Walter Reed

Walter Reed Smith (Walter Reed), actor: born Fort Ward, Washington 16 March 1916; married 1946 Peggy Shaw (one son, two daughters); died Santa Cruz, California 20 August 2001.

The character actor Walter Reed was a veteran of over 150 films, mostly westerns, made during the 1940s and 1950s, and, by his own count, more than 400 television shows. He later broke away from riding the range and starred in two film serials for Republic Studios, Government Agents vs Phantom Legion (1951) and the highly acclaimed Flying Disc Man from Mars (as Kent Fowler, also 1951).

Boyd Magers, editor of the bimonthly newsletter Western Clippings and a friend to Reed, said, "He was a character man who could do it all, from comedy to action and everything in between."

"I always fantasised about being a cowboy," said Reed.

In fact, I wish I had been one . . . I usually was what you'd call a "smooth heavy". I was the guy who did all the evil brain work, then I'd have my stooges go out and do the dirty work.

Born Walter Reed Smith, in Fort Ward, on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1916, he was the son of an army officer. The family moved first to Honolulu and then to Los Angeles, where Reed attended Beverly Hills High School. Reed's brother, the actor "Smilin' " Jack Smith, said, "I don't know that he graduated because he was always going to be an actor."

Reed started his film career at the tail-end of the silent era working as an extra in such pictures as Redskin (1929) opposite Richard Dix and Jane Novak. "I was just 13 when I made that picture, a western," Reed recalled:

Jane was the prettiest girl I ever saw, big eyes and the sweetest smile. I knew that if working in movies meant meeting women like Jane I was going to have a darn good time.

By his 16th birthday he had decided to try his luck in the theatre. With $20 in his pocket he headed to the East Coast, thumbing lifts on station wagons and hitching rides on freight cars and trams. He was successful in obtaining roles off Broadway and in stock companies. But it wasn't until he was introduced to the actor Joel McCrea that his career took off:

Joel and I met at the Santa Monica Beach Club. It was a favourite haunt of many big stars; Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin used to frequent it when it first opened.

McCrea was fast becoming a star in Hollywood. He had just completed Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and was about to cause a sensation with Sullivan's Travels.

Joel and I got talking. At first I did some stand-in work for him. Then later on I was in a play near Maine, Joel and his wife Frances Dee were in the audience, he came backstage and praised my performance. It was funny. All the other cast and crew members couldn't believe that Joel McCrea had come to speak with me!

Ten days after their meeting Reed had signed a contract with RKO Pictures.

Joel never said but I'm sure he had a hand in my signing the RKO deal. We became lifelong pals.

Reed was put in a number of juvenile leads at the studio, including the role of Dennis Lindsay in two of the successful "Mexican Spitfire" comedies, Mexican Spitfire's Elephant (1942) and Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943), starring Lupe Velez and Leon Errol. "Lupe was the most tragic of Hollywood's glamorous stars," Reed remembered:

She was unbalanced and neurotic, she craved attention . . . She was wild, like an untamed cat.

Reed cut short his contract to join the army during the Second World War. While serving he appeared in Winged Victory, Moss Hart's Army Air Corps play on Broadway, and on tour.

By the late Forties, and now married, Reed returned to Hollywood, but his expectations were different. "I started out as a leading man," he remembered,

then I came back from the service, looked in the mirror and decided to become a second man. They don't pay as much, but you last longer. I enjoyed character work.

He worked in Banjo (1947), a tale of an orphan (Sharyn Moffett) and a dog which was a surprise hit at the box office. His other roles included Fighter Squadron (1948), The Torch (1948), Captain China (1949) and Young Man with a Horn (1949).

Television opened him up to wider audiences. The triumphant success of early shows like Superman, The Lone Ranger and Dragnet brought Reed much attention from fans: he and his wife, Peggy, ensured that all of the hundreds of letters he received were replied to personally. "It was a full-time job, but one that was rewarding and on occasions quite touching."

The majority of Reed's film and television work consisted of westerns: he took small roles in John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Ford's segment of How the West Was Won (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Of John Ford Reed simply said,

If he liked you then he used you as part of his stock company of actors. He took no nonsense but was a fair, decent man.

Reed's career flourished well into the 1960s, until heart problems forced his retirement. By the end of the decade Reed was concentrating his money and efforts on buying real estate in the Santa Cruz area. "The odd film role or television series enabled me to broker real estate deals," he said. "This was becoming more of a challenge to me then Hollywood." He made his last movie, The Destructors, a sci-fi tale of foreign agents stealing rubies to power a laser beam, in 1968:

The career had been a blast. I'd been watched by thousands of movie goers including John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan (before he was in the White House).

In later years, Reed was a frequent guest at western film conventions all over the United States. Last year he received a Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture Fund, the western-movie equivalent of an Oscar, in recognition of his unique contribution to the western film and television horse opera.

On 14 July, his home city of Santa Cruz, where he had lived since 1966, declared a Walter Reed Day. After festivities that included a screening at the town's movie theatre of the film in which he thought he had his "best part", Seven Men from Now (1956) with Lee Marvin, Reed told waiting journalists,

If I hadn't gone to RKO I'm told by friends that I could have been a matinée idol. That's as maybe. I liked riding horses, getting all dirty and enjoyed being a part of Hollywood.

Austin Mutti-Mewse