Rezin Davis Shepherd, known professionally as R. D. MacLean (March 7, 1859 – June 28, 1946) was an American actor. Shepherd was born on March 7, 1859, to Henry Shepherd II and his wife Azemia. As the son of a prosperous landowner, Shepherd became an agent for his father's Louisiana properties and for the Louisiana properties of other relatives at the age of 19. He attended college at

Washington and Lee College Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. Established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, it is among the oldest institutions of higher learning in the US. Wash ...

and the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. In 1879, Shepherd made his amateur stage debut in New Orleans as

Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC) was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was reta ...

in a production of ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

''. Following this, he formed his own Shakespearean theater company in Louisiana. In the 1880s, Shepherd moved to New York to pursue professional acting, adopting the name R.D. MacLean (or McLean), after his mother's maiden name. His first appearance was in a production of ''

Pygmalion and Galatea Pygmalion and Galatea are two characters from Greco-Roman mythology. Pygmalion and Galatea may also refer to: * ''Pygmalion and Galatea'' (play), a play by W. S. Gilbert * ''Pygmalion and the Image series'', a series of paintings by Edward Burne- ...

'' as Pygmalion in

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

. He joined Marie Prescott's company in New York City, working in Shakespearean repertoire for seven years. In 1891, he inherited the Shepherd family estate,

Wild Goose Farm Wild Goose Farm is a farm complex near Shepherdstown, West Virginia, established in the early 19th century. The farm includes a large, irregularly-arranged main house, a Pennsylvania-style bank barn, a tenant house, and outbuildings including ...

near

Shepherdstown, West Virginia Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located in the lower Shenandoah Valley along the Potomac River. Home to Shepherd University, the town's population was 1,531 at the time of the 2020 census. The town wa ...

. He married Marie Prescott in 1892, and they moved to Wild Goose in 1893. However, Prescott died of cancer in New York not long after. In 1897, MacLean returned to the theater, meeting actress Odette Tyler, whom he married on April 1, 1897. In 1906, the couple retired in West Virginia, but in 1911 they sold the farm and moved to Washington, D.C., and resumed acting. In 1919, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where they appeared in a few movies. In 1928, MacLean received a Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Southern California. Odette died of a heart attack in 1936, and MacLean died on June 28, 1946, of a heart ailment.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:MacLean, R.D. 1859 births 1946 deaths 19th-century American male actors 20th-century American male actors Male actors from Virginia University of Virginia alumni Washington and Lee University alumni