Henry B. Walthall
215 movies
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Mar 15, 1878
- Died
- Jun 17, 1936 (age 58)
- Place of birth
- Shelby County, Alabama, USA
- Also known as
- Henry B. Walthal · H. B. Walthall · H.B. Walthall · Henry 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.
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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.
Profiles IMDb
Known for
Henry B. Walthall: movies and TV shows
Acting (215)
- 2019 I Am Not a Racist
as Ben (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 2002 London After Midnight
as Sir James Hamlin (archive footage)
- 1998 Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
as Col. Ben Cameron (archive footage)
- 1936 China Clipper
as Dad Brunn
- 1936 The Devil-Doll
as Marcel
- 1936 The Last Outlaw
as Cal Yates
- 1936 Hearts in Bondage
as Capt. Buchanan
- 1936 The Mine with the Iron Door
as David Burton
- 1936 The Garden Murder Case
as Dr. Garden
- 1935 A Tale of Two Cities
as Dr. Manette
- 1935 Dante's Inferno
as Pop McWade
- 1935 Helldorado
as Abner Meadows
- 1934 Love Time
as Duke Johann von Hatzfeld
- 1934 A Girl of the Limberlost
as Dr. Amon
- 1934 The Lemon Drop Kid
as Jonas Deering
- 1934 The Scarlet Letter
as Roger Chillingworth
- 1934 Judge Priest
as Reverend Ashby Brand
- 1934 The Murder in the Museum
as Bernard Latham Wayne, alias Prof. Mysto
- 1934 City Park
as Colonel Henry Randolph Ransome
- 1934 Viva Villa!
as Francisco Madero
- 1934 Men in White
as enry B. Walthall
- 1934 Beggars in Ermine
as Marchant the Blind Man
- 1934 Dark Hazard
as Schultz
- 1933 The Sin of Nora Moran
as Father Ryan
- 1933 The Wolf Dog
as Jim Courtney
- 1933 Her Forgotten Past
as Mr. Maynard
- 1933 Headline Shooter
as Judge Beacon (uncredited)
- 1933 The Flaming Signal
as Rev. Mr. James
- 1933 Hold Your Man
as Clergyman in Alternate Version (uncredited)
- 1933 Somewhere in Sonora
as Bob Leadly
- 1933 The Whispering Shadow
as J. D. Bradley
- 1933 42nd Street
as Concerned Actor (uncredited)
- 1932 Strange Interlude
as Professor Leeds
- 1932 Self Defense
as Doctor Borden
- 1932 Central Park
as Eby
- 1932 Me and My Gal
as Sarge
- 1932 The Cabin in the Cotton
as Eph Clinton
- 1932 Klondike
as Mark Armstrong
- 1932 Ride Him, Cowboy
as John Gaunt
- 1932 Chandu the Magician
as Robert Regent
- 1932 Alias Mary Smith
as Atwell
- 1932 Hotel Continental
as Winthrop
- 1932 Police Court
as Nathaniel "Nat" Barry
- 1931 Anybody's Blonde
as Mr. Evans
- 1931 Is There Justice?
