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:For the North Carolina Governor by this name,
please see William Woods Holden.  For the
California Lieutenant Governor by this name,
please see William Holden (politician).


William Holden (April 17, 1918 – November
12, 1981, body found November 16, 1981) was an
United States|American film actor.

==Early life and career==
Born William Franklin Beedle Jr. in O'Fallon,
Illinois he moved with his wealthy family to
Pasadena, California when he was three. His father
was an industrial chemist and his mother a
teacher. While attending Pasadena Junior College
he became involved in local radio plays and the
Pasadena Playhouse, leading to his discovery by a
talent scout from Paramount Pictures in 1937. His
first role was in Prison Farm the following year.

==Hollywood's "Golden Boy"==
His first starring role was in 1939 in film|1939's
Golden Boy in which he played a boxer who wants to
be a violinist. After Columbia Pictures picked up
half of his contract he alternated between
starring in several minor pictures for Paramount
and Columbia before serving in the Army Air Corps
during World War II, where he acted in training
films. Beginning in 1950 his career rebounded when
Billy Wilder tapped him to star as the down at the
heels screenwriter in Sunset Boulevard
(movie)|Sunset Boulevard.  Following this
breakthrough he played a series of roles that
mixed his good looks and cynical detachment,
including the prisoner of war entrepreneur in
Stalag 17 (for which he won an Academy Award for
Best Actor), the wandering braggard in Picnic
(movie)|Picnic and the ill-fated prisoner in The
Bridge on the River Kwai. He also played a number
of sunnier parts in light comedy with much
success, such as the dashing architect in The Moon
is Blue, the tutor in Born Yesterday and Humphrey
Bogart's younger brother in Sabrina.

However, Holden starred in more than his share of
forgettable movies which he was forced into by
studio contracts and suffered from alcoholism and
severe clinical depression|depression for many
years. By the early 1960s his roles were having
less critical and commercial impact. In 1966 while
in Italy Holden was involved in a serious car
accident in which the other driver was killed. It
was determined Holden had been drunk
driving|driving under the influence of alcohol, he
was charged with vehicular manslaughter and
received an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
Holden was overcome with guilt and friends said
this led to even heavier drinking. The actor
reportedly had another secret in his life: For
many years he did undercover work for the CIA,
delivering messages to foreign leaders during his
travels.

==Later career==
In 1969 he had a role in director Sam Peckinpah's
graphically violent movie The Wild Bunch. He was
praised for his leading performance in Network
(movie)|Network (1976), playing an older version
of the character type he had perfected in the
1950s, now more jaded and aware of his own
mortality. In 1980 Holden appeared in The
Earthling with child actor Rick Schroder|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 to survive. Schroder
thought so highly of Holden, he named one of his
sons after him.

==Private life and death==
Holden was married to the actress Brenda Marshall
from 1941 to 1971, when they divorced. The couple
had two sons and he adopted the daughter of his
wife's first marriage. Holden had a busy social
life, maintained a home in Switzerland and also
spent much of his time working for wildlife
conservation as a managing partner in an animal
preserve in Africa. He began a relationship with
actress Stefanie Powers who shared his interest in
animal welfare (Powers later became President of
the "William Holden Wildlife Foundation" and a
director of their Mount Kenya Game Ranch).

Holden reportedly had a seven year affair with Eva
May Hoffman (wife of composer Emil Newman, Randy
Newman's uncle) which produced two children,
Arlene Newman (who later married Dennis Crosby)
and William Robert Newman.

William Holden died of a fall in his highrise
apartment on the seaside cliffs of Santa Monica,
California in 1981. His body was found on 16
November, but forensic evidence suggested he had
died on on the 12th. Holden had been alone,
heavily intoxicated, and slipped on a rug, gashed
his head on a table, and bled to death. Evidence
suggests he was conscious for at least half an
hour after the fall, but may not have realized the
severity of the injury, and failed to summon aid.

Holden's body was cremated. His ashes were
scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

==Trivia==
*Holden's acceptance speech for his Academy Award
was the shortest on record: "Thank you."

*It is believed Holden's death is mentioned
(ironically) in the song Tom's Diner by Suzanne
Vega: 

:I open

:Up the paper

:There's a story

:Of an actor


:Who had died

:While he was drinking

:It was no one

:I had heard of

==Academy Awards and Nominations==
*Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor
Nomination for Network (movie)|Network (1976)
*Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor Award for
Stalag 17 (1954)
*Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor
Nomination for Sunset Boulevard (movie)|Sunset
Boulevard  (1951)

==Filmography==
*S.O.B. (1981) 
*The Earthling (1980) 
*When Time Ran Out (1980) 
*Ashanti (movie)|Ashanti (1979)
*Fedora (movie)|Fedora (1978)
*Damien: Omen II (1978)
*Network (movie)|Network (1976)
*The Towering Inferno (1974)
*Open Season (1974) 
*Breezy (1973)
*The Revengers (1972) 
*Wild Rovers (1971)
*The Christmas Tree (1969)
*The Wild Bunch (1969)
*The Devil's Brigade (1968)
*Casino Royale (1967)
*Alvarez Kelly (1966)
*The 7th Dawn (1964) 
*Paris, When It Sizzles (1964)
*The Lion (1962)
*The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
*Satan Never Sleeps (1962) 
*The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
*The Horse Soldiers (1959)
*The Key (1958)
*The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
*Toward the Unknown (1956)
*The Proud and Profane (1956)
*Picnic (movie)|Picnic (1955)
*Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955)
*The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955)
*The Country Girl (1954)
*Sabrina (1954)
*Executive Suite (1954)
*Escape from Fort Bravo (1954)
*Forever Female (1953)
*Stalag 17 (1953)
*The Moon Is Blue (1953)
*The Turning Point (1952)
*Submarine Command (1952)
*Boots Malone (1952)
*Force of Arms (1951)
*Born Yesterday (1950)
*Union Station (1950)
*Sunset Boulevard (movie)|Sunset Boulevard (1950) 
*Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
*Dear Wife (1949)
*Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949)
*Streets of Laredo (1949)
*The Man from Colorado (1949)
*The Dark Past (1948)
*Apartment for Peggy (1948)
*Rachel and the Stranger (1948)
*Dear Ruth (1947)
*Blaze of Noon (1947)
*Young and Willing (1943)
*Meet the Stewarts (1942)
*The Remarkable Andrew (1942)
*The Fleet's In (1942)
*Texas (movie)|Texas (1941)
*I Wanted Wings (1941)
*Arizona (movie)|Arizona (1940)
*Those Were the Days (1940)
*Our Town (1940 movie)|Our Town (1940)
*Invisible Stripes (1939)
*Golden Boy (1939)
*Prison Farm (1938)

==External link==
*imdb name|id=0000034|name=William Holden
* http://www.thegoldenyears.org/holden.html
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): William Holden