Born: William Franklin Beedle, Jr.

Biography:

Born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. on April 17, 1918, William Holden made his film debut it 1938's Prison Farm. He had his first major role in Golden Boy (1939), where he played a boxer-violinist opposite screen legend Barbara Stanwyck, who would prove to be a major influence on him for the rest of his life. He was a contract player for Paramount Pictures, and appeared in numerous productions in the boy-next-door types of roles.

He joined the Air Force and fought in World War II. After the war, he began to attract the attention of moviegoers by taking on considerably more challenging roles. In 1950, he appeared in two critically-acclaimed features which were both nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards: Born Yesterday, opposite Judy Holliday (who won that year's Academy Award for Best Actress); and Sunset Boulevard, as Joe Gillis, the young writer who romances Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). For the latter role, he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

"I was waiting, and hoping for, and struggling toward that particular movie that would demonstrate just how individual I could be, as an actor and as man, and finally I found it." William Holden

He reteamed with Billy Wilder, his Sunset Boulevard director for 1953's Stalag 17, where he played a sergeant suspected of being a Nazi spy. It was for this role that he won his only Academy Award.

From 1954-1958, he was a leading box-office star and was considered the top draw for 1956. Among the films he starred in during this time were 1954's Sabrina (opposite Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn), 1955's Picnic (with Kim Novak) and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1956), opposite Jennifer Jones. This last film is particularly memorable because by this time, Holden had quite a reputation of getting involved with his leading ladies, and Jones, as Hollywood legend would have it, couldn't stand him. She even went as far as throwing a bouquet of flowers given by Holden back in his face. Although they were hostile off-screen, their on-screen chemistry was magical, and the film has endured as a classical weepy melodrama.

He continued to illuminate the screen for the next three decades, with roles in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), The Towering Inferno (1974), considered by many as the mother of all disaster flicks, and 1976's Network, for which he received his final Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also made his television debut in the miniseries The Blue Nights (1973), for which he won an Emmy Award.

His final film appearance, in 1981's S.O.B., was directed by Blake Edwards, and was, like Sunset Boulevard three decades earlier, also a biting characterization of the politics of Hollywood. Holden died that year, after hitting his head after an alcohol-induced fall at his apartment.

A tribute page to "the Golden Boy".
http://members.xoom.com/thegoldenboy/

Homepage for the William Holden Wildlife Fund
http://www.allmediapr.com/whwf/

FILM REVIEWS

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
http://www.filmsite.org/suns.html

The Wild One (1953)
http://www.filmsite.org/wild.html

SABRINA (1954)
http://www.boxoff.com/cgi/getreview.pl?filename=All&where=Name&terms=SABRINA+\(1954\)

PICNIC (1955)
http://www.boxoff.com/cgi/getreview.pl?filename=All&where=Name&terms=PICNIC+\(1955\)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
http://www.filmsite.org/bridge.html

FILM LISTINGS

Prison Farm (1938) Million Dollar Legs (1939) Golden Boy - 1939 Invisible Stripes - 1940 Our Town - 1940 Those Were the Days - 1940 Arizona - 1941 I Wanted Wings - 1941 Texas - 1941 The Remarkable Andrew - 1942 The Fleet's In - 1942 Meet the Stewarts - 1942 Young and Willing - 1943 Blaze of Noon - 1947 Dear Ruth - 1947 Variety Girl - 1947 Rachel and the Stranger - 1948 Apartment for Peggy - 1948 The Dark Past - 1948 The Man From Colorado - 1949 Streets of Laredo - 1949 Miss Grant Takes Richmond - 1949 Dear Wife - 1950 Father is a Bachelor - 1950 Sunset Boulevard - 1950 Union Station - 1950 Born Yesterday - 1950 Force of Arms - 1951 Submarine Command - 1952 Boots Malone - 1952 The Turning Point - 1952 Stalag 17 - 1953 The Moon is Blue - 1953 Forever Female - 1954 Sabrina - 1954

The Country Girl - 1954 The Bridges at Toko-Ri - 1955 Love is a Many-Splendored Thing - 1955 Picnic - 1956 The Proud and the 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 Satan Never Sleeps - 1962 The Counterfeit Traitor - 1962 The Lion - 1962 Paris When It Sizzles - 1964 The Seventh Dawn - 1964 Alvarez kelly - 1966 Casino Royale - 1967 The Devil's Brigade - 1968 The Wild Bunch - 1969 The Christmas Tree - 1969 Wild Rovers - 1971 The Revengers - 1972 Breezy - 1973 The Blue Knight - 1973 Open Season - 1974 The Towering Inferno - 1974 21 Hours at Munich - 1976 Network - 1976 Damien-Omen II - 1978 Fedora - 1978 Ashanti - 1979 The Day the World Ended - 1980 The Earthling - 1981 S.O.B. - 1981

26th Annual Academy Awards: William Holden - STALAG 17

The Internet Movie Database Ltd: A complete listing of William Holden's films.
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Holden,+William