Florence Reed

Florence Reed
200px Theatre Magazine, (February, 1921)
Born	(1883-01-10)January 10, 1883 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	East Islip, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1904-1960
Spouse(s)	Malcolm Williams (1908–1937; his death)
Parent(s)	Roland Reed Joana Sommer Reed Isadore Rush (stepmother)

Florence Reed (January 10, 1883 – November 21, 1967) was a stage, screen and television actress. She is remembered for several outstanding stage productions, including The Shanghai Gesture, The Lullaby, The Yellow Ticket and The Wanderer. Her best remembered movie role was as Miss Havisham in the 1934 production of Great Expectations. In this version, however, Miss Havisham was changed from a completely insane woman to an eccentric, who did not wear her wedding veil constantly, and who dies peacefully rather than as a result of suffering burns in a fire. In the 1950s Reed performed in several early television shows, such as The Philco Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre and The United States Steel Hour.

Early life and career

Reed was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to comedy actor Roland Lewis Reed (1857–1901) and his wife, Joanna (née Sommer) Reed. Her grandfather was John "Pop" Reed, a manager of the old Walnut Street Theatre, who donated his skull to be performed in future theatrical versions of Hamlet.

Her father died in 1901 when Florence was 18 years old. Afterward she and her mother came to New York City to seek a career in the theater. She made her first appearance on the stage at Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York in 1904 where she gave a monologue by George M. Cohan. She stayed with the Fifth Avenue Theater for years honing her craft. She also trouped the country with May Irwin in The Widow Jones and played Ophelia to E. H. Sothern's Hamlet. Reed appeared with John Barrymore in The Yellow Ticket (1914) which proved a popular play of the season. Her biggest stage success was as Mother Goddam in The Shanghai Gesture (1926).

Motion pictures

Reed started making movies in the silent era around 1915. She was a stage star by then and her first movie was The Dancing Girl for Adolph Zukor's Famous Players studio built around her talents. She also made films for several different production companies such as Popular Plays & Players, Astra, Arrow, Tribune, and Pathé. In all Reed made 15 silent pictures, the last being The Black Panther's Cub (1921). After 13 years she made her first talking film in Great Expectations (1934). She made two more films but preferred the theater.

Filmography

File:Wives of Men.jpg

Wives of Men (1918)

Silent films

• The Dancing Girl (1915) as Drusilla Ives
• Her Own Way (1915)
• The Cowardly Way (1915)
• At Bay (1915)
• New York (1916)
• The Woman's Law (1916)
• The Eternal Sin (1917)
• To-Day (1917)
• The Struggle Everlasting (1918)
• Wives of Men (1918)
• Her Code of Honor (1919; *BFI Natl. Film & TV archive, London)
• The Woman Under Oath (1919; *copy: BFI Natl. Film & TV archive, London)
• Her Game (1919)
• The Eternal Mother (1920)
• The Black Panther's Cub (1921)

Talkies

• Great Expectations (1934) as Miss Havisham
• Frankie and Johnny (1936)
• Stage Door (1937; uncredited)

Personal life

Reed was married to actor Malcolm Williams from February 1908 until his death in 1937. They often appeared in stage productions together. They had no children. She died on November 21, 1967. She was interred in the same burial plot with her good friend, actress Blanche Yurka, in the Actors Fund of America section of Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.

Florence Reed and Blanche Yurka burial plot, with apparently wrong year of birth for Reed, and missing birth info altogether for Yurka

External links

• Florence Reed at the Internet Movie Database
• Florence Reed at the Internet Broadway Database
• Florence Reed gallery at NY Public Library(Billy Rose Collection)
• Florence Reed in November 1922 Vanity Fair photographed by Nickolas Muray
• Broadway Photographs - Florence Reed
• University of Washington Digital Collections - Florence Reed
• Florence Reed blogspot