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.

The Birth of a Nation

6.0

Wings

7.2

42nd Street

6.9

The Devil-Doll

6.8

A Corner in Wheat

6.2

A Tale of Two Cities

6.8

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest

5.5

Abraham Lincoln

5.4

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

5.9

Me and My Gal

6.5

Death's Marathon

5.7

Judge Priest

6.5

Judith of Bethulia

6.3

The Sealed Room

5.1

The Avenging Conscience

6.2

London After Midnight

6.6

The House with Closed Shutters

5.2

Viva Villa!

6.3

Chandu the Magician

6.2

The Sin of Nora Moran

5.8

The Cabin in the Cotton

6.3

The Mended Lute

4.5

Hold Your Man

6.1

A Trap for Santa Claus

5.5

Ride Him, Cowboy

4.7

Ramona

4.7

In the Border States

5.5

Home, Sweet Home

5.3

Men in White

6.0

The Trespasser

6.7

Somewhere in Sonora

5.0

The Garden Murder Case

5.5

The Scarlet Letter

4.9

Strange Interlude

5.7

Dante's Inferno

6.2

The Usurer

5.0

The Plastic Age

5.9

Friends

5.5

The Burglar’s Dilemma

5.3

The Little Darling

4.5

The Whispering Shadow

4.8

China Clipper

5.6

The Road to Mandalay

6.1

Hearts in Bondage

4.9

Kentucky Pride

5.9

Dark Hazard

5.4

Klondike

5.3

Central Park

5.2

The False Faces

5.0

Pippa Passes

5.6

1776, or The Hessian Renegades

5.2

The Raven

6.5

Wilful Peggy

4.6

The Phantom in the House

4.6

The Wanderer

5.5

Rose o' Salem Town

5.2

The Murder in the Museum

4.0

Getting Even

3.8

Fools of Fate

4.4

Headline Shooter

5.8

My Baby

4.8

So Near, Yet So Far

5.9

A Flash of Light

5.0

Police Court

5.0

Beggars in Ermine

6.3

A Child of the Ghetto

4.5

The Flaming Signal

5.0

The Broken Locket

3.5

Love Among the Roses

4.7

A Feud in the Kentucky Hills

4.5

They Would Elope

4.5

The Golden Bed

3.5

The Switchtower

5.0

The Oath and the Man

4.5

Alias Mary Smith

5.0

The Wolf Dog

7.8

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

7.5

The Last Outlaw

5.5

A Strange Meeting

4.3

Ghosts

4.5

The Day After

2.8

The Confession

5.0

The Lemon Drop Kid

5.0

The Slave

4.3

The Sheriff's Baby

5.0

Stark Mad

3.0

Lord Chumley

7.0

The Face on the Barroom Floor

5.0

Hotel Continental

6.0

The Barrier

6.0

Strongheart

5.0

A Girl of the Limberlost

1.0

Her Forgotten Past

6.0

Tol'able David

7.0

In Old Kentucky

1.5

Three Friends

5.0

The Call to Arms

4.0

The Heart of an Outlaw

2.0

The Little Tease

5.0

Speakeasy

5.0

Pranks

2.5

The Call

3.0

In Little Italy

2.0

The Cloister’s Touch

3.0

A Light in the Window

0.0

The Honor of His Family

0.0

I Am Not a Racist

0.0

Love Time

0.0

In the Aisles of the Wild

0.0

Two Daughters of Eve

0.0

During the Round-Up

0.0

Love in an Apartment Hotel

0.0

The Green-Eyed Devil

0.0

The Tenderfoot's Money

0.0

If We Only Knew

0.0

My Hero

0.0

Brutality

0.0

The Stolen Loaf

0.0

The Mirror

0.0

A Gambler's Honor

0.0

Helldorado

0.0

The Odalisque

0.0

The Misleading Lady

0.0

Modern Husbands

0.0

The Mysterious Shot

0.0

The Perfidy of Mary

0.0

A Splendid Hazard

0.0

City Park

0.0

The Unknown Purple

0.0

Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)

0.0

Her Mother's Oath

0.0

Three Faces East

0.0

The Old Man

0.0

The Floor Above

0.0

The Mountain Rat

0.0

Classmates

0.0

The Gangsters of New York

0.0

Gimme

0.0

The Kickback

0.0

The River of Romance

0.0

The Long Arm of Mannister

0.0

Everybody's Acting

0.0

Anybody's Blonde

0.0

The Great Love

0.0

A Woman in the Ultimate

0.0

Temple Tower

0.0

The Mine with the Iron Door

0.0

Kit Carson Over the Great Divide

0.0

The Unknown Soldier

0.0

The Two Brothers

0.0

Retribution

0.0

Black Magic

0.0

Pillars of Society

0.0

In Old California

0.0

Flower of the North

0.0

The Thread of Destiny

0.0

Broken Ways

0.0

In Life's Cycle

0.0

The Sorrows of the Unfaithful

0.0

The Informer

0.0

The One She Loved

0.0

From Headquarters

0.0

The Girl Who Wouldn't Work

0.0

Two Men of the Desert

0.0

Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists

0.0

Love Me and the World Is Mine

0.0

Oil and Water

0.0

The Love Trader

0.0

His Last Burglary

0.0

The Gold Seekers

0.0

The Converts

0.0

The Face at the Window

0.0

Thou Shalt Not

0.0

The Way of the World

0.0

The Iconoclast

0.0

A Summer Idyll

0.0

The God Within

0.0

One Clear Call

0.0

Boy of Mine

0.0

Black Shadows on a Silver Screen

0.0

The Lady and the Mouse

0.0

Fighting Love

0.0

Freedom of the Press

0.0

The Kid

0.0

The Long Chance

0.0

Blaze o' Glory

0.0

The Strange Case of Mary Page

0.0

The Woman on the Jury

0.0

For His Sake

0.0

The Awakening of Donna Isolla

0.0

The Command from Galilee

0.0

Souls Courageous

0.0

The Armorer’s Daughter

0.0

The Gray of the Dawn

0.0

Where the Sea and the Shore Doth Meet

0.0

On the Reef

0.0

The Long Lane's Turning

0.0

Parted Curtains

0.0

Humdrum Brown

0.0

The Able-Minded Lady

0.0

Self Defense

0.0

Rod of Wrath

0.0