by Erika Cox
During the 1950s and 1960s, William Holden was named one of the
Top 10 Stars of the Year six times and won a number of awards for his
acting abilities. Today, he is still regarded as one of the most
important and influential Hollywood names in the mid-20th century.
William Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. in 1918 in O’Fallon,
Illinois. His father was an industrial chemist and his mother was a
teacher. When Holden was three, the family moved to Pasadena,
California, where he eventually went to Junior College and worked in
local radio plays.
A talent scout discovered Holden in 1937 while he was
performing as an old man at a private theatre owned by Gilmor Brown, the
same man who directed commonly at Pasadena Playhouse. Holden appeared in
the film Prison Farm, less than a year later.
By 1939, Holden was starring in movies such as Golden Boy. Columbia
Pictures and Paramount Pictures shared a contract on Holden, and he
appeared in films for bother of them, including Invisible Stripes, Our
Town, Those Were the Days!, I Wanted Wings, and The Remarkable Andrew.
He then served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, where he
actually acted in several short training films.
After discharge from the army, Holden began to rebound his career with
the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard, for which he was nominated for a Best
Actor Oscar. He then went on to play a prisoner or war in Stalag 17, for
which he won the 1953 award for Best Actor. During the 1950s, he also
appeared in many films, including Executive Suite (1954), Sabrina
(1954), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955), Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the
River Kwai (1957), and The Horse Soldier (1959), among others.
The 1960s were also a busy time for Holden, with a number of films,
including Paris, When it Sizzles (1964), Casino Royale (1967), and The
Devil’s Brigade (1968). Although he played many memorable roles, he also
was forced by contract to do a number of movies that flopped, including
Paris, When it Sizzles, which also starred Audrey Hepburn. By the
mid-1960s, his career was beginning to plummet, although he did have
some more good roles in The Towering Inferno, Network, and The
Earthling, in which he acted alongside child actor Ricky Schroder, who
later named a son after Holden.
Holden got married to Brenda Marshal, a popular actress, in 1941. The
couple went through a number of difficult periods and long separations.
They had two sons together—Peter Westfield, who was born in 1944, and
Scott Porter, who was born in 1946. Holden also legally adopted his
wife’s daughter, Virginia, from her first marriage. The couple finally
divorced for good in 1971, although both spent long periods with other
people. He had a long term relationships with actress Stefanie Powers,
which whom he founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and
directed the Mount Kenya Game Ranch.
It was reported that Holden had a number of affairs with Hollywood
actresses, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Capucine, Shelley
Winters, and Eva May Hoffman. Hoffman was actually the wife of composer
Emil Newman, and strong visual evidence suggests that Holden is the
biological father of Arlene and William, Hoffman and Newman’s children.
This was never proved or disproved. He also socially connected with
Ronald Reagen, to whom he was best man during his marriage to Nancy
Davis.
Holden suffered from both alcoholism and depression during his career.
In 1966, he was involved in a car accident in Italy in which he was
found to have been driving under the influence. The other driver
involved in the accident died, and Holden was charged with vehicular
manslaughter. He served time in prison and was overcome with guilt and
grief after this incident, leading to even heavier drinking,
unfortunately.
In 1981 at the age of 63, Holden died in his apartment in Santa Monica,
California, when he slipped on a throw rug and gashed his head. Holden
was alone at the time and intoxicated. Evidence suggests that he was
conscious for some time after the fall, but for whatever reason did not
call for help and, as a result, bled to death. His ashes were scattered
over the Pacific Ocean.
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