Background
Reed Hadley was born in Petrolia in Clay County near Wichita Falls in northern Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie.
Reed Hadley was born in Petrolia in Clay County near Wichita Falls in northern Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie.
He was reared in Buffalo, New York and graduated from Bennett High School there.
Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was involved in the local Studio Arena Theater. 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,, and Big House, United States of America, 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 Baronet 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 Columbia Broadcasting System western series.
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.
