Frances Reid

Frances Reid (December 9, 1914 – February 3, 2010) was an American actress born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and raised in Beverly Hills, California. Her career spanned stage, film, and television from the late 1930s through the early 2000s, and at the time of her death she ranked fifth on the all-time list of longest-serving soap opera actors in the United States.

Reid's first screen appearance came in 1938 with a bit part in the film Man-Proof. Her Broadway career ran from 1933 to 1949 and included productions of Hamlet, King Richard II, Twelfth Night, and The Rivalry. Her Broadway debut was the role of Juliette Lecourtois in Where There's a Will There's a Way at the John Golden Theatre in 1939. Among her most prominent stage credits was the role of Roxane opposite José Ferrer in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Alvin Theatre. She reprised that role three years later, again alongside Ferrer, in a 1949 one-hour adaptation for The Philco Television Playhouse. Reid became a member of The Actors Studio from its inception in 1947.

Her television work began in earnest in the 1950s. From 1954 to 1955, she played the title role in the CBS television adaptation of the radio serial Portia Faces Life. She subsequently appeared on As the World Turns from 1959 to 1962 as Grace Baker, the mother-in-law of Penny Hughes, and in 1964 portrayed Rose Pollack on The Edge of Night. Reid made two guest appearances on Perry Mason: in 1963 she played Miss Givney in "The Case of Constant Doyle," and in 1965 she played defendant Lucille Forrest in "The Case of the Golden Venom." That same year she played frontier doctor Katy Piper in the Wagon Train episode "The Katy Piper Story," which aired on April 10, 1965.

In 1966, Reid appeared opposite Rock Hudson in director John Frankenheimer's film Seconds. Frankenheimer cited her as one of his favorite actresses in the audio commentary for the film's DVD release.

Reid is best known for her portrayal of matriarch Alice Horton on the NBC daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, a role she originated when the series premiered on November 8, 1965, and continued until December 26, 2007, her final on-screen appearance. She remained under contract with the show until her death. A 2003–2004 storyline in which Alice and other long-running characters were seemingly murdered brought Reid renewed mainstream attention.

Her work in daytime television earned her a Daytime Emmy nomination for Supporting Actress in 1979 and for Lead Actress in 1987, and she received a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. She won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Actress in a Mature Role in 1978, 1979, 1984, and 1985, and was inducted into the Television Academy's archives in 2003.

Reid was married to actor Philip Bourneuf from June 27, 1940, until their divorce in 1973. She died on February 3, 2010, at an assisted living facility in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 95.