Film and television career

Reason was born in Glendale, California, the son of Jean (Robinson) and Rex G. Reason. The younger brother of actor Rex Reason, 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.

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. 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.

Reason also guest starred on Tales of the Texas Rangers, Death Valley Days (1952), 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), Death Valley Days (in "A Calamity Called Jane" with Fay Spain in 1966), The Big Valley (the episode "Plunder" in 1967), Star Trek ("Bread and Circuses", 1968), and Here's Lucy (also 1968).

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 at the age of eighty-four on December 26, 2014, of lymphoma.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]