Reed Hadley

Reed Hadley
File:Reed Hadley.jpg Reed Hadley in Shock 1946
Born	Reed Herring (1911-06-25)June 25, 1911 Petrolia, Texas, U.S.
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Bennett High School in Buffalo, New York
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1938-1971
Spouse(s)	Helen Hadley (?-1974) (his death) (1 child)

Reed Hadley (June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American movie, television and radio actor.

Reed Hadley was born Reed Herring in Petrolia in Clay County near Wichita Falls in northern Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York and graduated from Bennett High School there. He was involved in the local Studio Arena Theater. Hadley and his wife, Helen, had one son, Dale. Before moving to Hollywood, he acted in Hamlet on stage in New York City.

Throughout his thirty-five-year career in film, Hadley was cast as both a villain and a hero of the law, in such movies as The Baron of Arizona (1950), The Half-Breed (1952), Highway Dragnet (1954) and Big House, USA (1955), and narrated a number of documentaries. He starred in two television series, Racket Squad (1950–1953) as Captain Braddock, and The Public Defender (1954–1955) as Bart Matthews, a fictional attorney for the indigent.

Hadley was the voice of cowboy hero Red Ryder on the radio show during the 1940s. In films, he starred as Zorro in the 1939 serial Zorro's Fighting Legion.

He is immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his television work, which included guest starring roles on such programs as the religion anthology series, Crossroads, and on Rory Calhoun's CBS western series, The Texan. In 1959, he played fictitious Sheriff Ben Tildy in "The Sheriff of Boot Hill", with Denver Pyle cast as Joe Lufton.

Hadley was the narrator of several Department of Defense films: "Operation Ivy", about the first hydrogen bomb test, Ivy Mike, "Military Participation on Tumbler/Snapper"; "Military Participation on Buster Jangle"; and "Operation Upshot-Knothole" all of which were produced by Lookout Mountain studios. The films were originally intended for internal military use, but have been "sanitized" and de-classified, and are now available to the public.

In 1945 he narrated “The Nazi Plan”, a documentary film using captured propaganda and newsreel footage to dramatize the Nazi’s rise to power and was used by the prosecution in the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

Hadley also served as the narrator on various Hollywood films, including House on 92nd Street (1945), Boomerang (1947), and The Iron Curtain (1948).

He died at age 63 on December 11, 1974 of a heart attack.

Selected filmography

• Female Fugitive (1938)
• Hollywood Stadium Mystery (1938)
• Sunset Murder Case (1939)
• Calling Dr. Kildare (1939)
• Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939) (serial)
• I'll Wait for You (1940) - Tony Berolli
• House on 92nd Street (1945) - as narrator
• It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog (1946)
• Boomerang (1947) - as narrator
• The Iron Curtain (1948) - as narrator
• The Baron of Arizona (1950)
• The Half-Breed (1952)
• Highway Dragnet (1954)
• Big House, U.S.A. (1955)
• Moro Witch Doctor (1964)

Television

• Racket Squad (1950–53) - Captain Braddock
• The Public Defender (1953–54) - Bart Matthews
• The Texan

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
	Red Ryder
1952	Stars in the Air	"On Borrowed Time"

External links

• Reed Hadley at the Internet Movie Database
• Reed Hadley at the Internet Broadway Database (as Reed Herring)
• Video Detective filmography
• Reed Hadley at Find a Grave