Rhodes Reason

Reason was born in Glendale in Los Angeles County, California, the son of Rex G. Reason and the former Jean Robinson.[1] The younger brother of actor Rex Reason, Rhodes Reason made his acting start at the age of eighteen in a production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Charles Laughton.

Among his starring roles were parts in King Kong Escapes (1967) and the television series White Hunter (1958), and as Sheriff Will Mayberry in the ABC drama series Bus Stop with Marilyn Maxwell and Richard Anderson. Reason was cast as Chuck Wilson in "Rodeo Round-Up" in 1956 and as Kinnard in "Dust of Destruction", episodes of Kirby Grant's western aviation adventure series, Sky King, episode "Conflict" in the "Rifleman" as Ben Kendrick.

Reason had a major part in an episode of the ABC/Warner Bros. western series, Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins. In the segment "Strange Land" (1957), Reason played Burr Fulton, a hired gunman who takes over the management of a ranch owned by the aging and bitter Cash Billings, portrayed by Morris Ankrum. Sugarfoot arrives to bring law and justice to the situation. Jan Chaney plays Billings' daughter, Anne, who takes a liking to Sugarfoot and an aversion to Fulton.[2] Reason was a guest star in Frontier Doctor, a syndicated western series set in the Arizona Territory starring Rex Allen. He was cast as Black Jack in the episode "The Homesteaders" (1958). Another ABC/WB western series Reason appeared in was Colt .45, as Ben Thompson in the episode "Appointment in Agoura" (1960). Chris Robinson appeared in the guest cast as Cal Sanger. In the story line, Thompson is targeted by the Sanger gang after he shot its youngest member in self-defense.[3]

Reason guest starred on Tales of the Texas Rangers, Maverick (1957 episode "Ghost Rider" with James Garner), Tombstone Territory (1957 episode "Ambush at Gila Gulch"), Perry Mason as Martin Eldridge in the 1966 episode, "The Case of the Bogus Buccaneers", 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Bourbon Street Beat (1960), The Time Tunnel (1966), The Big Valley (the episode "Plunder" in 1967), The Lucy Show (also 1967), Star Trek ("Bread and Circuses", 1968), and Here's Lucy (also 1968).

Reason appeared as Peter Jeffries in the 1955 episode, "California's First Ice Man" of the western television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Jeffries turns to the importation of ice from his native Boston, Massachusetts, rather than exploration of gold, to revive his lost family fortune. He finds Sacramento under the grip of Phineas Colby (I. Stanford Jolley) while he is courting Colby's niece, Laura Colby (Donna Drew), who acts as a nurse seeking ice to relieve suffering of her patients in the heat of summer.[4] In 1966, Reason appeared as Wild Bill Hickok in another Death Valley Days episode, "A Calamity Called Jane" with Fay Spain in the starring role.

His feature film appearances include Yellowstone Kelly (1959, with Clint Walker) and A Fever in the Blood (1961). In the early 1980s, he starred in the Broadway musical Annie, playing Daddy Warbucks for nearly three years.

Reason died in Palm Springs at the age of eighty-four of lymphoma.[5]

• Rhodes Reason on IMDb
• Rhodes Reason at the American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures
• Rhodes Reason at AllMovie
• Rhodes Reason at the Internet Broadway Database
• Rhodes Reason at Find a Grave
• Obituary in The Desert Sun (February 8, 2015)