Rex Reason (1928-2015) was an American actor. He was the brother of actor Rhodes Reason, who is two years younger. The two bore a strong resemblance and many may have mistakenly assumed they were twins.
Reason was born in Berlin, Germany, but reared in Los Angeles and attended Hoover High School in Glendale, California. He enlisted in the United States Army at the age of seventeen. He began his stage career in 1948 at the Pasadena Playhouse, performing there for three years before coming to the notice of Hollywood. In 1951 he was given a screen test at Columbia Pictures and was cast as the lead in a starring role in his first picture, a low-budget adventure drama Storm Over Tibet (1952). Reason was under contract for two more years at Columbia until moving to Universal in mid-1953, after making a promising appearance in the sword-and-sandal epic Salome (1953) with Rita Hayworth.
A tall (6'2"), handsome, leading man with a distinctive baritone speaking voice, Reason appeared in several films and television shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He made two pictures at Universal Studios under the name "Bart Roberts" before demanding to be able to use his own name.
Reason is perhaps best known for his role as stalwart, heroic scientist Dr. Cal Meacham in the science fiction This Island Earth (1955, which was later taken on by MST3K in their theatrical film installment). Reason then co-starred as sympathetic scientist Dr. Tom Morgan in Universal International Pictures' Creature from the Black Lagoon horror film series third and final installment The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). He also appeared opposite Clark Gable and Sidney Poitier in Band of Angels (WB, 1957). He appeared in Badlands of Montana (1957) as an opponent of a corrupt Mayor played by John M. Pickard. In the story line, Pickard administers ten lashes with a whip to Reason's back.
Reason starred as newspapermen in two television series. The first of those was a syndicated western Man Without a Gun (1957-59) in the role of Adam MacLean, editor of the Yellowstone Sentinel newspaper in Dakota Territory. The second was the ABC/Warner Bros. drama The Roaring Twenties (1960-62) which was a crime drama rich in period music. He played Scott Norris, reporter for the fictitious New York Record.
Reason walked out on his film contract with Warner Bros. in the fall of 1961 when he was being considered for a starring role in John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. The film began as a Warner Bros. project, but was completed as an independent film and released by United Artists in 1962. The role he was going to play went to Laurence Harvey instead.
After his film and television acting career ended, he worked as a real estate broker and had a second career as a voiceover actor. Following his retirement, Reason lived in Walnut, California, with his third wife, Shirley. In 1996, he appeared as a guest at the ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama 2: Electric Boogaloo. Reason passed away in 2015.
Riffed Movies[]
- This Island Earth (MST3K: The Movie) - as Dr. Cal Meacham
- The Creature Walks Among Us (The Mads Are Back) - as Dr. Thomas Morgan
