Henry B. Walthall
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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.
Known for
The Great Love
Sir Roger Brighton
The Birth of a Nation
Col. Ben Cameron
The Plastic Age
Henry Carver
Abraham Lincoln
Colonel Marshall
Hearts in Bondage
Capt. Buchanan
Beggars in Ermine
Marchant the Blind Man
The Murder in the Museum
Bernard Latham Wayne, alias Prof. Mysto
Wings
Mr. Armstrong
Judge Priest
Reverend Ashby Brand
The Avenging Conscience
The Nephew
42nd Street
Stage Actor (uncredited)
The Tenderfoot's Money
The Prospector
The Perfidy of Mary
The Poet
A Tale of Two Cities
Dr. Manette
Lord Chumley
Lord Chumley
Viva Villa!
Francisco Madero
The Sin of Nora Moran
Father Ryan
The Devil-Doll
Marcel
1776, or The Hessian Renegades
Retribution
Henry / Tommy Mooney
A Corner in Wheat
Wheat King's Assistant
The Scarlet Letter
Roger Prynne aka Roger Chillingworth
London After Midnight
Sir James Hamlin
A Child of the Ghetto
The Farmer
Men in White
enry B. Walthall
Pippa Passes
So Near, Yet So Far
In Club
Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
Col. Ben Cameron (archive footage)
The Two Brothers
Pedro
Me and My Gal
Sarge
The Road to Mandalay
Father James
Love Time
Duke Johann von Hatzfeld
Hold Your Man
Clergyman in Alternate Version (uncredited)
Ride Him, Cowboy
John Gaunt
Fighting Love
Filipo Navarro
Hotel Continental
Winthrop
A Feud in the Kentucky Hills
A Psalm Singer
The River of Romance
General Jeff Rumford
The Little Darling
In Boarding House
The Unknown Soldier
John Phillips
The Trespasser
Fuller
The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe
Judith of Bethulia
Holofernes
The Informer
The False Brother
Helldorado
Abner Meadows
Dante's Inferno
Pop McWade
The Unknown Purple
Peter Marchmont / Victor Cromport
The Wolf Dog
Jim Courtney
Flower of the North
Philip Whitemore
Police Court
Nathaniel "Nat" Barry
The Sealed Room
The Minstrel
Alias Mary Smith
Atwell
London After Midnight
Sir James Hamlin (archive footage)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Father Juniper
The Little Tease
The Valley Man
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
Woodsman
The Sheriff's Baby
First Bandit
Fools of Fate
Boy of Mine
William Latimer
The Outer Edge
Dr. Rownlee
A Girl of the Limberlost
Dr. Amon
The Switchtower
The Switchman
The False Faces
Michael Lanyard
The Mirror
The Station Agent
The Cabin in the Cotton
Eph Clinton
The Last Outlaw
Cal Yates
The Lady and the Mouse
The First Rival
The Woman on the Jury
Prosecuting Attorney
Strange Interlude
Professor Leeds
The Gold Seekers
Speakeasy
Piano player
On the Reef
Mr. Wilson
The Garden Murder Case
Dr. Garden
The Mended Lute
Indian
Somewhere in Sonora
Bob Leadly
My Baby
The Husband
Dark Hazard
Schultz
Home, Sweet Home
John Howard Payne
A Summer Idyll
Love Among the Roses
The Lord
Chandu the Magician
Robert Regent
Central Park
Eby
The Gray of the Dawn
The Scarlet Letter
Roger Chillingworth
The Call
Billy Harvey
The Call to Arms
The Lord
Modern Husbands
Stephen Duane
A Flash of Light
Younger John Rogers
Getting Even
Miner
The Sorrows of the Unfaithful
Bill
Love Me and the World Is Mine
Van Denbosch
Ghosts
Captain Alving / Oswald
The Misleading Lady
Jack Craiger
Love in an Apartment Hotel
The Young Woman's Fiance
Ramona
Alessandro
My Hero
Indian Charlie
From Headquarters
Buffalo Bill Ryan
The One She Loved
The Husband
Two Men of the Desert
First Partner
A Light in the Window
Johann Graff
In the Aisles of the Wild
Jim Watson
China Clipper
Dad Brunn
