Ione Reed

Ione Reed (1903–1985) was an American actress, stunt double, and safety instructor whose career spanned silent film, Broadway, and industrial work. She took on female lead roles in numerous silent westerns during the 1920s and early 1930s, with screen credits including A Desperate Chance (1925), Fighting Luck (1925), The Road Agent (1925), The Texas Terror (1925), Blue Streak O'Neil (1926), Chasing Trouble (1926), Bucking the Truth (1926), Rider of the Law (1927), Outlaw's Paradise (1927), Across the Plains (1928), Cheyenne Trails (1928), Trails of Treachery (1928), West of the Rockies (1929), An Oklahoma Cowboy (1929), Captain Cowboy (1929), Riders of the Storm (1929), Below the Border (1929), The Man from Nowhere (1930), and Western Honor (1930).

Alongside her on-screen acting work, Reed performed stunt doubling, standing in for Maureen O'Hara in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and for Claire Trevor in The Desperadoes. Her film appearances continued into the sound era, with credits including Melody Trail (1935), The Buccaneer (1938), and First Yank into Tokyo (1945). Reed also appeared in newspaper advertisements for Camel cigarettes.

Her stage career brought her to Broadway, where she performed in 1936 and later appeared in the musical New Faces of 1943. In 1937, Reed joined an expedition to the Galápagos Islands and Central America organized under the sponsorship of the California Zoological Society, whose purpose was to collect birds and small animals for the society's Zoopark in Los Angeles. Reed was selected for the expedition on the basis of her extensive experience handling animals.

A diagnosis of makeup poisoning in 1941 forced a significant shift in Reed's professional life. On a physician's instruction to avoid makeup for a year, she pursued other employment, beginning as a hot tinner in a radio factory and advancing within months to head of that department. She subsequently joined Lewyt, a manufacturer of electronic equipment including radar devices during World War II, where her attention turned to workplace safety. After developing several protective devices for factory workers, she was appointed safety supervisor. Reed drew on her background in performance to conduct training sessions that dramatized methods for avoiding hazardous situations, and the improvements she introduced contributed to a reduction in accidents and an increase in production at the facility.