William Holden

William Holden (April 17, 1918 â€" on or about November 12, 1981) was an Oscar-winning American film actor.

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.

Hollywood's "Golden Boy"

Nancy Olson and William Holden in Sunset Boulevard. All four principal cast members including Holden were nominated for Academy Awards.

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 in Sunset Boulevard. 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 (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor), the wandering braggard in Picnic and the ill-fated prisoner in The Bridge on the River Kwai. He also played a number of sunnier roles in light comedy, such as the dashing architect in The Moon is Blue, the tutor in Born Yesterday and Humphrey Bogart's younger, playboy brother in Sabrina. In 1960, he starred opposite Nancy Kwan in the film adaptation of the novel, The World of Suzie Wong. Holden played a struggling artist, Robert Lomax who was captivated by a free-spirited Hong Kong prostitute, Suzie Wong (played by Kwan).

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 while in Italy Holden was involved in a car accident 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.

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 leading performance in 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.

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, 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).

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.

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 a 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.

Trivia

*Holden's height was 5'10".
*Good friends with Ronald Reagan, and served as best man at his wedding to Nancy Davis in 1952.
*Holden's acceptance speech for his Academy Award was among the shortest on record: "Thank you!"
*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
*His role in Stalag 17 earned him a Best Actor Academy Award. Holden felt he didn't deserve it, saying he thought Burt Lancaster should have won for From Here to Eternity.
* Was a major supporter of the United States Republican Party.
*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.

Academy Awards and Nominations

*Best Actor Nomination for Sunset Boulevard (1951)
*Best Actor Award for Stalag 17 (1954)
*Best Actor Nomination for Network (1977)

Filmography

Prison Farm (1938)
Million Dollar Legs (1939)
Golden Boy (1939)
Invisible Stripes (1939)
Our Town (1940)
Those Were the Days! (1940)
Arizona (1940)
I Wanted Wings (1941)
Texas (1941)
The Fleet's In (1942)
The Remarkable Andrew (1942)
Meet the Stewarts (1942)
Reconnaissance Pilot (1943) (short subject)
Young and Willing (1943)
Wings Up (1943) (short subject)
Blaze of Noon (1947)
Dear Ruth (1947)
Variety Girl (1947)
The Man from Colorado (1948)
Rachel and the Stranger (1948)
Apartment for Peggy (1948)
The Dark Past (1948)
Streets of Laredo (1949)
Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949)
Dear Wife (1949)
Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Union Station (1950)
Born Yesterday (1950)
You Can Change the World (1951) (short subject)
Force of Arms (1951)
Submarine Command (1951)
Boots Malone (1952)
The Turning Point (1952)
Stalag 17 (1953)
The Moon Is Blue (1953) (also appeared, uncredited, in the German version)
Forever Female (1953)
Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Executive Suite (1954)
Sabrina (1954)
Musashi Miyamoto (1954) (narrator in original US version)
The Country Girl (1954)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
Picnic (1955)
The Proud and Profane (1956)
Toward the Unknown (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Key (1958)
The Horse Soldiers (1959)
The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
Et Par ord om Danmark (1960) (documentary) (narrator in English version)
Satan Never Sleeps (1962)
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary)
The Lion (1962)
Paris, When It Sizzles (1964)
The 7th Dawn (1964)
Alvarez Kelly (1966)
Casino Royale (1967)
The Devil's Brigade (1968)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Christmas Tree (1969)
The Moviemakers (1971) (short subject)
Wild Rovers (1971)
The Revengers (1972)
Breezy (1973)
Open Season (1974)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Network (1976)
Fedora (1978)
Damien: Omen II (1978)
Escape to Athena (1979) (uncredited as cigar smoking prisoner)
Ashanti (1979)
When Time Ran Out (1980)
The Earthling (1980)
S.O.B. (1981)

External links

* William Holden Wildlife Foundation
* Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): William Holden
* William Holden's Gravesite