooked on making films, Reid used the script from a play his father had written and approached the very successful Vitagraph Studios hoping to be given the opportunity to direct.

Drawn to the burgeoning motion picture industry by his father who would shift from the theatre to acting, writing, and directing films, in 1910, a 19-year-old Wallace Reid appeared in his first motion picture called The Phoenix, an adaptation of a Milton Nobles play filmed at Selig Polyscope Studios in Chicago. As a teenager, he spent time in Wyoming where he learned to be an outdoorsman. A gifted all-around athlete, Reid participated in a number of sports while also following an interest in music, learning to play the piano, banjo, drums, and the violin. As a boy, Wallace Reid was performing on stage at an early age but acting was put on hold while he obtained an education at Freehold Military School in Freehold, New Jersey.

Born William Wallace Reid into a show business family, his mother Bertha Westbrook was an actress and his father, Hal Reid, worked successfully in a variety of theatrical jobs, travelling the country. Louis, Missouri, United States - died January 18, 1923 in Hollywood, California, was an actor in silent film referred to by Motion Picture Magazine as "the screen's most perfect lover". Wallace Reid, born April 15, 1891 in St. Across the Continent (1922).

The Affairs Of Anatol (1921). Forever (1921). Hawthorne of the USA (1919). The House of Silence (1918).

The Prison Without Walls (1917). Big Timber (1917). Intolerance (1916). The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Old Heidelberg (1915). Carmen (1915). The Deerslayer (1913). The Picture of Dorian Gray (1913).

Jean Intervenes (1912). Indian Romeo and Juliet (1912).