as District Attorney John Raymond
- 1930 Tol'able David
as Amos Hatburn
- 1930 Abraham Lincoln
as Colonel Marshall
- 1930 The Love Trader
as Captain Adams
- 1930 Temple Tower
as Blackton
- 1929 Blaze o' Glory
as Burke
- 1929 The Trespasser
as Fuller
- 1929 The Phantom in the House
as Boyd Milburn
- 1929 In Old California
as Don Pedro De León
- 1929 Black Magic
as Dr. Bradbroke
- 1929 The River of Romance
as General Jeff Rumford
- 1929 From Headquarters
as Buffalo Bill Ryan
- 1929 The Bridge of San Luis Rey
as Father Juniper
- 1929 Speakeasy
as Piano player
- 1929 Stark Mad
as Capt. Rhodes - Yacht Commander
- 1929 The Jazz Age
as Mr Maxwell
- 1928 Freedom of the Press
as John Ballard
- 1928 Retribution
as Henry / Tommy Mooney
- 1927 London After Midnight
as Sir James Hamlin
- 1927 A Light in the Window
as Johann Graff
- 1927 Love Me and the World Is Mine
as Van Denbosch
- 1927 Wings
as Mr. Armstrong
- 1927 Fighting Love
as Filipo Navarro
- 1927 The Scarlet Letter
as Roger Prynne aka Roger Chillingworth
- 1926 Everybody's Acting
as Thorpe
- 1926 The Road to Mandalay
as Father James
- 1926 The Unknown Soldier
as John Phillips
- 1926 The Barrier
as Gale Gaylord
- 1926 Three Faces East
as George Bennett
- 1925 The Plastic Age
as Henry Carver
- 1925 Dollar Down
as Alec Craig
- 1925 Kentucky Pride
as Mr. Beaumont
- 1925 Kit Carson Over the Great Divide
as Dr. Samuel Webb
- 1925 The Girl Who Wouldn't Work
as William Hale
- 1925 The Golden Bed
as Col. Peake
- 1924 Single Wives
as Franklin Dexter
- 1924 The Woman on the Jury
as Prosecuting Attorney
- 1923 Boy of Mine
as William Latimer
- 1923 The Unknown Purple
as Peter Marchmont / Victor Cromport
- 1923 Gimme
as John McGimsey
- 1923 The Face on the Barroom Floor
as Robert Stevens
- 1922 The Long Chance
as Harley P. Hennage
- 1922 The Kickback
as Aaron Price
- 1922 One Clear Call
as Henry Garnett
- 1922 The Able-Minded Lady
as Breezy Bright
- 1921 Flower of the North
as Philip Whitemore
- 1920 A Splendid Hazard
as Karl Breitman
- 1920 Parted Curtains
as Joe Jenkins
- 1920 The Confession
as Father Bartlett
- 1919 The Long Arm of Mannister
as George Mannister
- 1919 The Boomerang
as George Gray
- 1919 Modern Husbands
as Stephen Duane
- 1919 The False Faces
as Michael Lanyard
- 1919 The Long Lane's Turning
as Harry Sevier
- 1918 The Great Love
as Sir Roger Brighton
- 1918 Humdrum Brown
as Hector 'Humdrum' Brown
- 1918 His Robe of Honor
as Julian Randolph
- 1916 Pillars of Society
as Karsten Bernick
- 1916 The Sting of Victory
as David Whiting / Walker Whiting
- 1916 The Strange Case of Mary Page
as Phil Langdon, Attorney
- 1916 The Misleading Lady
as Jack Craiger
- 1915 The Raven
as Edgar Allan Poe
- 1915 The Outer Edge
as Dr. Rownlee
- 1915 The Circular Path
as Reverend Darwin Kirby
- 1915 Temper
as Frank Bradbury
- 1915 Ghosts
as Captain Alving / Oswald
- 1915 The Birth of a Nation
as Col. Ben Cameron
- 1915 Rod of Wrath
as Erickson's Son
- 1914 The Odalisque
as Joe, in love with May
- 1914 The Avenging Conscience
as The Nephew
- 1914 Lord Chumley
as Lord Chumley
- 1914 Home, Sweet Home
as John Howard Payne
- 1914 The Mountain Rat
as Douglas Williams
- 1914 The Old Man
as The Old Man
- 1914 The Mysterious Shot
as The Gopher
- 1914 The Floor Above
as Stephen Pryde
