The son of an Army officer, Walter Reed was born in Washington and grew up in Honolulu and Los Angeles, where he attended school with the children of movie stars. After his parents' divorce, and, during the darkest days of the Depression, 17-year-old Reed decided to try acting as a career and made a two-week trip to New York , broke into pictures in the early 1940s.
Children: Peggy, Kirk and Kim.
In the late 1960s he ended his acting career, moving to Santa Cruz and becoming a real estate investor/broker.
In 2001 the city of Santa Cruz honored him by declaring July 14 "Walter Reed Day". A restored print of his 1956 western 7 Men from Now was shown at a local theater, and afterward he made imprints of his hands and feet in a square of wet cement in front of the theater.
Grew up in Hawaii and Los Angeles.
Younger brother of Jack Smith.
Interviewed in "It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition" by Tom Weaver (McFarland, 1996).
Brother-in-law of Victoria Stuart.
