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William Holden

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For other uses, see William Holden (disambiguation).
William Holden
Holden in a publicity photo, 1954
Born
William Franklin Beedle, Jr.

(1918-04-17)April 17, 1918
O'Fallon, Illinois, U.S.
DiedNovember 12, 1981(1981-11-12) (aged 63)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Cause of deathExsanguination following a fall
Occupation(s)Actor, wildlife conservationist
Years active1938–81
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1941⁠–⁠1971)​
(divorced)

William Holden (April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974. One of the most popular and well known movie stars of all time, Holden was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1950s, 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 number 25. He starred in some of the most popular and critically acclaimed films of all time, including such blockbusters as Sunset Boulevard, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch, The Towering Inferno, and Network.

Early life and career

Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. in O'Fallon, Illinois, the son of Mary Blanche (née Ball), a schoolteacher, and William Franklin Beedle, Sr., an industrial chemist.[1] He had two younger brothers, Robert and Richard. Holden's paternal great-grandmother, Rebecca Westfield, was born in England in 1817, while some of his mother's ancestors settled in Virginia's Lancaster County after emigrating from England in the 17th century.[1] Growing up, Holden was raised in the Methodist church, and while some sources cite him as a Congregationalist, Holden identified himself as a Methodist throughout his life. His family moved to South Pasadena when he was three.

After graduating from South Pasadena High School, Holden attended Pasadena Junior College, where he became involved in local radio plays. Contrary to legend and theatre publicity, he did not study at the Pasadena Playhouse, nor was he discovered in a play there. Rather, he was spotted by a talent scout from Paramount Pictures in 1937 while playing the part of an 80-year-old man, Marie Curie's father-in-law, in a play at the Playbox, a separate and private theatre owned by Pasadena Playhouse director Gilmor Brown. His first film role was in Prison Farm the following year.

with Lee J. Cobb in Holden's first film, Golden Boy (1939)

Hollywood's "Golden Boy"

Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), in which he played a violinist turned boxer. That was followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of Our Town.[2]

With Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

After Columbia Pictures picked up half of his contract, he alternated between starring in several minor pictures for Paramount and Columbia before serving as a 2nd lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, where he acted in training films for the First Motion Picture Unit. Beginning in 1950, his career took off when Billy Wilder tapped him to star as the down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis, who is taken in by faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard, for which Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.[3]

William Holden and Chandran Rutnam while shooting The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Following this breakthrough film, his career quickly grew in stature as he played a series of roles that combined good looks with cynical detachment, including a prisoner-of-war entrepreneur in Stalag 17 (1953), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a pressured young engineer/family man in Executive Suite (1954), an acerbic stage director in The Country Girl (1954), a conflicted jet pilot in the Korean War film The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a carefree playboy in Sabrina (1954), a wandering college football star in Picnic (1955), a dashing war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), his most widely recognized role as an ill-fated prisoner in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), a World War II tug boat captain in The Key (1958), and an American Civil War military surgeon in The Horse Soldiers (1959), which also starred John Wayne.

With Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954)

He also played a number of sunnier roles in light comedy, such as the handsome architect pursuing virginal Maggie McNamara in the controversial Production Code-breaking The Moon is Blue (1953), as Judy Holliday's tutor in Born Yesterday (1950), as a playwright captivated by Ginger Rogers' character in Forever Female (1953) and as Humphrey Bogart's younger brother, a playboy, in Sabrina (1954), which also starred Audrey Hepburn. In 1954, Holden was featured on the cover of Life.

His career peaked in 1957 with the enormous success of The Bridge on the River Kwai, but Holden spent the next several years starring in a number of films that rarely succeeded commercially or critically.[4] By the mid-1960s, the quality of his roles and films had noticeably diminished.

Later career

1960s

In 1969, Holden made a comeback when he starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch, winning much acclaim. Also in 1969, Holden starred in director Terence Young's family film L'Arbre de Noel, co-starring Italian actress Virna Lisi, based on the novel of the same name by Michel Bataille. This film was originally released in the United States as The Christmas Tree and on home video as When Wolves Cry.[5]

Five years later, he starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the critically acclaimed disaster film The Towering Inferno, which became a box office smash and one the highest grossing films of Holden's career. He was also praised for his Oscar-nominated leading performance in Sidney Lumet's classic Network (1976), a prescient examination of television written by Paddy Chayevsky, playing an older version of the character type he had become iconic for in the 1950s, only now more jaded and aware of his own mortality.

In 1974 Holden won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of a cynical, tough veteran LAPD street cop in the television film The Blue Knight, based upon the best-selling Joseph Wambaugh novel of the same name.

In 1980, Holden appeared in The Earthling with popular 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.

During his last years, Holden also appeared in When Time Ran Out and Blake Edwards's S.O.B.. His second Irwin Allen film, When Time Ran Out was a critical and commercial failure and heavily disliked by Holden himself; his final film, S.O.B., directed by Blake Edwards, was more successful and a Golden Globe-nominated picture.

