Adeline De Walt Reynolds

Adeline De Walt Reynolds
in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
Born	(1862-09-19)September 19, 1862 near Vinton, Iowa, U.S.
Died	Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1930s–1960
Spouse(s)	Frank Reynolds (1885-1905) (his death)

Adeline De Walt Reynolds (September 19, 1862 – August 13, 1961) was an American character actress who made her film debut at the age of 79 when she played the grandmother of James Stewart in Come Live with Me (1941). She continued to play in about 25 films and numerous television series until her death.

Early life and entrance into film

Adeline De Walt Reynolds was born as one of ten children during the Civil War. One of her earliest memories was of Union soldiers returned from the Civil War. She wanted to be an actress since she was five years old, but her father, a farmer named Jonathan DeWalt, opposed her dream. As a young woman, she taught in a rural school, where she had to lie about her age, saying she was 20 instead of her real age of 18, in order to get the job. It was a difficult teaching assignment, and had been refused by several other teachers, but De Walt Reynolds eventually gained the support of the children and their families. However, after three years she left this work after learning that her male colleagues earned more money than her, and the school board refused to pay her the same rate.

She married Frank Reynolds, with whom she had four children, in 1885, shortly after leaving teaching. They initially lived in Vinton, Iowa, their hometown, but moved to Arcadia, Nebraska after a year, and the birth of their first child, Mary. Reynolds parents had moved to Arcadia a short time before, and they offered him the lumber business Reynolds' father had begun. They remained in Arcadia for five years, and had another child, William. After 5 years, the family moved to Boston, and De Walt Reynolds attended and graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Speech. While in Boston, according to some accounts, in 1892 the famous Sir Henry Irving offered De Walt Reynolds a spot in his touring company. It is said that she turned Irving's offer down to raise her children.

The family moved to Philadelphia, as well as several other cities, before eventually moving to San Francisco, where the couple had their final 2 children, Franklin and Lela. After Reynolds untimely death at the beginning of the 1900s, she was forced to earn a living in order to raise her four children. She started a secretarial school which was destroyed in San Francisco's 1906 earthquake. De Walt Reynolds was a witness and survivor of this earthquake. In spite of this loss, she continued to struggle to support her family. It was not until her youngest daughter, Lela, entered college at the University of California, that De Walt Reynolds thought that she could once again focus on her own desires. Encouraged by her daughter, De Walt Reynolds also entered Berkeley at the age of 64. She majored in French and graduated with honors at 68.

Upon graduation, De Walt Reynolds continued to take acting courses at the university, under the tutelage of Professor von Neumeyer. Having the ability to finally focus on her acting career, when she was cast as Hecuba in a school production of The Trojan Women, she made contact with the celebrated stage actress Blanche Yurka, who had played the same role in a radio production of the play. The following year De Walt Reynolds traveled to Los Angeles and again contacted Yurka, to ask her advice on beginning a career in film. Impressed, Yurka found an agent willing to take on an older client, and De Walt Reynolds was cast in a role in an Assistance League production of Landslide. Clarence Brown saw her in the production and cast her in his upcoming film.

Film career

De Walt Reynolds made her film debut with a supporting role in Come Live with Me (1941), playing the grandmother of James Stewart. After filming on her first day on the set, she was asked if she were tired, to which she replied, "If you had waited 70 years to do something, you wouldn't be tired." She received praise for that role and the director of Come Live with Me, Clarence Brown, called her a "potential star". Though she never became a true film star, she played in about two dozen films until 1955. De Walt Reynolds portrayed the mother of Charles Laughton in The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942) and appeared as the mysterious Madame Zimba in Robert Siodmak's horror film Son of Dracula (1943). She was also memorable as the old Mother Fitzgibbon in the last scene of in Going My Way (1944) who travels from Ireland to the United States to see her son. Her last film was The Ten Commandments (1956) where she portrayed a frail old woman in danger. De Walt Reynolds also appeared in numerous television series between 1950 and 1960. She played her last role at the age of 98 and was the oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild. De Walt Reynolds also made publicity stories and photos which showed her practicing her fencing or doing calisthenics.

De Walt Reynolds died on August 13, 1961, one month before her 99th birthday. She is buried in Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles.

Filmography

• Come Live with Me (1941)
• Shadow of the Thin Man (1941, uncredited)
• The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942)
• Tales of Manhattan (1942)
• Iceland (1942, uncredited)
• Street of Chance (1942)
• The Human Comedy (1943)
• Behind the Rising Sun (1943)
• Son of Dracula (1943)
• Happy Land (1943)
• Going My Way (1944, uncredited)
• Since You Went Away (1944, uncredited)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945, uncredited)
• The Corn Is Green (1945, uncredited)
• Counter-Attack (1945, uncredited)
• The Little Witch (1945 short)
• The Girl from Manhattan (1948)
• The Sickle or the Cross (1949)
• Stars in My Crown (1950, uncredited)
• Kim (1950, uncredited)
• Here Comes the Groom (1951, uncredited)
• Lydia Bailey (1952)
• Pony Soldier (1952)
• Three Lives (1953 short)
• Witness to Murder (1954)
• The Ten Commandments (1956, uncredited)

Reynolds also appeared in 13 television episodes between 1950 and 1960, including Have Gun – Will Travel, Shirley Temple's Storybook, Zane Grey Theatre

External links

• Adeline De Walt Reynolds at the Internet Movie Database
• Adeline De Walt Reynolds at Find a Grave