William
Holden, eldest of three sons
(brothers were Robert &
Richard), was born as
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.
The family, which moved to
South 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 emigrated in the
17th century to Millenback,
Lancaster County, Virginia
in the U.S. from England.
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
appearing as an old man 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.
His 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.
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. 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.
Following this breakthrough film, 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
wandering braggart in Picnic
(1955), a dashing war
correspondent in Love Is a
Many-Splendored Thing
(1955), an ill-fated
prisoner in The Bridge on
the River Kwai (1957) and a
WWII tug boat captain in The
Key (1958).
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 1969, Holden 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.
Five years later, he starred with Paul Newman and Steve
McQueen in 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.
His last film was S.O.B., which was directed
by Blake Edwards and was a Golden
Globe-nominated picture.
In 1974, he began a
relationship with actress
Stefanie Powers which
was enhanced by her interest
in animal welfare.
Holden was an inveterete traveler and owned an
apartment in Hong Kong, as
his base in southeast Asia,
but it was his first safari
to Africa in 1956 that
cemented his lasting
involvement and commitment
to wildlife and conservation
in East Africa and around
the world, long before these
issues were a popular
concern.
Feature Films:
Prison Farm (1938) (uncredited)
Million Dollar Legs (1939) (uncredited)
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)
Young and Willing (1943)
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) -
Academy Best Actor
Nomination
Union Station (1950)
Born Yesterday (1950)
Force of Arms (1951)
Submarine Command (1951)
Boots Malone (1952)
The Turning Point (1952)
Stalag 17 (1953) -
Academy Best Actor Award
The Moon Is Blue (1953)
Forever Female (1953)
Escape from Fort Bravo
(1953)
Executive Suite (1954)
Sabrina (1954)
The Country Girl (1954)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
(1954)
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)
Satan Never Sleeps (1962)
The Counterfeit Traitor
(1962)
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)
Wild Rovers (1971)
The Revengers (1972)
Breezy (1973)
Open Season(1974)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Network (1976) -
Academy Best Actor
Nomination
Fedora (1978)
Damien: Omen II (1978)
Ashanti (1979)
The Earthling (1980)
When Time Ran Out (1980)
S.O.B. (1981)
