--- name: "Henry B. Walthall" canonical: "https://film.one/person/henry-b-walthall" roles: ["Actor"] born: "15 March 1878" died: "17 June 1936" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 73 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-19T23:17:53.603343+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Henry B. Walthall Actor. Born 15 March 1878 in Shelby County, Alabama, USA. Died 17 June 1936. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 15 March 1878, Shelby County, Alabama, USA - **Died:** 17 June 1936 - **Active:** 1927–1935 - **Also known as:** Henry B. Walthal , H. B. Walthall , H.B. Walthall, Henry Walthall, William Walthall , Henry Brazeale Walthall - **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 3 acting, 1 other - **Frequently works with:** [David O. Selznick](https://film.one/person/david-o-selznick.md), [Jack Conway](https://film.one/person/jack-conway.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 73, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1920s 78 (1), 1930s 75 (3) - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 2, Romance 2, Action 1, Adventure 1, History 1, War 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $4m across 1 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_B._Walthall, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q661678, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0910400/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8830 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*Wings*](https://film.one/film/wings-1927.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Henry B. Walthall > Griffith's leading man became the sound era's dependable elder, and the method never changed: Walthall stands still and lets the film come to him. In small parts he can move you more than the leads, and after 1920 he was mostly given small ones. Near the start of *Wings* (1927), a boy is going to the war and his parents see him off. Henry B. Walthall, as the father, does almost nothing. A small keepsake changes hands, a look is held a fraction longer than is comfortable, and that is the scene. It moved us more than the whole love triangle the film spends two hours on, because Walthall and Julia Swayne Gordon play it as two people who suspect how this ends and have agreed not to say so. He is on screen for a couple of minutes, and he is the best thing in the reel. That stillness was his trade from the beginning. He came off the New York stage into Biograph in 1909 and became one of D. W. Griffith's regulars, appearing in dozens of shorts before Griffith made him the Little Colonel in *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), the part that made him famous, in a film that has not been forgiven. Through the 1910s he was the dignified Southerner, the Confederate officer, the doctor, the man of standing: parts that ask an actor to hold himself upright while everything around him gives way. He left Griffith, tried a production company of his own that did not last, and spent the 1920s in cheaper pictures than he deserved. Sound saved him. He had a voice that recorded well and a bearing to match, and the 1930s gave him a run of supporting parts in large productions: the Reverend Ashby Brand for John Ford in *Judge Priest* (1934), Dr Manette in *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), Marcel for Tod Browning in *The Devil-Doll* (1936), his second film with Browning and one of the last things he made. From this stretch we have reviewed only *Viva Villa* (1934), in which he plays Madero and in which his stillness is, as we said at the time, the nearest that loud film comes to an idea. Everyone else in it is shooting or grinning, Wallace Beery loudest of all. Walthall stands in the middle of it and looks like a man who has already read the history. The limit is plain. An actor who does his best work by not moving needs a director willing to hold the shot on him, and the two films of his we have reviewed give him, between them, perhaps five minutes of that. That is itself a verdict of sorts on how Hollywood used him after he stopped being young. It is not a verdict on him. If you want to see what he could do, watch the send-off in *Wings*, then the two hours around it, and notice which stays with you. ## Biography Henry B. Walthall (16 March 1878 – 17 June 1936) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared as Mr. Armstrong in the 1927 film *Wings* and as Col. Ben Cameron in D. W. Griffith's *The Birth of a Nation* (1915). Born in Shelby County, Alabama, Walthall began his stage career in New York in 1901. He made his film debut in 1909 at Biograph Studios in *A Convict's Sacrifice*, directed by Griffith, and became a regular in the director's company. He later worked at Reliance-Majestic and Pathé before forming his own production company in 1917. Walthall continued acting into the sound era, appearing in films including *42nd Street* (1933), *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935) and *The Devil-Doll* (1936). