Herbert Heyes on AllMovie

Herbert Heyes was somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13 when he first trod the boards as a member of the Baker Stock Company in Portland, Oregon. By 1910, Heyes was playing leads in the touring company run by actor/manager James K. Hackett. He was firmly established on Broadway when, in 1916, he was hired by Fox Films to play opposite Theda Bara in a series of steamy romances (Under Two Flags, Salome, etc.). Returning to New York, Heyes remained a busy stage and radio actor into the 1940s. He resumed his film career in the early 1940s, playing such character parts as department store magnate Mr. Gimbel in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Ronald Reagan's prospective father-in-law in Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), and his favorite screen role, manufacturer Charles Eastman in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951). Heyes' dignified demeanor kept him in demand throughout the 1950s for minor but pivotal roles like President Thomas Jefferson in The Far Horizons (1955) and General Pershing in The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955). Herbert Heyes was the father of writer/director Douglas Heyes, of Maverick and Twilight Zone fame.