Henry B. Walthall

Henry B. Walthall
Henry B. Walthall (1934)
Born	March 16, 1878 Shelby County, Alabama, U.S.
Died	June 17, 1936 (aged 58) Monrovia, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1906–1936
Spouse(s)	Isabel Fenton (1907–1917) Mary Charleson (1918–1936), 1 child

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).

Early life

Henry B. Walthall was born March 16, 1878,^[1]:1437 on a cotton plantation owned by his father in Shelby County, Alabama. His father had been a captain in the Confederate army.^[2][3] Walthall worked in the fields and was educated by his parents and an uncle who loaned books to him. He studied at Howard College for six months.^[4]

In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, he enlisted in the First Alabama Regiment.^[4] He contracted malaria while in camp in Jacksonville, Florida, and the war ended before he had recovered.^[3] He served 11 months, and when his regiment was discharged he returned home. Then, with $100, he left for New York to make his career on the stage.^[4] He played small parts with the Murray Hill Theater stock company. Later he became affiliated with the American Theater stock company and soon afterward joined the Providence, Rhode Island, stock company.^[3]

Career

Henry B. Walthall (1916)

Filming The Escape in 1913

Three Friends (1913)

The Avenging Conscience (1914)

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

The False Faces (1919)

Modern Husbands (1919)

Tol'able David (1930)
From left: Harlan E. Knight, Peter Richmond, Walthall, Joan Peers, Noah Beery

Will Rogers and Walthall in Judge Priest (1934)

In New York in 1901,^[2] 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.^[4] 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).^[2][5] His fellow cast member James Kirkwood introduced Walthall to D. W. Griffith,^[4] and at the conclusion of that engagement, Walthall joined the Biograph Company.^[3]

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.^[3]

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.^[3]

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.^[6]:196

Walthall has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.

Personal life

Lillian Gish described Walthall as "a slight man, about five feet six, fine-boned, with the face of a poet and a dreamer."^[7]:135 She recalled his patience while Griffith grappled with technical problems filming the epilogue of Home, Sweet Home (1914), a scene in which Gish, as an angel, lifts Walthall's character out of hell. "There was a long discussion while Walthall and I, encased in leather harness, hung on the guide wires. Wally, a true southern gentleman, didn't raise his voice, didn't complain; he simply fainted and hung there limply."^[7]:113

Walthall was married twice. His marriage to actress Isabel Fenton (1907–1917) ended in divorce. His second marriage, to actress Mary Charleson, lasted from 1918 until his death in 1936.

Exhausted from months of interrupted film work, Walthall collapsed on the Warner Bros. set after completing his scenes in the film China Clipper, in which he portrayed an airplane inventor. He entered the Pasteur Sanitarium at Monrovia, California, and died of an intestinal illness three weeks later, on June 17, 1936.^[4]

