Best Known As: The Oscar-winning star of Stalag 17
Name at birth: William Franklin Beedle, Jr.
William Holden was a major leading man of the 1950s, when he played heroic cynics in the war movies Stalag 17 (1953) and Bridge On the River Kwai (1957), and the not-so-heroic cynic Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (1950). In 1954 alone he starred with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn in the romantic comedy Sabrina, with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby in The Country Girl, and with Kelly and Mickey Rooney in The Bridges at Toko-Ri. A steady star, Holden had a career resurgence in the 1970s, winning an Oscar nomiation as best actor for Network (1976, co-starring Faye Dunaway). Holden died in 1981; he was found in his apartment after he fell, hit his head on a bedside table and bled to death.
Holden enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during World War II... He won a best actor Academy Award for Stalag 17, directed by Billy Wilder; Holden was also nominated for Sunset Boulevard (also by Wilder) and Network... Holden was best man at the 1952 wedding of Ronald and Nancy Reagan... In the 1970s Holden had a long romantic relationship with the actress Stefanie Powers.
Died: Nov 16, 1981 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Actor
Active: '40s-'70s
Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
Career Highlights: The Wild Bunch, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Sunset Boulevard
First Major Screen Credit: Our Town (1940)
Biography
The son of a chemical analyst, American actor William Holden plunged into high school and junior college sports activities as a means of "proving himself" to his demanding father. Nonetheless, Holden's forte would be in what he'd always consider a "sissy" profession: acting. Spotted by a talent scout during a stage production at Pasadena Junior College, Holden was signed by both Paramount and Columbia, who would share his contract for the next two decades. After one bit role, Holden was thrust into the demanding leading part of boxer Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy (1939). He was so green and nervous that Columbia considered replacing him, but co-star Barbara Stanwyck took it upon herself to coach the young actor and build up his confidence -- a selfless act for which Holden would be grateful until the day he died. After serving as a lieutenant in the Army's special services unit, Holden returned to films, mostly in light, inconsequential roles. Director Billy Wilder changed all that by casting him as Joe Gillis, an embittered failed screenwriter and "kept man" of Gloria Swanson in the Hollywood-bashing classic Sunset Boulevard (1950). Wilder also directed Holden in the role of the cynical, conniving, but ultimately heroic American POW Sefton in Stalag 17 (1953), for which the actor won an Oscar.
Holden became a man of the world, as it were, when he moved to Switzerland to avoid heavy taxation on his earnings; while traversing the globe, he developed an interest in African wildlife preservation, spending much of his off-camera time campaigning and raising funds for the humane treatment of animals. Free to be selective in his film roles in the '60s and '70s, Holden evinced an erratic sensibility: For every Counterfeit Traitor (1962) and Network (1976), there would be a walk-through part in The Towering Inferno (1974) or Ashanti (1978). His final film role was in S.O.B. (1981), which, like Sunset Boulevard, was a searing and satirical indictment of Hollywood. But times had changed, and one of the comic highlights of S.O.B. was of a drunken film executive urinating on the floor of an undertaker's parlor. Holden's death in 1981 was the result of blood loss from a fall he suffered while alone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
