William Holden

Is portrayed by Gabriel Macht in The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000)

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#57). [1995]

"Hollwood Reporter" reported that Holden had signed to play the coach in That Championship Season (1982), but his death precluded that, and he was replaced by Robert Mitchum. Holden had also agreed to co-star with old friend Glenn Ford in "Dime Novel Sunset", which was never made.

In the song "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega, the lyrics "I open up the paper / there's a story of an actor / who died while he was drinking / he was no one I had heard of" refer to Holden, whose death was indeed reported in the New York Post on November 18, 1981, when the song was written. Vega has subsequently expressed embarrassment at these lyrics.

Held a press conference in late 1980 to deny newspaper reports that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, which was borne out by his death certificate, which made no mention of any type of cancer.

He was very instrumental in animal preservation in Africa. In the 1970s he purchased a large acreage of land with his own money and began an animal sanctuary. His love of the wild animal was shared with his then companion Stefanie Powers (from Hart to Hart (1979)). He would appear on talk shows to promote the saving of animals and to spread the word of anti-poaching and illegal animal trade.

Holden was cast as Pike Bishop in The Wild Bunch (1969) after the role had been turned down by Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Sterling Hayden, Richard Boone and Robert Mitchum. Marvin actually accepted the role but pulled out after he was offered a larger pay deal to star in Paint Your Wagon (1969).

Was involved in a serious road accident in Italy in July 1966.

He was voted the 63rd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Turned down The Guns Of Navarone (1961) because producer Carl Foreman wouldn't meet his fee of $750,000 + 20% of the gross.

For The Horse Soldiers (1959) both Holden and John Wayne received $775,000, plus twenty per cent of the overall profits, an unheard-of sum for that time. The final contract, heralded as marking the beginning of mega-deals for Hollywood stars, involved six companies and numbered twice the pages of the movie's script. The film, however, was a critical and commercial failure, with no profits to be shared in the end.

Turned down Marlon Brando's role in Sayonara (1957) in order to make The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

Holden appeared among the top ten box office stars six times, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual poll of movie exhibitors, The Top Ten Money-Making Stars, the definitive list of movie stars' pull at the box office. He actually topped the list in 1956, two years after entering it at #7 in 1954, the year he won the Best Actor Oscar with his performance in Stalag 17 (1953). In 1955, he was ranked #4, then hit #1 for the first and only time in 1956, and then dropped to #7 in 1957 before rebounding slightly to #6 in 1958. After five straight years in the Top 10, he dropped off the list in 1959 and 1960, but reappeared in the Top Ten in 1961, ranked in eighth place. His 1961 appearance among the Top Ten Box Office stars was his last. He moved to Switzerland for tax reasons in 1959, and did not return to live in Hollywood until 1967.

Turned down Henry Fonda's role in Mister Roberts (1955).

Made two films with Audrey Hepburn: Sabrina (1954) and Paris When It Sizzles (1964).

These were followed by his Oscar-winning role as the cynical sergeant in Stalag 17 (1953).

Holden was the best man at the 1952 wedding of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan.

After returning from World War II military service, he got two very important roles: Joe Gillis, the gigolo, in Sunset Boulevard (1950), and the tutor in Born Yesterday (1950).

A registered Republican, he rarely involved himself in political campaigns. In 1947, he joined the Committee for the First Amendment to oppose blacklisting in Hollywood. He was good friends with two blacklistees, Dalton Trumbo and Larry Parks.

Although it is thought by some that J.D. Salinger got the name for his hero Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye" when he saw a marquee for Dear Ruth (1947), starring William Holden and Joan Caulfield, Salinger's first Holden Caulfield story, "I'm Crazy," appeared in Collier's on December 22, 1945, a year and a half before this movie came out.

Adopted his stepdaughter, Virginia Holden (Virginia Gaines), from Ardis Ankerson (actress Brenda Marshall)'s first marriage. He and Marshall had two sons together, Peter Westfield "West" Holden (born November 17, 1943) and Scott Holden (Scott Porter Holden, born May 2, 1946). Holden also had a daughter, Arlene, in 1937 with actress Eva May Hoffman. Arlene was raised by her mother and her stepfather, composer Emil Newman.

Holden did not legally change his name from Beedle until he joined the USAF in 1942. For a time in 1943, Holden shared an apartment in Ft. Worth, Texas with baseball superstar Hank Greenberg while both of them were serving stateside in WWII. Holden's younger brother, Robert Beedle, was actually a Navy fighter pilot who was killed in action in World War II, and after The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) was released, he was remembered by his squadron-mates as having been very much like Holden's character of Lt. Harry Brubaker in that movie.

Brian Donlevy was his best man when Holden married Brenda Marshall in 1941. A Congregationalist Church service was planned in Las Vegas. Since William and Brian were still filming The Remarkable Andrew (1942), there were delays and it was 3am before they arrived for the ceremony. By that time the minister had long gone to bed. It was 4pm Sunday before another preacher could be found to perform the wedding. After they were married, they had a champagne breakfast and hopped a plane back to Los Angeles so he and Brian could wrap up shooting, and Brenda was off to Canada to film some location footage that she was still working on. It would be three more months before they would have a real honeymoon (one mishap after another postponed it ... including the TWO of them having to undergo emergency appendectomies)!

Appeared in nine films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Our Town (1940), Born Yesterday (1950), Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Country Girl (1954),Picnic (1955), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Network (1976). Of those, only The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) won in the category. In both 1950 and 1955, he appeared in two Best Picture nominees.

His first starring role was as a young man torn between the violin and boxing in Golden Boy (1939). From then on he was typecast as the boy-next-door.

William Holden died one day before his eldest son Peter's 38th birthday. Holden's remains were cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

William Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. in O'Fallon, Illinois, to Mary Blanche (Ball), a schoolteacher, and William Franklin Beedle, Sr. , an industrial chemist. He came from a wealthy family (the Beedles) that moved to Pasadena, California, when he was three. In 1937, while studying chemistry at Pasadena Junior College, he was signed to a film contract by Paramount.

The eldest of three sons born to Mary Ball (1898-1990) and William Franklin Beedle (1891-1967). He had two brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle (1921-1945) and Richard P. Beedle (1924-1964). The family was of English, Irish, and distant French, ancestry. Mary outlived all three of her sons.

Not to be confused with the character actor William Holden (1862-1932).