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1909	A Convict's Sacrifice		[1]^:1437
1909	Pranks		[1]^:1437
1909	The Sealed Room	The Minstrel	[1]^:1437
1909	In Old Kentucky	Robert, the Confederate Son	[1]^:1437
1909	A Corner in Wheat	The wheat king's assistant	[1]^:1437
1909	The Hessian Renegades
1909	Fools of Fate
1909	A Trap for Santa Claus	Arthur
1909	In Little Italy	Victor
1909	The Day After	Party Guest
1909	The Mended Lute	Indian
1909	Choosing a Husband	Harry	[1]^:1437
1909	Getting Even	Miner
1910	The Honor of His Family		[1]^:1437
1910	The Two Brothers	Pedro
1910	The Kid	Walter Holden
1910	Ramona	Alessandro
1910	In the Border States	Confederate Corporal
1910	The House with Closed Shutters	The Confederate Soldier
1910	Rose O'Salem-Town	The Trapper
1910	In Old California		[1]^:1437
1910	The Gold Seekers		[1]^:1437
1910	The Oath and the Man		[1]^:1437
1910	The Sorrows of the Unfaithful		[1]^:1437
1910	A Summer Idyl		[1]^:1437
1910	The Armorer's Daughter		[1]^:1437
1911	A Little Child		[1]^:1437
1912	Home Folks		[1]^:1437
1912	The Miser's Daughter		[1]^:1437
1912	Friends	Dandy Jack	[1]^:1437
1912	The Inner Circle
1912	A Change of Spirit	First Gentleman Thief
1912	Two Daughters of Eve	The Father
1912	So Near, Yet So Far
1912	A Feud in the Kentucky Hills	Psalm Singer
1912	In the Aisles of the Wild	Jim Watson
1912	The One She Loved	The Husband
1912	The Painted Lady
1912	My Baby	The Husband
1912	The Informer	The false Brother
1912	Brutality
1912	My Hero	Indian Charlie
1912	The Burglar's Dilemma	Householder's Weakling Brother
1912	The God Within	The Woodsman
1913	The Vengeance of Galora		[1]^:1437
1913	Oil and Water	The Idealist	[1]^:1437
1913	The Wedding Gown		[1]^:1437
1913	Three Friends	The Husband
1913	Love in an Apartment Hotel	The Young Woman's Fiance
1913	Broken Ways	The Road Agent	[1]^:1437
1913	The Sheriff's Baby	First Bandit
1913	If We Only Knew	The Father
1913	The Lady and the Mouse
1913	The Wanderer	The Wanderer
1913	The House of Darkness
1913	The Tenderfoot's Money	The Prospector
1913	The Stolen Loaf	The Poor Man
1913	Red Hicks Defies the World
1913	The Switch Tower	The Switchman
1913	The Mothering Heart	Club Patron
1913	The Mistake	Jack, the Friend, a Prospector
1913	A Gambler's Honor	Beth's Brother
1913	During the Round-Up	The Stranger
1913	The Mirror	The Station Agent
1913	Two Men of the Desert	First Partner	[1]^:1437
1913	A Woman in the Ultimate	Member of the Badger Gang
1913	The Perfidy of Mary	Poet
1913	The Battle at Elderbush Gulch	Indian Chief's Son	[1]^:1437
1913	Death's Marathon	The Husband	[1]^:1437
1914	The Green-Eyed Devil		Short film
1914	The Mountain Rat	Douglas Williams	[1]^:1437[8]
1914	The Floor Above	Stephen Pryde	[8]
1914	The Gangsters of New York[1]^:1437	Porky Dugan	[9]
1914	Ashes of the Past		[1]^:1437
1914	Judith of Bethulia	Holofernes	[8]
1914	Strongheart		[1]^:1437
1914	Classmates	Duncan Irving	[9]
1914	Lord Chumley	Lord Chumley	[9]
1914	Man's Enemy
1914	The Avenging Conscience	The Nephew	[9]
1914	Home, Sweet Home	John Howard Payne	[1]^:1437[9]
1914	The Odalisque		[1]^:1437
1915	The Birth of a Nation	Col. Ben Cameron	[8]
1915	Beulah	Dr. Guy Hartwell	[9]
1915	The Raven	Edgar Allan Poe	[9]
1915	Ghosts	Captain Arling/Oswald	[1]^:1437[8]
1915	The Woman Hater		[1]^:1437
1916	The Birth of a Man		[8]
1916	The Pillars of Society	Karsten Bernick	[1]^:1437[8]
1916	The Sting of Victory	David Whiting/Walker Whiting	[9]
1916	The Truant Soul	Dr. John Lancaster/Dr. Lawson	[9]
1916	The Misleading Lady	Jack Craigen	[9]
1916	The Strange Case of Mary Page	Phil Langdon, Attorney	Serial; lost film
1917	Burning the Candle	James Maxwell	[9]
1917	The Saint's Adventure	Rev. Paul Manson	[9]
1917	Little Shoes	David Noel	[9]
1917	National Association's All-Star Picture		[8]
1918	His Robe of Honor	Julian Randolph	[9]
1918	With Hoops of Steel	Emerson Mead	[9]
1918	The Great Love	Sir Roger Brighton	[9]
1918	And a Still Small Voice	Clay Randolph	[9]
1918	Humdrum Brown	Hector "Humdrum" Brown	[9]
1919	The False Faces	Michael Lanyard, "The Lone Wolf"	[9]
1919	Modern Husbands	Stephen Duane	[9]
1919	The Boomerang	George Gray	[9]
1919	The Long Lane's Turning	Harry Sevier	[9]
1919	The Long Arm of Mannister	George Mannister	[9]
1920	The Confession	Father Bartlett	[9]
1920	Parted Curtains	Joe Jenkins	[9]
1920	A Splendid Hazard	Karl Breitman	[9]
1921	Flower of the North	Philip Whittemore	[9]
1921	The Ableminded Lady	Breezy Bright	[9]
1922	The Kickback	Aaron Price	[9]
1922	The Long Chance	Harley P. Hennage	[9]
1922	The Marriage Chance	Dr. Paul Graydon	[9]
1922	One Clear Call	Henry Garnett	[9]
1922	Boy of Mine	William Latimer	[9]
1923	The Face on the Bar-Room Floor	Robert Stevens	[9]
