William Reeves Eason (October 2, 1886 – June 9, 1956), known as B. Reeves Eason, was an American film director, actor and screenwriter. His directorial output was limited mainly to low-budget westerns and action pictures, but it was as a second-unit director and action specialist that he was best known. He was famous for staging spectacular battle scenes in war films and action scenes in large-budget westerns, but he acquired the nickname “Breezy” for his “breezy” attitude towards safety while staging his sequences—during the famous cavalry charge at the end of Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), so many horses were killed or injured so severely that they had to be euthanized that both the public and Hollywood itself were outraged, resulting in the selection of the American Humane Society by the beleaguered studios to provide representatives on the sets of all films using animals to ensure their safety.
Career
Born in Massachusetts, Eason studied engineering at the University of California. Eason directed 150 films and starred in almost 100 films over his career. Eason’s career transcended into sound and he directed film serials such as The Miracle Rider starring Tom Mix in 1935. He used 42 cameras to film the chariot race as a second-unit director on Ben-Hur (1925), the climactic charge in Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and also directed the “Burning of Atlanta” in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Family and personal life
His son, B. Reeves Eason Jr., was a child actor who appeared in 12 films, including Nine-Tenths of the Law, which Eason, Sr. directed. Born in 1914, he died in 1921 after being hit by a runaway truck outside of his parents’ home shortly after the filming of the Harry Carey silent western The Fox was completed, just before his seventh birthday.
Death
On June 9, 1956, Eason died of a heart attack at the age of 69. He is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Filmography
Director
1915 : Competition
1915 : The Day of Reckoning
1915 : She Walketh Alone
1915 : The Poet of the Peaks
1915 : A Good Business Deal
1915 : Mountain Mary
1915 : To Melody a Soul Responds
1915 : The Honor of the District Attorney
1915 : After the Storm
1915 : The Newer Way
1915 : The Exile of Bar-K Ranch
1915 : Drawing the Line
1915 : A Question of Honor
1915 : The Spirit of Adventure
1915 : In Trust
1915 : The Little Lady Next Door
1915 : The Barren Gain
1915 : Hearts in Shadow
1915 : Profit from Loss
1915 : The Blot on the Shield
1915 : The Smuggler’s Cave
1915 : The Wasp
1915 : To Rent Furnished
1915 : The Substitute Minister
1915 : The Bluffers
1915 : The Silver Lining
1915 : The Assayer of Lone Gap
1915 : The Solution to the Mystery
1916 : Matching Dreams
1916 : Time and Tide
1916 : Viviana
1916 : A Sanitarium Scramble
1916 : Shadows
1918 : Nine-Tenths of the Law
1919 : The Fighting Heart
1919 : The Four-Bit Man
1919 : The Jack of Hearts
1919 : The Crow
1919 : The Tell Tale Wire
1919 : The Fighting Line
1919 : The Kid and the Cowboy
1920 : The Prospector’s Vengeance
1920 : Hair Trigger Stuff
1920 : Held Up for the Makin’s
1920 : The Rattler’s Hiss
1920 : His Nose in the Book
1920 : The Moon Riders
1920 : Human Stuff
1920 : Blue Streak McCoy
1920 : Pink Tights
1920 : Two Kinds of Love
1921 : The Big Adventure
1921 : Colorado
1921 : Red Courage
1921 : The Fire Eater
1922 : Pardon My Nerve!
