Reed Hadley
Reed Hadley in Kansas Pacific (1953)
Born
Reed Herring

(1911-06-25)June 25, 1911
DiedDecember 11, 1974(1974-12-11) (aged 63)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Burial placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California
OccupationActor
Years active1938–1971
SpouseHelen Hadley (m. 19??)
Children1

Reed Hadley (born Reed Herring, June 25, 1911 December 11, 1974) was an American film, television and radio actor.

Early life

Hadley was born in Petrolia, Texas,[1] to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York, where he attended and graduated from Bennett High School.

Career

Before moving to Hollywood, he acted in Hamlet on stage in New York City, a last-minute substitute for the scheduled actor who failed to appear to portray Fortinbras.[2]

Radio

In the 1950s, Hadley played Chad Remington on Frontier Town.[3] He also was one of the actors who portrayed cowboy hero Red Ryder on the Red Ryder series during the 1940s.[4]

On September 16, 1950, Hadley was on Tales of the Texas Rangers episode "Candy Man".[5]

Television

Hadley starred in two television series, Racket Squad (1950–1953) as Captain Braddock, and The Public Defender (1954–1955) as Bart Matthews, a fictional attorney for the indigent. He also was a guest star on such programs as the religion anthology series, Crossroads, and on Rory Calhoun's CBS western series, The Texan. In 1959, he played fictitious Sheriff Ben Tildy in "The Sheriff of Boot Hill", with Denver Pyle cast as Joe Lufton. He also guest starred in Sea Hunt Season 4/Episode 4;Vital Error. In 1958 he played the rapacious mining baron Mort Galvin in S1 E39 "The Sacramento Story" on Wagon Train.

Film

Throughout his 35-year career in film, Hadley was cast as both a villain and a hero of the law, in such movies as The Baron of Arizona (1950), The Half-Breed (1952), Highway Dragnet (1954) and Big House, U.S.A. (1955), and narrated a number of documentaries. In films, he starred as Zorro in the 1939 serial Zorro's Fighting Legion.

Hadley was the narrator of several Department of Defense films: Operation Ivy,[6] about the first hydrogen bomb test, Ivy Mike, "Military Participation on Tumbler/Snapper"; "Military Participation on Buster Jangle"; "The B-47" (T.F. 1–4727); and "Operation Upshot–Knothole" all of which were produced by Lookout Mountain studios. The films were originally intended for internal military use, but have been "sanitized" and de-classified, and are now available to the public.[7]

In 1945 he narrated The Nazi Plan, a documentary film using captured propaganda and newsreel footage to dramatize the Nazis rise to power and was used by the prosecution in the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.[8] He served as the narrator on various Hollywood films, including House on 92nd Street (1945), Boomerang (1947),[9] and The Iron Curtain (1948).

Personal life

Hadley and his wife, Helen, had one son, Dale.[10]

Death

On December 11, 1974, Hadley died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 63.[1] He was survived by his wife and son.[10]

Recognition

Hadley has a star at 6553 Hollywood Boulevard in the Television section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated on February 8, 1960.[11]

Filmography

Film

Television

Other works

Radio

YearProgramEpisode/source
1942-44Red Ryder
1950 Tales of the Texas Rangers Candy Man
1952Stars in the Air"On Borrowed Time"[16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Mayer, Geoff (2017). Encyclopedia of American Film Serials. McFarland. ISBN 9781476627199. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  2. Soanes, Wood (November 3, 1936). "Curtain Calls". Oakland Tribune. California, Oakland. p. 18. Retrieved August 17, 2017 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. French, Jack; Siegel, David S. (2013). Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929–1967. McFarland. pp. 73–74. ISBN 9781476612546. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  4. Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4.
  5. "OTRWesterns with Hadley in it". OTRWesterns.
  6. "Keeps TV Trip Secret". The Kansas City Times. Missouri, Kansas City. Associated Press. April 3, 1954. p. 28. Retrieved August 17, 2017 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  7. Wellerstein, Alex (February 8, 2012). "Declassifying the Ivy Mike film (1953)". Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  8. "Reed Hadley Biography". IMDb. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved March 14, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. 1 2 "Reed Hadley Dead; Red Ryder on Radio". The New York Times. December 14, 1974. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  11. "Reed Hadley". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  12. "Mysteries Feature State Screen Bill on Wednesday". Santa Ana Register. Santa Ana Register. September 10, 1938. p. 8. Retrieved May 16, 2015 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  13. "Theater". News-Journal. May 5, 1938. p. 23. Retrieved May 16, 2015 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  14. "Movie Parade". Globe-Gazette. The Mason City Globe-Gazette. March 16, 1939. p. 14. Retrieved May 16, 2015 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  15. "Several New Characters". The Amarillo Globe-Times. May 12, 1939. p. 19.
  16. Kirby, Walter (April 6, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 52. Retrieved May 16, 2015 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
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