1923	The Unknown Purple	Peter Marchmont/Victor Cromport	[9]
1924	The Bowery Bishop	Norman Strong	[9]
1924	Single Wives	Franklin Dexter	[9]
1924	The Woman on the Jury	Prosecuting Attorney	Lost film[9]
1925	The Girl Who Wouldn't Work	William Hale	[9]
1925	Kit Carson Over the Great Divide	Dr. Samuel Webb	[9]
1925	On the Threshold	Andrew Masters	[9]
1925	The Golden Bed	Colonel Peake	[8]
1925	The Plastic Age	Henry Carver	[9]
1925	Kentucky Pride	Mr. Beaumont	[9]
1925	Dollar Down	Alec Craig	[9]
1925	Simon the Jester	Brandt	[9]
1926	Everybody's Acting	Thorpe	[8]
1926	Three Faces East	George Bennett	[8]
1926	The Barrier	Gale	[9]
1926	The Road to Mandalay	Father James	[9]
1926	The Scarlet Letter	Roger Chillingworth	[9]
1926	The Unknown Soldier	Mr. Phillips	[9]
1927	Wings	Mr. Armstrong	[9]
1927	London After Midnight	Sir James Hamlin	[9]
1927	The Enchanted Island	Tim Sanborn	[9]
1927	Fighting Love	Filipo Navarro	[9]
1927	A Light in the Window	Johann Graff	[9]
1927	The Rose of Kildare	Bob Avery	[9]
1928	Freedom of the Press	John Ballard	[9]
1928	Retribution		Vitaphone Varieties 2418
1928	Love Me and the World Is Mine	Van Denbosch	[9]
1929	Speakeasy	Fuzzy	[9]
1929	The Jazz Age	Mr. Maxwell
1929	The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Father Juniper	[9]
1929	The Trespasser	Fuller	[9]
1929	Black Magic	Dr. Bradbroke	[9]
1929	In Old California	Don Pedro DeLeón	[1]^:1437[9]
1929	From Headquarters	Buffalo Bill Ryan	[9]
1929	The Phantom in the House	Boyd Milburn	[9]
1929	River of Romance	Gen. Jeff Rumford	[9]
1929	Stark Mad	Captain Rhodes	Lost film[9]
1929	Street Corner	Short film
1930	Temple Tower	Blackton	[9]
1930	Abraham Lincoln	Colonel Marshall	[9]
1930	The Love Trader	Captain Adams	[9]
1930	Tol'able David	Amos Hatburn	[9]
1930	Blaze o' Glory	Burke	Lost film[9]
1931	Anybody's Blonde	The Editor	[9]
1931	Is There Justice?	District Attorney John Raymond	[9]
1932	Chandu the Magician	Robert Regent	[9]
1932	Police Court	Nat Barry	[9]
1932	The Cabin in the Cotton	Eph Clinton	[9]
1932	Ride Him, Cowboy	John Gaunt	[9]
1932	Strange Interlude	Professor Leeds	[9]
1932	Me and My Gal	Sarge	[9]
1932	Central Park	Eby	[9]
1932	Alias Mary Smith	Atwell	[9]
1932	Klondike	Mark Armstrong	[9]
1932	Hotel Continental	Winthrop	[9]
1932	Self-Defense	Dr. Borden	[9]
1932	The Flaming Signal	Rev. James	[9]
1933	42nd Street	The Actor	[9]
1933	Headline Shooter	Judge Beacon	[9]
1933	Laughing at Life	Presidente Valenzuela	[9]
1933	The Sin of Nora Moran	Father Ryan	[9]
1933	Somewhere in Sonora	Bob Leadly	[9]
1933	Her Forgotten Past	Mr. Maynard	[9]
1933	The Whispering Shadow		Serial[1]^:1437
1933	The Wolf Dog	Jim Courtney	Serial
1934	Judge Priest	Rev. Ashby Brand	[9]
1934	A Girl of the Limberlost	Dr. Ammon	[9]
1934	Viva Villa!	Francisco I. Madero	[4]
1934	The Scarlet Letter	Roger Chillingworth	[9]
1934	Men in White	Dr. McCabe	[2]
1934	Bachelor of Arts	Professor Barth	[9]
1934	Dark Hazard	Schultz	[9]
1934	The Murder in the Museum	Bernard Latham Wayne, alias Professor Mysto
1934	Beggars in Ermine	Marchant the Blind Man
1934	The Lemon Drop Kid		[1]^:1437[4]
1935	A Tale of Two Cities	Dr. Manette	[9]
1935	Dante's Inferno	Pop McWade	[9]
1935	Helldorado		[1]^:1437
1936	The Devil-Doll	Marcel	[9]
1936	The Garden Murder Case	Dr. Garden	[1]^:1437
1936	Hearts in Bondage	Captain Buchanan
1936	The Last Outlaw	Under Sheriff Calvin Yates	Screening on Broadway when Walthall died[4][9]
1936	China Clipper	Dad	Walthall collapsed on the set after completing his scenes[9] and died three weeks later[4]

References

1. Katz, Ephraim (1998). The Film Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-273492-X.
2. "Obituaries: Henry B. Walthall". Variety: 78. June 24, 1936. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
3. "Chats with the Players: Henry B. Walthall". Motion Picture Magazine: 113–115. October 1915. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
4. "Henry Walthall, Film Actor, Dead; Veteran of Early Cinema, 58, Made Reputation in 'The Birth of a Nation'". The New York Times. July 18, 1936.
5. "Henry B. Walthall". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
6. Capra, Frank (1971). The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography. New York: The MacMillan Company. OCLC 468875274.
7. Gish, Lillian (1969). Lillian Gish: The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. OCLC 3175012.
8. "Henry Walthall". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
9. "Henry B. Walthall". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 2014-12-22.

External links

• Henry B. Walthall at the Internet Movie Database
• Tribute Site
• portrait of Henry B. Walthall (moviecard)
• Literature on Henry B. Walthall