- 1914 Judith of Bethulia
as Holofernes
- 1914 Strongheart
as Soangataha / Strongheart
- 1914
- 1914 Classmates
as Duncan Irving
- 1914 The Gangsters of New York
as Porky Dugan
- 1914 The Awakening of Donna Isolla
as The President of the Republic
- 1913 The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
as The Indian Chief's Son
- 1913 A Woman in the Ultimate
as Badger Gang Member
- 1913 Two Men of the Desert
as First Partner
- 1913 The Mirror
as The Station Agent
- 1913 During the Round-Up
as The Stranger
- 1913 A Gambler's Honor
as Beth's Brother
- 1913 Her Mother's Oath
as The Actor
- 1913 The Switchtower
as The Switchman
- 1913 Death's Marathon
as The Husband
- 1913 The Stolen Loaf
as The Poor Man
- 1913 The Tenderfoot's Money
as The Prospector
- 1913 The Wanderer
as The Wanderer
- 1913 If We Only Knew
as The Father
- 1913 The Lady and the Mouse
as The First Rival
- 1913 The Little Tease
as The Valley Man
- 1913 The Perfidy of Mary
as The Poet
- 1913 The Sheriff's Baby
as First Bandit
- 1913 Broken Ways
as The Road Agent
- 1913 Love in an Apartment Hotel
as The Young Woman's Fiance
- 1913 Oil and Water
as The Idealist
- 1913 Three Friends
as The Husband
- 1912 The God Within
as The Woodsman
- 1912 The Burglar’s Dilemma
as The Householder's Weakling Brother
- 1912 My Hero
as Indian Charlie
- 1912 Brutality
as Actor In Oliver Twist
- 1912 The Informer
as The False Brother
- 1912 My Baby
as The Husband
- 1912 The One She Loved
as The Husband
- 1912 In the Aisles of the Wild
as Jim Watson
- 1912 A Feud in the Kentucky Hills
as A Psalm Singer
- 1912 So Near, Yet So Far
as In Club
- 1912 Friends
as Dandy Jack
- 1912 Two Daughters of Eve
as The Father
- 1911
- 1911
- 1911 The Command from Galilee
as The Lover
- 1910
- 1910 The Armorer’s Daughter
as Macennas
- 1910
- 1910
- 1910 Rose o' Salem Town
as The Trapper
- 1910 The Oath and the Man
as Henri Prevost
- 1910 In Life's Cycle
as Vincent, as an Adult
- 1910
- 1910 Wilful Peggy
as The Lord
- 1910 The Sorrows of the Unfaithful
as Bill
- 1910 The Usurer
as One of the Second Debtors
- 1910 The House with Closed Shutters
as Charles Randolph - The Confederate Soldier
- 1910 The Call to Arms
as The Lord
- 1910 A Flash of Light
as Younger John Rogers
- 1910 The Face at the Window
as Ralph Bradford
- 1910 In the Border States
as Confederate Corporal
- 1910 A Child of the Ghetto
as The Farmer
- 1910 Ramona
as Alessandro
- 1910 The Two Brothers
as Pedro
- 1910 Love Among the Roses
as The Lord
- 1910 The Gold Seekers
as The Prospector
- 1910
- 1910 The Tenderfoot's Triumph
as A Horse Thief
- 1910
- 1910 The Kid
as Walter Holden
- 1910 Gold Is Not All
as Man at Party
- 1910
- 1910 In Old California
as Perdita's Son
- 1910 The Thread of Destiny
as Estrada
- 1910 The Newlyweds
as A Friend / At Station Reception
- 1910 His Last Burglary
as William Standish
- 1910 The Cloister’s Touch
as The Father
- 1910 The Honor of His Family
as George Pickett Jr.
- 1910 The Call
as Billy Harvey
- 1910 On the Reef
as Mr. Wilson
- 1909 The Heart of an Outlaw
as The Mexican Lover
- 1909 The Day After
as Party Guest
- 1909 In Little Italy
as Victor Ratazzi
+ 15 more credits
Behind the camera (1)
- 1915 The Birth of a Nation
Assistant Director
Talk shows and appearances (2)
- 1975
- 1942