Personal life

Holden, as best man, with wife Brenda Marshall at wedding of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (1952)

Holden was married to actress Ardis Ankerson (stage name Brenda Marshall) from 1941 until their divorce (after many long separations) in 1971. They had two sons, Peter Westfield (born November 17, 1943) and Scott Porter (born May 2, 1946; died January 21, 2005, San Diego, California). He also adopted his wife's daughter, Virginia, from her first marriage.

Holden was best man at the marriage of his friend Ronald Reagan to Nancy Davis in 1952; however, he never involved himself in politics.

In 1954, during the filming of Sabrina, Holden and Audrey Hepburn became romantically involved, and she hoped to marry him and have children. She broke off the relationship when Holden revealed that he had undergone a vasectomy.[6]

Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. They starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). They began a two-year affair; after it ended due to Holden's alcoholism,[7] she and he remained friends until Holden's death in 1981.[8]

In 1964, Holden was again paired up with Hepburn in Paris When It Sizzles, but behind the scenes, the set was plagued with problems. Holden tried without success to rekindle a romance with the now-married Hepburn. That, combined with his alcoholism, made the situation a challenge for the production.

Holden 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 (founded 1959) became a mecca for the international jet set.[9]

While in Italy, Holden killed another driver in a 1966 drunk driving incident. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[10]

In 1972, Holden began a nine-year relationship with actress Stefanie Powers which sparked her interest in animal welfare.[11] After his death, Powers set up the William Holden Wildlife Foundation at Holden's Mount Kenya Game Ranch.[12]

His younger brother, Robert W. "Bobbie" Beedle, was a Navy fighter pilot who was killed in action in World War II, over New Ireland, on January 5, 1944. After The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955) was released, Beedle was remembered by his squadron-mates as having been very much like Holden's character, Lt. Harry Brubaker.

Death

On November 12, 1981, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden was alone and intoxicated in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, when he slipped on a rug, severely lacerated his forehead on a teak bedside table, and bled to death. Evidence suggests he was conscious for at least half an hour after the fall. It is probable that he may not have realized the severity of the injury and did not summon aid, or was unable to call for help. His body was found four days later.[9]

Holden had dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. No funeral or memorial service was held, per his wishes.

Holden is the actor "who had died while he was drinking" mentioned by Suzanne Vega in the 1987 song "Tom's Diner".[13]

In 2007, his stepdaughter, Virginia Holden Gaines, wrote a book, Growing Up with William Holden: A Memoir, reliving her memories of life with her father.

Filmography

Features

2

Short subjects

  • Reconnaissance Pilot (1943)
  • Wings Up (1943)
  • You Can Change the World (1951)

Awards and nominations

Academy Award

BAFTA Award

  • Best Foreign Actor Nomination for Picnic (1955)
  • Best Foreign Actor Nomination for Network (1976)

Emmy Award

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Ancestry of William Holden." Genealogy.com. Retrieved: November 13, 2011.
  2. ^ Capua 2009, pp. 16–17.
  3. ^ Capua 2009, pp. 54–55.
  4. ^ "Film Ratings." IMDb. Retrieved: December 6, 2012.
  5. ^ Capua 2009, pp. 135–136, 141.
  6. ^ Phillips 2010, p. 160.
  7. ^ The Lion (hosted by Robert Osborne); air date: November 4, 2012 on Turner Classic Movies
  8. ^ Strodder 2000, p. 112.
  9. ^ a b Bennett, Bruce. "William Holden's Unscripted Fall From Grace." New York Sun, July 2, 2008.
  10. ^ Brown, Andrew M. "When Alcoholics drink themselves to death." The Telegraph, April 7, 2011.
  11. ^ Capua 2009, p. 165.
  12. ^ Bacon, Doris Klein. "For Love of Bill." People, Vol. 17, No. 21, May 31, 1982.
  13. ^ Vega, Suzanne. "Tom’s Essay." The New York Times, September 23, 2008. Retrieved: December 23, 2011.

Bibliography

  • Capua, Michelangelo. William Holden: A Biography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7864-4440-3.
  • Gaines, Virginia Holden. Growing Up with William Holden: A Memoir. Newark, Notts, UK: Strategems, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9741304-5-3.
  • Phillips, Gene D. Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2010. ISBN 0-8131-2570-7.
  • Quirk, Lawrence J. The Complete Films of William Holden. Sacramento, California: Citadel Press, 1986. ISBN 978-0-8065-0998-3.
  • Quirk, Lawrence J.The Films of William Holden. Sacramento, California: Citadel Press, 1973. ISBN 978-0-8065-0375-2.
  • Strodder, Chris. Swingin' Chicks Of the Sixties. San Rafael, California: Cedco Publishing Company, 2000. ISBN 0-7683-2232-4.
  • Thomas, Bob. Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-312-33697-4.
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