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Reed Hadley

Reed Hadley

Birthday: 1911-06-25 | Place of Birth: Petrolia, Clay County Texas, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Reed Hadley (June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American movie, television and radio actor. Reed Hadley was born Reed Herring in Petrolia in Clay County near Wichita Falls, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Bennett High School in Buffalo and was involved in local theater with the Studio Arena Theater. Hadley and his wife, Helen, had one son, Dale. Before moving to Hollywood, he acted in Hamlet on stage in New York City. Throughout his thirty-five-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, USA (1955). With his bass voice, he narrated a number of documentaries. He 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. Hadley also worked on the Red Ryder radio show during the 1940s, being the first actor to portray the title character. In films, among other things, he starred as Zorro in the 1939 serial Zorro's Fighting Legion. He is immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his television work. He was the voice of cowboy hero Red Ryder on radio and the narrator of several Department of Defense films: "Operation Ivy", about the first hydrogen bomb test, Ivy Mike, "Military Participation on Tumbler/Snapper"; "Military Participation on Buster Jangle"; 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", edited, and de-classified, and are now available to the public. During the period he narrated these films, Hadley held a Top Secret security clearance. Hadley also served as the narrator on various Hollywood films, including House on 92nd Street (1945), Call Northside 777 (1947) and Boomerang (1947). He died at age 63 on December 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California, of a heart attack. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Description above from the Wikipedia article Reed Hadley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2002
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

as    Jesse James (archive footage)

1971
Brain of Blood

as    Amir

1965
Young Dillinger

as    Federal Agent Parker

1955
Big House, U.S.A

as    Special FBI Agent James Madden

1954
Public Defender

as    Bart Matthews

1954
Highway Dragnet

as    Det. Lt. Joe White Eagle

1953
Kansas Pacific

as    Bill Quantrill

1952
The Half-Breed

as    Frank Crawford

1952
Operation Ivy

as    Host / Narrator

1951
Insurance Investigator

as    Chuck Malone

1951
Little Big Horn

as    Sgt. Maj. Peter Grierson

1950
Riders of the Range

as    Clint Burrows

1950
Motor Patrol

as    Detective Robert Flynn

1950
The Return of Jesse James

as    Frank James

1950
The Baron of Arizona

as    John Griff

1950
Dallas

as    Wild Bill Hickok

1949
I Shot Jesse James

as    Jesse James

1949
He Walked by Night

as    Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

1949
Rimfire

as    The Abilene Kid

1948
Panhandle

as    Matt Garson

1948
Last of the Wild Horses

as    Riley Morgan

1946
Shock

as    District Attorney O'Neill

1946
If I'm Lucky

as    Jed Conklin, Magonnagle's Campaign Manager

1946
The Dark Corner

as    Lt. Frank Reeves

1946
It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog

as    Mike Valentine

1945
The Caribbean Mystery

as    Dr. Rene Marcel

1945
Doll Face

as    Flo Hartman

1945
Circumstantial Evidence

as    Prosecutor

1944
Roger Touhy, Gangster

as    FBI Agent Boyden