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, catalog.afi.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) ### Performed in (3) — the average rests on these - *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), Fi1m 76, as Dr. Manette — [page](https://film.one/film/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) - *Viva Villa!* (1934), Fi1m 66, as Francisco Madero — [page](https://film.one/film/viva-villa.md) - *Wings* (1927), Fi1m 78, as Mr. Armstrong — [page](https://film.one/film/wings-1927.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *42nd Street* (1933), Fi1m 82, as Concerned Actor (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) ## Complete filmography (215) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *I Am Not a Racist* (2019), as Ben (archive footage) (uncredited) - *London After Midnight* (2002), as Sir James Hamlin (archive footage) - *Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists* (1998), as Col. Ben Cameron (archive footage) - *China Clipper* (1936), as Dad Brunn - *The Devil-Doll* (1936), as Marcel - *The Last Outlaw* (1936), as Cal Yates - *Hearts in Bondage* (1936), as Capt. Buchanan - *The Mine with the Iron Door* (1936), as David Burton - *The Garden Murder Case* (1936), as Dr. Garden - *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), as Dr. Manette — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) - *Dante's Inferno* (1935), as Pop McWade - *Helldorado* (1935), as Abner Meadows - *Love Time* (1934), as Duke Johann von Hatzfeld - *A Girl of the Limberlost* (1934), as Dr. Amon - *The Lemon Drop Kid* (1934), as Jonas Deering - *The Scarlet Letter* (1934), as Roger Chillingworth - *Judge Priest* (1934), as Reverend Ashby Brand - *The Murder in the Museum* (1934), as Bernard Latham Wayne, alias Prof. Mysto - *City Park* (1934), as Colonel Henry Randolph Ransome - *Viva Villa!* (1934), as Francisco Madero — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/viva-villa.md) - *Men in White* (1934), as enry B. Walthall - *Beggars in Ermine* (1934), as Marchant the Blind Man - *Dark Hazard* (1934), as Schultz - *The Sin of Nora Moran* (1933), as Father Ryan - *The Wolf Dog* (1933), as Jim Courtney - *Her Forgotten Past* (1933), as Mr. Maynard - *Headline Shooter* (1933), as Judge Beacon (uncredited) - *The Flaming Signal* (1933), as Rev. Mr. James - *Hold Your Man* (1933), as Clergyman in Alternate Version (uncredited) - *Somewhere in Sonora* (1933), as Bob Leadly - *The Whispering Shadow* (1933), as J. D. Bradley - *42nd Street* (1933), as Concerned Actor (uncredited) — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) - *Strange Interlude* (1932), as Professor Leeds - *Self Defense* (1932), as Doctor Borden - *Central Park* (1932), as Eby - *Me and My Gal* (1932), as Sarge - *The Cabin in the Cotton* (1932), as Eph Clinton - *Klondike* (1932), as Mark Armstrong - *Ride Him, Cowboy* (1932), as John Gaunt - *Chandu the Magician* (1932), as Robert Regent - *Alias Mary Smith* (1932), as Atwell - *Hotel Continental* (1932), as Winthrop - *Police Court* (1932), as Nathaniel "Nat" Barry - *Anybody's Blonde* (1931), as Mr. Evans - *Is There Justice?* (1931), as District Attorney John Raymond - *Tol'able David* (1930), as Amos Hatburn - *Abraham Lincoln* (1930), as Colonel Marshall - *The Love Trader* (1930), as Captain Adams - *Temple Tower* (1930), as Blackton - *Blaze o' Glory* (1929), as Burke - *The Trespasser* (1929), as Fuller - *The Phantom in the House* (1929), as Boyd Milburn - *In Old California* (1929), as Don Pedro De León - *Black Magic* (1929), as Dr. Bradbroke - *The River of Romance* (1929), as General Jeff Rumford - *From Headquarters* (1929), as Buffalo Bill Ryan - *The Bridge of San Luis Rey* (1929), as Father Juniper - *Speakeasy* (1929), as Piano player - *Stark Mad* (1929), as Capt. Rhodes - Yacht Commander - *The Jazz Age* (1929), as Mr Maxwell - *Freedom of the Press* (1928), as John Ballard - *Retribution* (1928), as Henry / Tommy Mooney - *London After Midnight* (1927), as Sir James Hamlin - *A Light in the Window* (1927), as Johann Graff - *Love Me and the World Is Mine* (1927), as Van Denbosch - *Wings* (1927), as Mr. Armstrong — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/wings-1927.md) - *Fighting Love* (1927), as Filipo Navarro - *The Scarlet Letter* (1927), as