(1873?-1920)
Born James Halleck Reid in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he worked as an actor throughout his career, but he was also a prolific writer of melodramas intended for rural audiences, including among many others Logan's Luck (1895), The Knob's o' Tennessee (1899), Old Sleuth (1902), The Peddler (1902), A Mother's Love (1903), A Wife's Secret (1903), A Midnight Marriage (1904), Custer's Last Fight (1905), A Millionaire's Revenge (1906), From Broadway to the Bowery (1907), and The Confession (1911). With the arrival of silent motion pictures, Reid went to Hollywood to become a director, screenwriter, and actor. His son, Wallace Reid, became a major silent film star but died from a drug overdose in 1923.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.