Reed Howes

Reed Howes

Howes and Clara Bow in the 1927 film Rough House Rosie
Born Hermon Reed Howes
(1900-07-05)July 5, 1900
Washington D.C.
Died August 6, 1964(1964-08-06) (aged 64)
Resting place Fort Rosencrans National Cemetery San Diego
Other names Reed Howe
Occupation Actor, model
Years active c.1923–1964
Spouse(s) Lillian Pechin
Catherine Tabor
Mary Howard

Reed Howes (July 5, 1900 – August 6, 1964) was an American model who later became an actor in silent and sound films.

Early life

He was born as Hermon Reed Howes in Washington, D.C. in 1900 to Edwin L. Howes and Grace LaForest Howes (née Meserve).[1] He served in the US Navy in the closing stages of World War I. After the war Howes attended the University of Utah where he graduated. He later went to Graduate School at Harvard University and then entered show business appearing in Vaudeville in stock roles.

Arrow Collar Man

Reed Howes in The Dawn Rider, 1935

In the early 1920s Howes began modeling shirts and detachable collars produced by Cluett Peabody & Company. Howes was one of several men known as Arrow Collar Men (others were Neil Hamilton, Fredric March, Brian Donlevy, Jack Mulhall and allegedly Ralph Forbes) who were the models seen in the Cluett Peabody company's advertisements for the apparel drawn by illustrator J. C. Leyendecker. A 1924 advertisement by film company FBO capitalizing on Howes Arrow Collar popularity has Howes: "Acknowledged and acclaimed America's handsomest man To be starred in a series of Eight Productions" .[2]

Hollywood Stardom

Howes began making silent pictures in Hollywood in 1923. At this stage of his career his youthful good looks led to him supporting or co-starring with many of filmdoms well-known and beautiful female stars of the time i.e. Marie Prevost, Clara Bow, Mildred Harris, Marjorie Daw, Viola Dana, Louise Fazenda and Virginia Brown Faire. He also appeared in low budget pictures with lesser known female stars i.e. Gladys Hulette, Ruth Dwyer, Carmelita Geraghty, Ethel Shannon and Alice Calhoun. Indeed, many of Howes's silent pictures are 'racing car-romance' movies, the kind Wallace Reid made popular before his untimely death in 1923. Howes seems to have picked up where Wally Reid left off and in fact Howes resembles Wally in looks or more precisely a cross between Wallace Reid and Neil Hamilton. The majority of Howes silents were produced by Harry Joe Brown(who also directed) and released through the Rayart company. Al Rogell directed a lot of them.[3] The studios Howes worked for in the silent era were FBO, Warner Brothers, Fox, Paramount and Universal.

Sound

Howes made his sound film debut in Warner's The Singing Fool starring Al Jolson. He closed out the silent era in a programmer production of longtime colleague Harry Joe Brown. In the talking era Howes shifted to playing heavies (villains), first in crime films and then in Westerns, with which he would be associated for the remainder of his career.[4]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ Edwin Luther Howes at findagrave.com..(father of Reed Howes)
  2. ↑ PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE SILENT SCREEN c.1953 by Daniel Blum p.268
  3. ↑ Reed Howes, IMDb.com Howes complete filmography
  4. ↑ IMDb filmography
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