Editing Reginald Sheffield (section)

==Life==
He was born as '''Matthew Reginald Sheffield Cassan''' on 18 February 1901 in the [[Hanover Square, London|St. George's, Hanover Square]] district of [[London]], to Matthew Sheffield Cassan and Alice Mary Field. He had a brother, Edward Sheffield Cassan and a sister, Flora Kathleen Sheffield Cassan, who became an actress known as [[Flora Sheffield]].

His father was born in Ireland and his mother in England. They were married in London in 1892. Matthew died when Reginald was nine. In 1913 Reginald Sheffield (billed as Eric Desmond) appeared in ''[[David Copperfield (1913 film)|David Copperfield]]''. In 1914, Alice Sheffield and her children [[immigration|emigrated]] to the United States where they lived in [[Queens]], New York. Reginald acted on the stage and in films. While his sister, Flora, was an actress, brother Edward worked as an accountant in a bank and later became a theatrical agent.

Sheffield's [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] performances credited as Reggie Sheffield include ''[[Evidence (play)|Evidence]]'' (1914), in which his mother, Alice Sheffield, also appeared, ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' (1916), ''If'' (1917), ''The Betrothal'' (1918) and ''Helena's Boys'' (1924). His performances credited as Reginald Sheffield include ''Youth'' (1920), ''The Way Things Happen'' (1924), ''[[Hay Fever (play)|Hay Fever]]'' (1925), playing Sandy Tyrell, ''Slaves All'' (1926), ''Soldiers and Women'' (1929), playing Lieutenant Mason and ''Dear Old England'' (1930).

Reginald Sheffield was married in 1927 to Louise Van Loon (21 January 1905 – 14 April 1987), a New York-born, [[Vassar College]] graduate with a liberal arts education. The couple had three children:
* Mary Alice Sheffield Cassan (born 1928)
* Jon Matthew Sheffield Cassan (11 April 1931 – 15 October 2010) (aka actor [[Johnny Sheffield]]) 
* William Hart Sheffield Cassan (15 July 1935 – 12 December 2010) (actor Billy Sheffield)<ref>[http://www.memorialsolutions.com/sitemaker/sites/Gerber1/memsol.cgi?user_id=289977 In Memoriam William Hart Sheffield, M.D.]</ref>

As film production became more and more located in [[Southern California]], Sheffield and his wife travelled back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles. After several years they moved permanently to the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]].

Being a trained stage actor, Sheffield easily made the transition from [[silent film]]s to [[Sound film|talkies]]. He was a working actor who became memorable in numerous character and supporting roles and appeared with some of the greatest film stars of the day, including [[Constance Bennett]], [[William Powell]], [[George Arliss]], [[Loretta Young]], [[Gary Cooper]], [[Errol Flynn]], [[Rosalind Russell]], [[Cary Grant]] and [[Joan Fontaine]].

In 1954, he began appearing as Professor Mayberry in the television series ''[[Rocky Jones, Space Ranger]]''. And after his son, [[Johnny Sheffield]], appeared in his last ''[[Bomba, the Jungle Boy]]'' film in 1955, Reginald created, produced and directed a pilot for a television series, ''Bantu, the Zebra Boy'', but a sponsor was not found and the show was never produced as a weekly series.

Sheffield acted in both versions of [[Cecil B. DeMille]]'s ''The Buccaneer'' in ([[The Buccaneer (1938 film)|1938]]) and ([[The Buccaneer (1958 film)|1958]]), the latter being his last screen appearance.