William Holden

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William Holden

Birth name William Franklin Beedle Jr.
Born April 17, 1918
O'Fallon, Illinois, USA
Died circa November 12, 1981
Santa Monica, California, USA
Academy
 Awards		 Best Actor
1953 Stalag 17

William Holden (April 17, 1918 - ca. November 12, 1981) was an Academy Awards-winning American film actor. He was named one of the "Top 10 stars of the year" six times (1954-1958, 1961) and appeared on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list as #25.

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[edit] Early life and career

Born William Franklin Beedle Jr. in O'Fallon, Illinois, he was the eldest of three sons of William Franklin Beedle, Sr., an industrial chemist, and Mary Blanche Ball, a teacher. The family, who moved to Pasadena, California when he was three, was of English descent; Holden's paternal great-grandmother, Rebecca Westfield, was born in England in 1817, while some of his mother's ancestors immigrated to the U.S. in the 17th century from Millenback, Lancaster, England.

While attending Pasadena Junior College, he became involved in local radio plays and with the Pasadena Playhouse, leading to his discovery by a talent scout from Paramount Pictures in 1937. His first role was in Prison Farm the following year.

[edit] Hollywood's "Golden Boy"

His first starring role was in 1939's Golden Boy, in which he played a boxer who wants to be a violinist.

After Columbia Pictures picked up half of his contract, he alternated between starring in several minor pictures for Paramount and Columbia before serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, where he acted in training films. Beginning in 1950 his career rebounded when Billy Wilder tapped him to star as the down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis who takes shelter with faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard for which Holden won his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Following this breakthrough film, he played a series of roles that combined good looks with cynical detachment, including the prisoner of war entrepreneur in Stalag 17 (1953), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor). Holden felt he didn't deserve it, saying he thought Burt Lancaster should have won for From Here to Eternity. According to interviews with cast members on the Stalag 17 Special Edition DVD, Holden was told by his wife after his Oscar win that he didn't win for Stalag 17; it was a belated (and overdue) win for Sunset Boulevard. Holden's acceptance speech for his Academy Award was among the shortest on record: "Thank you!"

Other roles in this period include the pressured young engineer/family man in Executive Suite (1954), the acerbic playwright in The Country Girl (1954), the wandering braggart in Picnic (1955), the dashing war correspondent in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), the ill-fated prisoner in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and a U-Boat captain in The Key (1958). He played a conflicted jet pilot in the excellent Korean War film Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954).

He also played a number of sunnier roles in light comedy, such as the handsome architect pursuing virginal Maggie McNamara in The Moon is Blue (1953), Judy Holliday's tutor in Born Yesterday (1950), a playwright captivated by Ginger Rogers in Forever Female (1953) and Humphrey Bogart's younger playboy brother (who romances Audrey Hepburn) in Sabrina (1954).

He was unsuccessfully pursued by director Alfred Hitchcock to star in Strangers on a Train (1951) and The Trouble With Harry (1955), and was also considered for North by Northwest (1959) should the hard-to-get Cary Grant decline the role.

In 1960, he starred opposite Nancy Kwan in the film adaptation of the novel The World of Suzie Wong, playing a struggling artist captivated by a free-spirited Hong Kong prostitute.

However, Holden starred in his share of forgettable movies (which he was forced into by studio contracts). He suffered from alcoholism and depression for many years. By the early 1960s, his roles were having less critical and commercial impact. In 1966 Holden was involved in a car accident in Italy in which the other driver was killed.

It was determined Holden had been driving under the influence of alcohol; he was charged with vehicular manslaughter and received an eight-month suspended prison sentence. Holden was overcome with guilt, and friends said this led to even heavier bouts of drinking.

[edit] Later career

In 1969 he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch, winning much acclaim. Five years later, he starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the blockbuster, The Towering Inferno. He was also praised for his Oscar-nominated leading performance in Sidney Lumet's Network (1976), playing an older version of the character type he had perfected in the 1950s, only now more jaded and aware of his own mortality. In 1980 Holden appeared in The Earthling with child actor Ricky Schroder, playing a loner dying of cancer who goes to the Australian outback to end his days, meets a young boy whose parents have been killed in an accident, and teaches him how to survive. Schroder later named one of his sons Holden.

[edit] Private life

Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until their divorce (after many long separations) in 1971. They had two sons, Peter Westfield (born in 1944) and Scott Porter (born in 1946). He also adopted Virginia, his wife's daughter from her first marriage.

Holden had a busy social life; he was best man at the marriage of his friend Ronald Reagan to Nancy Davis in 1952. He maintained a home in Switzerland and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner in an animal preserve in Africa. His Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki, Kenya (founded 1959) became a mecca for the international jet set.

He began a long relationship with actress Stefanie Powers which sparked her interest in animal welfare. (After his death, Powers became the President of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and a director of their Mount Kenya Game Ranch).

He was also a major supporter of the United States Republican Party.

[edit] Other possible children

He had reported affairs with a number of Hollywood actresses, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Capucine, and a "yearly rendezvous" with Shelley Winters.

Holden is believed to have had a seven-year relationship with Eva May Hoffman, the wife of composer Emil Newman, and visual evidence strongly supports the allegation that he was the biological father of Hoffman and Newman's children Arlene and William. [citation needed]

[edit] Death

William Holden died as the result of a fall in his high rise apartment on the seaside cliffs of Santa Monica, California in November 1981. Holden was alone and heavily intoxicated when he apparently slipped on a throw rug, severely gashed his head on a night table, and bled to death. Evidence suggests he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall but may not have realized the severity of the injury and didn't summon aid. His body was found on November 16, but forensic and other evidence suggested he had been dead for several days and most likely died on November 12. He was 63 years old.

His body was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

[edit] In popular culture

  • The band Too Much Joy has a song that combines Holden's name with that of Salinger's creation, "William Holden Caulfield".
  • According to Suzanne Vega, Holden is the actor mentioned in the lyrics of her song "Tom's Diner" (and has said a story about his death was on the New York Post's front page the day she wrote it):
I open up the paper
There's a story of an actor
Who had died while he was drinking
It was no one I had heard of

[edit] Trivia

  • Holden's height was 5'11".

[edit] Academy Awards and Nominations

Preceded by:
Gary Cooper
for High Noon		 Academy Award for Best Actor
1953
for Stalag 17		 Succeeded by:
Marlon Brando
for On the Waterfront

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External links

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