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William Holden
Age: 63 (passed away Nov. 16th, 1981)
Height: 5' 11"
Birth Place: O'Fallon, Illinois, USA
Born: Apr. 17th, 1918
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William Holden's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: William Holden came from a wealthy family (the Beedles) that moved to Pasadena, California, when he was three. His father William Franklin Beedle was an industrial chemist and his mother Mary Blanche Ball a teacher. In 1937, while studying chemistry at Pasadena Junior College, he was signed to a film contract by Paramount. 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.
After returning from World War II military service, he got two very important roles: Joe Gillis, the gigolo, in Sunset Blvd. (1950), and the tutor in Born Yesterday (1950). These were followed by his Oscar-winning role as the cynical sergeant in Stalag 17 (1953). He stayed popular through the 1950s, appearing in such films as Picnic (1955). He spent much of his later time as co-owner of the Mount Kenya Safari Club, dividing his time between Africa and Switzerland.
TRIVIA:
- Immortalized in [Canadian band], Blue Rodeo's song "Floating" with the lyric: "I need love and it's you, And I feel like William Holden floating in a pool" - 'Greg Keelor' (qv), the writer of the song, said this: "That sort of quiet desperation at the end of a relationship when nothing's really making sense and I sort of had the image of William Holden at the beginning of _Sunset Blvd. (1950)_ (qv) in my head, and I'd always sort of related to that character floating in that pool. I was always hoping for the opportunity to play the gigolo for some wealthy woman. This is a song about identifying with that sort of compromised existence."
- In the song "Tom's Diner" by 'Suzanne Vega' (qv), 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.
- Although it is thought by some that 'J.D. Salinger' (qv) got the name for his hero Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye" when he saw a marquee for _Dear Ruth (1947)_ (qv), starring 'William Holden (I)' (qv) and 'Joan Caulfield' (qv), 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.
- He was of entirely English heritage.
- Was the best man at 'Ronald Reagan (I)' (qv)'s and 'Nancy Davis (I)' (qv)' wedding in 1952.
- (1995) Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#57).
- He suffered a laceration to his forehead and bled to death, after he slipped on a throw rug and hit his head on a table. Claims that he was intoxicated at the time are disputed.
- Is portrayed by 'Gabriel Macht' (qv) in _The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000) (TV)_ (qv)
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