1922 : When East Comes West
1922 : Roughshod
1922 : The Lone Hand
1923 : Around the World in Eighteen Days
1923 : His Last Race
1924 : Treasure Canyon
1924 : Tiger Thompson
1924 : Women First
1924 : Trigger Fingers
1924 : Flashing Spurs
1925 : The Texas Bearcat
1925 : Fighting Youth
1925 : Border Justice
1925 : Fighting the Flames
1925 : The New Champion
1925 : A Fight to the Finish
1925 : The Shadow on the Wall
1926 : The Test of Donald Norton
1926 : The Sign of the Claw
1926 : Lone Hand Saunders
1927 : Johnny Get Your Hair Cut
1927 : The Denver Dude
1927 : The Prairie King
1927 : Painted Ponies
1927 : Through Thick and Thin
1927 : Galloping Fury
1928 : A Trick of Hearts
1928 : The Flyin’ Cowboy
1928 : Riding for Fame
1928 : Clearing the Trail
1929 : The Lariat Kid
1929 : The Winged Horseman
1930 : Troopers Three
1930 : Roaring Ranch
1930 : Trigger Tricks
1930 : Spurs
1931 : King of the Wild
1931 : The Vanishing Legion
1931 : The Galloping Ghost
1932 : The Sunset Trail
1932 : The Shadow of the Eagle
1932 : The Last of the Mohicans
1932 : The Honor of the Press
1932 : Cornered
1932 : Heart Punch
1932 : Behind Jury Doors
1933 : Revenge at Monte Carlo
1933 : Alimony Madness
1933 : Her Resale Value
1933 : Dance Hall Hostess
1933 : Neighbors’ Wives
1934 : Hollywood Hoodlum
1934 : The Law of the Wild (Le Démon noir)
1934 : Mystery Mountain
1935 : The Phantom Empire (La Reine de l’empire fantôme)
1935 : The Miracle Rider (Le Cavalier miracle)
1935 : The Adventures of Rex and Rinty
1935 : The Fighting Marines
1936 : Darkest Africa
1936 : Red River Valley
1936 : Undersea Kingdom
1936 : Give Me Liberty
1937 : Land Beyond the Law
1937 : Empty Holsters
1937 : Prairie Thunder
1938 : Sergeant Murphy
1938 : The Kid Comes Back
1938 : Daredevil Drivers
1938 : Call of the Yukon
1939 : Blue Montana Skies
1939 : Mountain Rhythm
1940 : Men with Steel Faces
1940 : Pony Express Days
1940 : Young America Flies
1940 : Service with the Colors
1940 : March On, Marines
1940 : Meet the Fleet
1941 : The Tanks Are Coming
1942 : Soldiers in White
1942 : Murder in the Big House
1942 : Spy Ship
1942 : Men of the Sky
1943 : Truck Busters
1943 : Mechanized Patrolling
1943 : Oklahoma Outlaws
1943 : Murder on the Waterfront
1943 : Wagon Wheels West
1943 : The Phantom
1944 : The Desert Hawk
1944 : Black Arrow
1945 : Salome Where She Danced (chase sequences, billed as Breezy Eason)
1946 : ‘Neath Canadian Skies
1946 : North of the Border
1949 : Rimfire
Actor
1913 : The Step Brothers
1913 : A Divorce Scandal
1913 : Armed Intervention
1913 : The Shriner’s Daughter
1914 : The Miser’s Policy
1914 : The Return of Helen Redmond
1914 : The Hermit
1914 : The Lost Treasure
1914 : The Money Lender
1914 : The Dream Child
1914 : The Second Clue
1914 : The Smouldering Spark
1914 : In the Moonlight
1914 : Calamity Anne’s Love Affair
1914 : A Soul Astray
1914 : Beyond the City
1914 : The Lost Sermon
1914 : A Prince of Bohemia
1914 : Sparrow of the Circus
1914 : Feast and Famine
1914 : The Aftermath
1914 : Break, Break, Break
1914 : His Faith in Humanity
1914 : Jail Birds
1914 : In the Open
1914 : Sir Galahad of Twilight
1914 : Redbird Wins
1914 : The Strength o’ Ten
1915 : The Unseen Vengeance
1915 : The Black Ghost Bandit
1915 : The Legend Beautiful
1915 : The Law of the Wilds
1915 : A Heart of Gold : Fred
1915 : In the Twilight
1915 : Heart of Flame
1915 : The Echo : Ferryman
1915 : Competition
1915 : The Guy Upstairs
1917 : Hell Hath No Fury
1918 : Nine-Tenths of the Law : ‘Red Adair
1920 : Two Kinds of Love : Dorgan
1928 : The Danger Rider : Tucson Joe
Screenwriter
1920 : Pink Tights
1918 : Nine-Tenths of the Law
1920 : The Prospector’s Vengeance
1920 : Human Stuff
1928 : The Flyin’ Cowboy
1928 : Riding for Fame
1930 : Trigger Tricks
1930 : Spurs
1934 : The Law of the Wild (Le Démon noir)
External Links
Actor B. Reeves Eason – Wikipedia
