Henry B. Walthall
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Brazeale Walthall (March 16, 1878 – June 17, 1936) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared as the Little Colonel in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). In New York in 1901, Walthall won a role in Under Southern Skies by Charlotte Blair Parker. He performed in the play for three years, in New York and on tour. With the company of Henry Miller he gained recognition on Broadway in plays including Pippa Passes, The Only Way and William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide (1906–08). His fellow cast member James Kirkwood introduced Walthall to D. W. Griffith, and at the conclusion of that engagement, Walthall joined the Biograph Company.
His career in movies began in 1909 at Biograph Studios in New York with a leading role in the film A Convict's Sacrifice. This film also featured James Kirkwood, and was directed by D. W. Griffith, a director that played a huge part in Walthall's rise to stardom. As the industry grew in size and popularity, Griffith emerged as a director and Walthall found himself a mainstay of the Griffith company, frequently working alongside such Griffith regulars as Owen Moore, Kate Bruce, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Mae Marsh, Bobby Harron and Jack and Mary Pickford. He followed Griffith's departure from New York's Biograph to California's Reliance-Majestic Studios in 1913. After a few months with Reliance, he joined Pathé for a short period.
He decided to go into the producing business and formed The Union Feature Film Company, the first to be devoted entirely to full-length films. The venture was not successful, however, and he again became associated with Griffith's company.
Given the relatively short length of films in the early years, Walthall frequently found himself cast in dozens of films each year. He gained national attention in 1915 for his role as Colonel Ben Cameron in Griffith's highly influential and controversial epic, The Birth of a Nation. Walthall's portrayal of a Confederate veteran rounding up the Ku Klux Klan won him large-scale fame, and Walthall was soon able to emerge as a leading actor in the years leading up to the 1920s, parting ways with Griffith.
Walthall continued working in films through the 1920s, appearing in The Plastic Age with Gilbert Roland and Clara Bow. He portrayed Roger Chillingworth in Victor Seastrom's 1926 adaptation of The Scarlet Letter opposite Lillian Gish.
Walthall continued his career into the 1930s. After his performance in director John Ford's 1934 film Judge Priest starring Will Rogers he enjoyed a golden period of his career. He portrayed Dr. Manette in A Tale of Two Cities (1935), starring Ronald Colman. In 1936 he appeared as Marcel in The Devil-Doll. He was gravely ill during his final film, China Clipper.
Frank Capra wanted Walthall to portray the High Lama in his 1937 film, Lost Horizon. "Frail and failing, he died before we could test him," Capra wrote.
Walthall has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.
Personal info
Gender
Male
Birthday
1878-03-15
Place of birth
Shelby County, Alabama, USA
Images
Cast
A Light in the Window
1927
0.00
The Birth of a Nation
1915
5.90
42nd Street
1933
6.91
The Sealed Room
1909
4.97
Judge Priest
1934
6.40
The Honor of His Family
1910
0.00
The Avenging Conscience
1914
5.90
I Am Not a Racist
2019
0.00
The Devil-Doll
1936
6.80
Viva Villa!
1934
6.20
The Scarlet Letter
1934
4.58
London After Midnight
1927
6.50
A Tale of Two Cities
1935
6.76
A Corner in Wheat
1909
6.15
The Road to Mandalay
1926
6.10
Love Time
1934
0.00
The Sheriff's Baby
1913
5.00
A Flash of Light
1910
5.00
The Trespasser
1929
6.60
Ride Him, Cowboy
1932
4.70
Stark Mad
1929
3.00
Somewhere in Sonora
1933
5.00
In the Aisles of the Wild
1912
0.00
The Scarlet Letter
1927
7.10
Two Daughters of Eve
1912
0.00
The Green-Eyed Devil
1914
0.00
Love in an Apartment Hotel
1913
0.00
During the Round-Up
1913
0.00
If We Only Knew
1913
0.00
The Tenderfoot's Money
1913
0.00
Lord Chumley
1914
7.00
The Golden Bed
1925
2.70
Brutality
1912
0.00
My Hero
1912
0.00
The Stolen Loaf
1913
0.00
The Mirror
1913
0.00
A Gambler's Honor
1913
0.00
Helldorado
1935
0.00
The Odalisque
1914
0.00
Judith of Bethulia
1914
6.14
Chandu the Magician
1932
6.29
The Misleading Lady
1916
0.00
Men in White
1934
6.00
Modern Husbands
1919
0.00
Dark Hazard
1934
5.40
Hearts in Bondage
1936
4.44
The Mysterious Shot
1914
0.00
The Face on the Barroom Floor
1923
5.00
Strange Interlude
1932
5.33
