Reason was born in Glendale in Los Angeles County, California, the son of Rex G. Reason and the former Jean Robinson. The younger brother of actorRex Reason, Rhodes Reason made his acting start at the age of eighteen in a production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Charles Laughton. Among his starring roles were parts in King Kong Escapes and the television seriesWhite Hunter, and as Sheriff Will Mayberry in the ABCdrama seriesBus Stop with Marilyn Maxwell and Richard Anderson. Reason was cast as Chuck Wilson in "Rodeo Round-Up" in 1956 and as Kinnard in "Dust of Destruction", episodes of Kirby Grant's western aviation adventure series, Sky King, episode "Conflict" in the "Rifleman" as Ben Kendrick. Reason had a major part in an episode of the ABC/Warner Bros. western series, Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins. In the segment "Strange Land", Reason played Burr Fulton, a hired gunman who takes over the management of a ranch owned by the aging and bitter Cash Billings, portrayed by Morris Ankrum. Sugarfoot arrives to bring law and justice to the situation. Jan Chaney plays Billings' daughter, Anne, who takes a liking to Sugarfoot and an aversion to Fulton. Reason was a guest star in Frontier Doctor, a syndicated western series set in the Arizona Territory starring Rex Allen. He was cast as Black Jack in the episode "The Homesteaders". Another ABC/WB western series Reason appeared in was Colt.45, as Ben Thompson in the episode "Appointment in Agoura". Chris Robinson appeared in the guest cast as Cal Sanger. In the story line, Thompson is targeted by the Sanger gang after he shot its youngest member in self-defense. Reason guest starred on Tales of the Texas Rangers, Maverick, Tombstone Territory, Perry Mason as Martin Eldridge in the 1966 episode, "The Case of the Bogus Buccaneers", 77 Sunset Strip, Bourbon Street Beat, The Time Tunnel, The Big Valley, The Lucy Show, , and Here's Lucy. Reason appeared as Peter Jeffries in the 1955 episode, "California's First Ice Man" of the western television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Jeffries turns to the importation of ice from his native Boston, Massachusetts, rather than exploration of gold, to revive his lost family fortune. He finds Sacramento under the grip of Phineas Colby while he is courting Colby's niece, Laura Colby, who acts as a nurse seeking ice to relieve suffering of her patients in the heat of summer. In 1966, Reason appeared as Wild Bill Hickok in another Death Valley Days episode, "A Calamity Called Jane" with Fay Spain in the starring role. His feature film appearances include Yellowstone Kelly and A Fever in the Blood. In the early 1980s, he starred in the Broadway musicalAnnie, playing Daddy Warbucks for nearly three years. Reason died in Palm Springs at the age of eighty-four of lymphoma.
