Why We Should Care About Wally Reid....

He outlived a tornado that hit St. Louis in 1896.   He was a writer, a skilled director, and subtle actor.  I've seen very little of his work.  And it's sad.  He has this wonderful face, deep set eyes, a light smile.  He sort of glows from photographs taken of him.

Why am I so crazy about dead actors?  Is there something wrong with me?  Wally, in particular, shines and seems so alive.  He had a pretty modern way of acting, he was natural and had a really wonderful glow from within that comes with confidence, and a family brought him up to be proud of himself and his achievements. He had a strong marriage and a young family.  
I'm not a biographer, I just know a little about him. A lot of his pictures go VERY FAST-about cars and speed.  He was athletic and handsome.   I know he was in a picture with Gloria Swanson, "The Affairs of Anatol"--

You can see in this photo something is wrong with Wally.  He was only thirty when he died.  He did a movie called "The Valley of the Giants".  There was a train accident and he had a head injury. Instead of making sure he was taken and given the best medical care, he was stitched up, and, in time, given morphine so he could finish the film.  He finished it and the addiction which led to alcohol and other drugs, finished Wally.  (Wow!  I just had a Kenneth Anger moment...and if you don't get that reference, I sentence you to a week of staring at Hollywood Babylon.  That's punishment for anyone!)  When he was hospitalized for his addiction it was too late.   I'm sure what I'm proudest of is that he did die clean.  He refused the morphine that they would use to 'wean' him off the stuff.  He was clean, he was gonna stay clean.  And he died.

This was taken just before he had his last illness.  Why am I focusing on his death and not his film career?  Well, I'm feeling pretty blue, and had this book about Wally I read from time to time.  Maybe he was nudging me to say a few words about him, to let people know he existed and was a good person.  You see from the smile in the photo above he loved his family.  The drugs in the silent days were nefarious ... they were a stronger cut.  Mabel Normand dealt with it, Lottie and Jack Pickford.  A little went a long way and they were not expensive.  Some were even sold over the counter.   I doubt that Paramount purposely addicted Wally to the morphine.  He was their moneymaker and by golly, he had to finish that film so he could do the next, and the next.  No one learned a lesson from it except to work harder to cover up things neatly if there is an issue with drugs and a celebrity.
Dorothy, Wally's wife, made a movie about drugs, "Human Wreckage".  Like ninety percent of silent film, it is lost to the ravages of Nitrate Doesn't Wait.  Rotted and gone and probably not remembered much except that it graphically showed addiction at it's lowest.  In my heart Wally still glows very nicely, thank you.

He died about ninety years ago.  If he stepped onto a screen now he would still be stunning.  We should care about Wally Reid because he was the first actor who was brave enough to want his addiction publicized.   Because his death was a true tragedy in a time of innocence.  We like to think the silent era was this sparkling time of dancing and parties and larger than life personalities but it had it's dark side, too.  How Wally tried to beat that darkness is a story one should try to read.  E.J. Fleming wrote a terrific book about Wally and his life.  If you even think of reading this or that book or even glancing around the net for a few things of his, you have given Wally the one thing he should have--a lingering affection for a sweet, long-lost boy.