- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Reaves Eason
- Nickname
- Breezy
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- B. Reeves Eason ran a produce business before going into stock and vaudeville. He is known for using 42 cameras to film the spectacular chariot race in the Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). (The chariot race was filmed at what is now the intersection of LaCienega and Venice Boulevards in Los Angeles.) This 1925 version was the most expensive silent film ever made, costing $3.9 million, and in 1921 the sum of $600,000 was paid for the rights to film the classic Lew Wallace novel (the highest price ever paid for rights during the silent era). Eason also directed the "burning of Atlanta" in the classic Gone with the Wind (1939).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- Mississippi-born action specialist B. Reeves Eason started his career as an actor in the 1910s. It didn't take long for him to switch to the other side of the camera, where he became known as one of the best second-unit directors in the business. He handled everything from the stupendous chariot-race sequence in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) to the climactic British charge of the Russian positions in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) to the famous burning of Atlanta sequence in Gone with the Wind (1939) to the furious battle at the Little Big Horn in the finale of They Died with Their Boots On (1941), among others. Unlike many second-unit directors, however, Eason also directed a slew of features and shorts--more than 150 altogether--although most were of the low-grade action (Truck Busters (1943)), western (Trigger Tricks (1930) or exploitation (Dance Hall Hostess (1933)) variety. He acquired his nickname "Breezy" because of his somewhat "breezy" attitude toward filming--he was notorious for shooting just one take of a scene, regardless of what flubs, mistakes or malfunctions happened in it. He also had a reputation for having a, shall we say, "cavalier" attitude towards safety when shooting action scenes. During "The Charge of the Light Brigade", star Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz almost came to blows because Flynn was outraged at the number of horses killed, or injured so badly they had to be put down, because of the way Eason shot the action scenes and Curtiz's refusal to do anything about it (Flynn wasn't the only one outraged; it was the carnage among the horses on this picture that resulted in the industry agreeing to have the American Humane Society on the set of any picture with animals in it to ensure their safety). Eason was also behind the megaphone for The Phantom Empire (1935), a sci-fi serial for low-budget Mascot Pictures that was the first starring vehicle for Gene Autry and that's now considered a camp classic.
Eason's son B. Reeves Eason Jr. was also an actor, who unfortunately died at age 6 when he was hit by a runaway truck on the set of The Fox (1921).
B. Reeves Eason retired from the business in 1952, and died of a heart attack at his home in Sherman Oaks, CA, in 1956.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- SpouseJimsy Maye (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- Father of B. Reeves Eason Jr.
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