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
1913
5.90
Death's Marathon
1913
5.70
The House with Closed Shutters
1910
5.30
The Perfidy of Mary
1913
0.00
Hotel Continental
1932
6.00
Klondike
1932
4.70
The Barrier
1926
6.00
Police Court
1932
5.00
Beggars in Ermine
1934
6.30
Dante's Inferno
1935
6.20
The Wanderer
1913
5.40
The Switchtower
1913
5.00
Wilful Peggy
1910
5.00
Rose o' Salem Town
1910
5.20
The Oath and the Man
1910
4.50
The Phantom in the House
1929
4.00
Friends
1912
5.50
The Burglar’s Dilemma
1912
5.30
Strongheart
1914
5.00
Central Park
1932
5.20
Home, Sweet Home
1914
5.00
The False Faces
1919
5.00
Ramona
1910
4.92
The Murder in the Museum
1934
3.83
A Child of the Ghetto
1910
4.50
A Splendid Hazard
1920
0.00
The Flaming Signal
1933
5.00
City Park
1934
0.00
A Girl of the Limberlost
1934
1.00
The Unknown Purple
1923
0.00
Her Forgotten Past
1933
6.00
Alias Mary Smith
1932
5.00
The Wolf Dog
1933
7.80
Her Mother's Oath
1913
0.00
Three Faces East
1926
0.00
The Old Man
1914
0.00
The Floor Above
1914
0.00
The Mountain Rat
1914
0.00
Abraham Lincoln
1930
5.40
Kentucky Pride
1925
5.90
The Cabin in the Cotton
1932
6.30
Classmates
1914
0.00
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1929
7.30
The Gangsters of New York
1914
0.00
London After Midnight
2002
6.90
Gimme
1923
0.00
The Kickback
1922
0.00
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
1908
5.50
Pippa Passes
1909
5.44
The River of Romance
1929
4.00
The Long Arm of Mannister
1919
0.00
Everybody's Acting
1926
0.00
Getting Even
1909
3.80
Anybody's Blonde
1931
0.00
Tol'able David
1930
7.00
In Old Kentucky
1909
1.50
Three Friends
1913
5.00
The Great Love
1918
0.00
The Mended Lute
1909
4.60
The Last Outlaw
1936
5.50
A Woman in the Ultimate
1913
0.00
A Strange Meeting
1909
4.30
Temple Tower
1930
0.00
Me and My Gal
1932
6.30
Love Among the Roses
1910
4.70
The Broken Locket
1909
3.50
The Mine with the Iron Door
1936
0.00
Wings
1927
7.21
Kit Carson Over the Great Divide
1925
0.00
The Unknown Soldier
1926
0.00
The Two Brothers
1910
0.00
Fools of Fate
1909
4.40
Hold Your Man
1933
6.10
Retribution
1928
0.00
Black Magic
1929
0.00
Pillars of Society
1916
0.00
Ghosts
1915
4.50
The Whispering Shadow
1933
4.40
In Old California
1910
0.00
Headline Shooter
1933
6.20
Flower of the North
1921
0.00
The Thread of Destiny
1910
0.00
Broken Ways
1913
0.00
The Day After
1909
2.80
The Usurer
1910
5.00
In Life's Cycle
1910
0.00
The Call to Arms
1910
4.00
The Sorrows of the Unfaithful
1910
0.00
The Heart of an Outlaw
1909
2.00
The Informer
1912
0.00
My Baby
1912
5.50
The One She Loved
1912
0.00
A Feud in the Kentucky Hills
1912
4.50
1776, or The Hessian Renegades
1909
5.20
A Trap for Santa Claus
1909
5.48
The Confession
1920
5.00
From Headquarters
1929
0.00
The Girl Who Wouldn't Work
1925
0.00
The Little Tease
1913
5.00
Two Men of the Desert
1913
0.00
Speakeasy
1929
5.00
Love Me and the World Is Mine
1927
0.00
Oil and Water
1913
0.00
The Love Trader
1930
0.00
The Lemon Drop Kid
1934
5.00
His Last Burglary
1910
0.00
The Way of the World
1910
0.00
A Summer Idyll
1910
0.00
The Face at the Window
1910
0.00
The Converts
1910
0.00
The Gold Seekers
1910
0.00
The Iconoclast
1910
0.00
Thou Shalt Not
1910
0.00
So Near, Yet So Far
1912
5.90
The God Within
1912
0.00
One Clear Call
1922
0.00
The Sin of Nora Moran
1933
5.35
The Plastic Age
1925
6.00
Boy of Mine
1923
0.00
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
1975
0.00
The Lady and the Mouse
1913
0.00
China Clipper
1936
5.60
The Raven
1915
6.50
Fighting Love
1927
0.00
Pranks
1909
2.50
Freedom of the Press
1928
0.00
The Kid
1910
0.00
The Long Chance
1922
0.00
Blaze o' Glory
1929
0.00
The Strange Case of Mary Page
1916
0.00
The Garden Murder Case
1936
5.47
The Slave
1909
4.20
The Woman on the Jury
1924
0.00
The Little Darling
1909
4.41
The Call
1910
3.00
For His Sake
1911
0.00
The Command from Galilee
1911
0.00
The Awakening of Donna Isolla
1914
0.00
Souls Courageous
1911
0.00
The Armorer’s Daughter
1910
0.00
The Gray of the Dawn
1910
0.00
In Little Italy
1909
2.00
On the Reef
1910
0.00
The Cloister’s Touch
1910
3.00
The Long Lane's Turning
1919
0.00
In the Border States
1910
5.50
Parted Curtains
1920
0.00
They Would Elope
1909
5.10
Humdrum Brown
1918
0.00
The Able-Minded Lady
1922
0.00
Self Defense
1932
0.00
Rod of Wrath
1915
0.00
The Outer Edge
1915
0.00
The Circular Path
1915
0.00
Temper
1915
0.00
The Newlyweds
1910
5.00
The Boomerang
1919
0.00
The Tenderfoot's Triumph
1910
0.00
The Jazz Age
1929
0.00
Single Wives
1924
0.00
His Robe of Honor
1918
0.00
The Sting of Victory
1916
0.00
Dollar Down
1925
0.00