Roger Prynne aka Roger Chillingworth - *Everybody's Acting* (1926), as Thorpe - *The Road to Mandalay* (1926), as Father James - *The Unknown Soldier* (1926), as John Phillips - *The Barrier* (1926), as Gale Gaylord - *Three Faces East* (1926), as George Bennett - *The Plastic Age* (1925), as Henry Carver - *Dollar Down* (1925), as Alec Craig - *Kentucky Pride* (1925), as Mr. Beaumont - *Kit Carson Over the Great Divide* (1925), as Dr. Samuel Webb - *The Girl Who Wouldn't Work* (1925), as William Hale - *The Golden Bed* (1925), as Col. Peake - *Single Wives* (1924), as Franklin Dexter - *The Woman on the Jury* (1924), as Prosecuting Attorney - *Boy of Mine* (1923), as William Latimer - *The Unknown Purple* (1923), as Peter Marchmont / Victor Cromport - *Gimme* (1923), as John McGimsey - *The Face on the Barroom Floor* (1923), as Robert Stevens - *The Long Chance* (1922), as Harley P. Hennage - *The Kickback* (1922), as Aaron Price - *One Clear Call* (1922), as Henry Garnett - *The Able-Minded Lady* (1922), as Breezy Bright - *Flower of the North* (1921), as Philip Whitemore - *A Splendid Hazard* (1920), as Karl Breitman - *Parted Curtains* (1920), as Joe Jenkins - *The Confession* (1920), as Father Bartlett - *The Long Arm of Mannister* (1919), as George Mannister - *The Boomerang* (1919), as George Gray - *Modern Husbands* (1919), as Stephen Duane - *The False Faces* (1919), as Michael Lanyard - *The Long Lane's Turning* (1919), as Harry Sevier - *The Great Love* (1918), as Sir Roger Brighton - *Humdrum Brown* (1918), as Hector 'Humdrum' Brown - *His Robe of Honor* (1918), as Julian Randolph - *Pillars of Society* (1916), as Karsten Bernick - *The Sting of Victory* (1916), as David Whiting / Walker Whiting - *The Strange Case of Mary Page* (1916), as Phil Langdon, Attorney - *The Misleading Lady* (1916), as Jack Craiger - *The Raven* (1915), as Edgar Allan Poe - *The Outer Edge* (1915), as Dr. Rownlee - *The Circular Path* (1915), as Reverend Darwin Kirby - *Temper* (1915), as Frank Bradbury - *Ghosts* (1915), as Captain Alving / Oswald - *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), as Col. Ben Cameron · Assistant Director - *Rod of Wrath* (1915), as Erickson's Son - *The Odalisque* (1914), as Joe, in love with May - *The Avenging Conscience* (1914), as The Nephew - *Lord Chumley* (1914), as Lord Chumley - *Home, Sweet Home* (1914), as John Howard Payne - *The Mountain Rat* (1914), as Douglas Williams - *The Old Man* (1914), as The Old Man - *The Mysterious Shot* (1914), as The Gopher - *The Floor Above* (1914), as Stephen Pryde - *Judith of Bethulia* (1914), as Holofernes - *Strongheart* (1914), as Soangataha / Strongheart - *The Green-Eyed Devil* (1914), Actor - *Classmates* (1914), as Duncan Irving - *The Gangsters of New York* (1914), as Porky Dugan - *The Awakening of Donna Isolla* (1914), as The President of the Republic - *The Battle at Elderbush Gulch* (1913), as The Indian Chief's Son - *A Woman in the Ultimate* (1913), as Badger Gang Member - *Two Men of the Desert* (1913), as First Partner - *The Mirror* (1913), as The Station Agent - *During the Round-Up* (1913), as The Stranger - *A Gambler's Honor* (1913), as Beth's Brother - *Her Mother's Oath* (1913), as The Actor - *The Switchtower* (1913), as The Switchman - *Death's Marathon* (1913), as The Husband - *The Stolen Loaf* (1913), as The Poor Man - *The Tenderfoot's Money* (1913), as The Prospector - *The Wanderer* (1913), as The Wanderer - *If We Only Knew* (1913), as The Father - *The Lady and the Mouse* (1913), as The First Rival - *The Little Tease* (1913), as The Valley Man - *The Perfidy of Mary* (1913), as The Poet - *The Sheriff's Baby* (1913), as First Bandit - *Broken Ways* (1913), as The Road Agent - *Love in an Apartment Hotel* (1913), as The Young Woman's Fiance - *Oil and Water* (1913), as The Idealist - *Three Friends* (1913), as The Husband - *The God Within* (1912), as The Woodsman - *The Burglar’s Dilemma* (1912), as The Householder's Weakling Brother - *My Hero* (1912), as Indian Charlie - *Brutality* (1912), as Actor In Oliver Twist - *The Informer* (1912), as The False Brother - *My Baby* (1912), as The Husband - *The One She Loved* (1912), as The Husband - *In the Aisles of the Wild* (1912), as Jim Watson - *A Feud in the Kentucky Hills* (1912), as A Psalm Singer - *So Near, Yet So Far* (1912), as In Club - *Friends* (1912), as Dandy Jack - *Two Daughters of Eve* (1912), as The Father - *For His Sake* (1911), Actor - *Souls Courageous* (1911), Actor - *The Command from Galilee* (1911), as The Lover - *Where the Sea and the Shore Doth Meet* (1910), Actor - *The Armorer’s Daughter* (1910), as Macennas - *The Gray of the