Her Mother's Oath
The Actor
A Strange Meeting
A Thief
The Golden Bed
Col. Peake
The Floor Above
Stephen Pryde
A Trap for Santa Claus
Arthur Rogers (uncredited)
Klondike
Mark Armstrong
In Old Kentucky
Robert, the Confederate son
The Broken Locket
Mexican Man
The Love Trader
Captain Adams
The Green-Eyed Devil
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
The Indian Chief's Son
I Am Not a Racist
Ben
The Gangsters of New York
Porky Dugan
Temper
Frank Bradbury
The Heart of an Outlaw
The Mexican Lover
For His Sake
The Day After
Party Guest
The Barrier
Gale Gaylord
Temple Tower
Blackton
One Clear Call
Henry Garnett
Broken Ways
The Road Agent
Wilful Peggy
The Lord
Tol'able David
Amos Hatburn
Kentucky Pride
Mr. Beaumont
In the Border States
Confederate Corporal
Rod of Wrath
Erickson's Son
The House with Closed Shutters
Charles Randolph - The Confederate Soldier
The Cloister’s Touch
The Father
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Self (archive footage)
The Iconoclast
The Strange Case of Mary Page
Phil Langdon, Attorney
In Little Italy
Victor Ratazzi
The Odalisque
Joe, in love with May
Black Magic
Dr. Bradbroke
During the Round-Up
The Stranger
His Last Burglary
The Thread of Destiny
Estrada
The Mountain Rat
Douglas Williams
The Whispering Shadow
J. D. Bradley
Gimme
John McGimsey
Two Daughters of Eve
The Father
Souls Courageous
The Honor of His Family
George Pickett Jr.
Death's Marathon
The Husband
Where the Sea and the Shore Doth Meet
Freedom of the Press
John Ballard
Kit Carson Over the Great Divide
Dr. Samuel Webb
The Face on the Barroom Floor
Robert Stevens
The Phantom in the House
Boyd Milburn
Headline Shooter
Judge Beacon (uncredited)
The Flaming Signal
Rev. Mr. James
Three Faces East
George Bennett
Everybody's Acting
Thorpe
Stark Mad
Capt. Rhodes - Yacht Commander
Classmates
Duncan Irving
Thou Shalt Not
Anybody's Blonde
Mr. Evans
Rose o' Salem Town
The Trapper
If We Only Knew
The Father
City Park
Colonel Henry Randolph Ransome
A Gambler's Honor
Beth's Brother
The Way of the World
Three Friends
The Husband
The Wanderer
The Wanderer
A Splendid Hazard
Karl Breitman
The Usurer
One of the Second Debtors
Humdrum Brown
Hector 'Humdrum' Brown
The Armorer’s Daughter
Macennas
The Circular Path
Reverend Darwin Kirby
Brutality
Actor In Oliver Twist
The Mysterious Shot
The Gopher
The Newlyweds
A Friend / At Station Reception
Friends
Dandy Jack
The Burglar’s Dilemma
The Householder's Weakling Brother
The Oath and the Man
Henri Prevost
Parted Curtains
Joe Jenkins
They Would Elope
Strongheart
Soangataha / Strongheart
Blaze o' Glory
Burke
The God Within
The Woodsman
The Long Chance
Harley P. Hennage
In Old California
Perdita's Son
The Kid
Walter Holden
The Kickback
Aaron Price
The Confession
Father Bartlett
The Long Lane's Turning
Harry Sevier
The Old Man
The Old Man
The Converts
The Awakening of Donna Isolla
The President of the Republic
The Command from Galilee
The Lover
The Mine with the Iron Door
David Burton
The Face at the Window
The Girl Who Wouldn't Work
William Hale
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
Self (archive footage)
The Slave
Alachus' Friend
The Stolen Loaf
The Poor Man
Oil and Water
The Idealist
The Lemon Drop Kid
Jonas Deering
Her Forgotten Past
Mr. Maynard
A Woman in the Ultimate
Badger Gang Member
The Boomerang
George Gray
The Long Arm of Mannister
George Mannister
Self Defense
Doctor Borden
The Able-Minded Lady
Breezy Bright
Pranks
Sunbather
Pillars of Society
Karsten Bernick
In Life's Cycle
Vincent, as an Adult