Dawn* (1910), Actor - *The Iconoclast* (1910), Actor - *Rose o' Salem Town* (1910), as The Trapper - *The Oath and the Man* (1910), as Henri Prevost - *In Life's Cycle* (1910), as Vincent, as an Adult - *A Summer Idyll* (1910), Actor - *Wilful Peggy* (1910), as The Lord - *The Sorrows of the Unfaithful* (1910), as Bill - *The Usurer* (1910), as One of the Second Debtors - *The House with Closed Shutters* (1910), as Charles Randolph - The Confederate Soldier - *The Call to Arms* (1910), as The Lord - *A Flash of Light* (1910), as Younger John Rogers - *The Face at the Window* (1910), as Ralph Bradford - *In the Border States* (1910), as Confederate Corporal - *A Child of the Ghetto* (1910), as The Farmer - *Ramona* (1910), as Alessandro - *The Two Brothers* (1910), as Pedro - *Love Among the Roses* (1910), as The Lord - *The Gold Seekers* (1910), as The Prospector - *The Way of the World* (1910), Actor - *The Tenderfoot's Triumph* (1910), as A Horse Thief - *Thou Shalt Not* (1910), Actor - *The Kid* (1910), as Walter Holden - *Gold Is Not All* (1910), as Man at Party - *The Converts* (1910), Actor - *In Old California* (1910), as Perdita's Son - *The Thread of Destiny* (1910), as Estrada - *The Newlyweds* (1910), as A Friend / At Station Reception - *His Last Burglary* (1910), as William Standish - *The Cloister’s Touch* (1910), as The Father - *The Honor of His Family* (1910), as George Pickett Jr. - *The Call* (1910), as Billy Harvey - *On the Reef* (1910), as Mr. Wilson - *The Heart of an Outlaw* (1909), as The Mexican Lover - *The Day After* (1909), as Party Guest - *In Little Italy* (1909), as Victor Ratazzi - *A Trap for Santa Claus* (1909), as Arthur Rogers (uncredited) - *A Corner in Wheat* (1909), as Wheat King's Assistant - *Fools of Fate* (1909), Actor - *Pippa Passes* (1909), Actor - *In Old Kentucky* (1909), as Robert, the Confederate son - *The Broken Locket* (1909), as Mexican Man - *Getting Even* (1909), as Miner - *1776, or The Hessian Renegades* (1909), Actor - *The Sealed Room* (1909), as The Troubador - *The Little Darling* (1909), as In Boarding House - *Pranks* (1909), as Sunbather - *They Would Elope* (1909), Actor - *The Mended Lute* (1909), as Indian - *A Strange Meeting* (1909), as A Thief - *Rescued from an Eagle's Nest* (1908), as Woodsman ## Gallery - ![actor Henry B. Walthall (1916)](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-3f85a94ea907.jpg) actor Henry B. Walthall (1916) — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Henry_B._Walthall_-_Motion_Picture_Classic_1916.jpg/1280px-Henry_B._Walthall_-_Motion_Picture_Classic_1916.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Advertisement in The Moving Picture World (1916)](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-557d856e456b.png) Advertisement in The Moving Picture World (1916) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Henry_B._Walthall_1916.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Henry B. Walthall, three-quarters length, seated on chair, facing left, hand under chin, looking at picture (1911)](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-a5ff76130764.jpg) Henry B. Walthall, three-quarters length, seated on chair, facing left, hand under chin, looking at picture (1911) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Henry_B._Walthall_cph.3b05763.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Scene from the movie Birth of a Nation. 1915.](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-68be77d50907.jpg) Scene from the movie Birth of a Nation. 1915. — D. W. Griffith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Birth_of_a_nation%2C_1915%2C_ben_cameron.jpg/1280px-Birth_of_a_nation%2C_1915%2C_ben_cameron.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Henry B. Walthall](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-a3a634a7e8b2.jpg) Henry B. Walthall — Image via TMDB - ![Henry B. Walthall](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-c007244f94ce.jpg) Henry B. Walthall — Image via TMDB - ![Henry B. Walthall](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-155e18de604e.jpg) Henry B. Walthall — Image via TMDB - ![Henry B. Walthall, silent film actor, from the American comedy film Gimme (1923). Subjects: actors, motion pictures](https://film.one/media/person/1224071/gallery-e7c5c42b58e3.jpg) Henry B. Walthall, silent film actor, from the American comedy film Gimme (1923). Subjects: actors, motion pictures — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Henry_B_Walthall%2C_silent_film_actor_%28SAYRE_10846%29.jpg/1280px-Henry_B_Walthall%2C_silent_film_actor_%28SAYRE_10846%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/henry-b-walthall