William Boyd (actor)


William Lawrence Boyd was an American actor and film producer, known for portraying the cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy in dozens of Western films released during the 1930s and '40s.

Early life

Boyd was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio and reared in Cambridge, Ohio and Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lived from 1909 to 1913. He was the son of day laborer Charles William Boyd and his wife Lida. Following his father's death, Boyd moved to California and worked as an orange picker, surveyor, tool dresser and auto salesman.

Career

Silent era and matinee idol

In Hollywood, Boyd found work as an extra in Why Change Your Wife? and other films. During World War I, he enlisted in the army but was exempt from military service because of a heart condition. More prominent film roles followed, including his breakout role as Jack Moreland in Cecil B. DeMille's The Road to Yesterday, which earned critical praise. DeMille soon cast him as the leading man in the highly acclaimed silent drama film The Volga Boatman. another critical success, and with Boyd now firmly established as a matinee idol and romantic leading man, he began earning an annual salary of $100,000. He acted in DeMille's The King of Kings and Skyscraper, as well as D.W. Griffith's Lady of the Pavements.
RKO Pictures ended Boyd's contract in 1931 when his photo was mistakenly run in a newspaper story about the arrest of another actor, William "Stage" Boyd, on gambling and liquor charges. Although the newspaper apologized, explaining the mistake in the following day's newspaper, Boyd said, "The damage was already done." Boyd was virtually destitute and without a job, and for several years, he was credited in films as Bill Boyd to prevent being mistaken for the other William Boyd.

Hopalong Cassidy

In 1935, Boyd was offered the supporting role of Red Connors in the movie Hop-Along Cassidy, but he asked to be considered for the title role and won it. The original character of Hopalong Cassidy, written by Clarence E. Mulford for pulp magazines, was changed from a hard-drinking, rough-living, redheaded wrangler to a cowboy hero who did not smoke, swear or drink alcohol and who would allow the villain to start fights. Although Boyd "never branded a cow or mended a fence, cannot bulldog a steer" and disliked Western music, he became indelibly associated with the Hopalong character and, as with the cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, gained lasting fame in the Western film genre.
The films were typically more polished and impressive than were the usual low-budget programmed Westerns, with superior outdoor photography and recognizable supporting players familiar from major Hollywood films. Big-city theaters, many of which usually would not normally rent Westerns, noticed the high quality of the productions and permitted the series more exposure than they did for other Westerns. Paramount Pictures released the films through 1941 and United Artists produced them from 1943.
Producer Harry "Pop" Sherman wanted to create more ambitious epics and abandoned the Hopalong Cassidy franchise. Boyd, determined to keep the series alive, produced the last 12 Cassidy features himself on noticeably lower budgets. By this time, interest in the character had waned, and with far fewer theaters still showing the films, the series ended in 1948.
Boyd insisted on purchasing the rights to all of the Hopalong Cassidy films. Sherman no longer cared about the property, as he believed that Boyd's appeal, as well as that of his films, had waned. Boyd sold or mortgaged almost all of his possessions to meet Sherman's price of $350,000 for the rights and the film catalog.

Hoppy rides again

In 1948 Boyd, then regarded as a cowboy star of the past with his fortunes at their lowest, brought a print of one of his older films to the local NBC television station and offered it at a nominal rental, hoping for new exposure. The film was received so well that NBC asked for more, and within months Boyd released the entire library. The films became very popular and began the long-running genre of Westerns on television. Boyd's desperate gamble made him one of the first national television stars and restored his fortune. As did Rogers and Autry, Boyd licensed merchandise, including products such as Hopalong Cassidy watches, trash cans, cups, dishes, Topps trading cards, a comic strip, comic books, cowboy outfits, home-movie digests of his Paramount releases via Castle Films and a new Hopalong Cassidy radio show that ran from 1948 to 1952.
Boyd identified with his character, often dressing as a cowboy in public. He was concerned about children and refused to license his name for products that he considered unsuitable or dangerous, and he declined personal appearances at which children would be charged admission.
Boyd appeared as Hopalong Cassidy on the cover of numerous national magazines, including Look and Time. For Thanksgiving in 1950, he led the Carolinas' Carrousel Parade in Charlotte, North Carolina, which attracted an estimated crowd of 500,000, the largest in the parade's history.
Boyd had a cameo role as himself in Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 circus epic The Greatest Show on Earth. DeMille reportedly asked Boyd to take the role of Moses in his remake of The Ten Commandments, but Boyd felt that his identification with the Cassidy character would make it impossible for audiences to accept him as Moses.

Personal life

Boyd was married five times, first to wealthy Massachusetts heiress Laura Maynes, then to the actresses Ruth Miller, Elinor Fair, Dorothy Sebastian and Grace Bradley. His only son, William Wallace Boyd, whose mother was Miller, died of pertussis at the age of nine months. After his retirement from the screen, Boyd invested time and money in real estate and moved to Palm Desert, California. He refused interviews and photographs in later years in order to not taint his memory as a screen idol.
For his contributions to the film industry, Boyd has a motion-picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1734 Vine Street. In 1995, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Death

In 1972, Boyd died from complications related to Parkinson's disease and congestive heart failure. He was survived by his fifth wife, Grace Bradley Boyd, who died in 2010. He is buried at the Sanctuary of Guiding Love alcove in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale).

Selected filmography

Old Wives for New – Minor Role Was He Guilty? – The Six Best Cellars – Holsappel Why Change Your Wife? – Naval Officer at Hotel The City of Masks – CarpenterSomething to Think About – A City Sparrow – Hughie RayThe Life of the Party – One of Leary's Office Staff The Jucklins – Dan StuartPaying the Piper – Forbidden Fruit – Billiards Player Brewster's Millions – HarrisonA Wise Fool – Gerard FynesMoonlight and Honeysuckle – Robert V. CourtneyThe Affairs of Anatol – Guest After the Show – Exit the Vamp – Robert PittsFool's Paradise – Saturday Night – Party Guest Moran of the Lady Letty – Ramon's Friend at Homecoming Bobbed Hair – Dick BartonNice People – Oliver ComstockOn the High Seas – Dick DeverauxManslaughter – The Young Rajah – Stephen Van KovertMichael O'Halloran – Douglas BruceHollywood – HimselfAdam's Rib – Party Guest The Temple of Venus – Stanley DaleEnemies of Children Triumph – Minor Role Changing Husbands – Conrad BradshawTarnish – BillFeet of Clay – Young Society Man Forty Winks – Lt. Gerald Hugh ButterworthThe Midshipman – SpudThe Road to Yesterday – Jack MorelandSteel Preferred – Wally GayThe Volga Boatman – FeodorEve's Leaves – Bill StanleyThe Last Frontier – Tom KirbyHer Man o' War – Jim SandersonJim, the Conqueror – Jim BurgessWolves of the Air – Jerry TannerThe Yankee Clipper – Captain Hal WinslowThe King of Kings – Simon of CyreneTwo Arabian Knights – W. Daingerfield Phelps IIIDress Parade – Vic DonovanThe Night Flyer – Jim BradleySkyscraper – BlondyThe Cop – Pete SmithPower – HuskyLady of the Pavements – Count Karl Von ArnimThe Leatherneck – William CalhounThe Flying Fool – Bill TaylorHigh Voltage – BillHis First Command – Terry CulverOfficer O'Brien – Bill O'BrienThe Painted Desert – Bill HolbrookBeyond Victory – Sergeant Bill ThatcherThe Big Gamble – Alan BeckwithSuicide Fleet – Baltimore ClarkCarnival Boat – Buck GannonMen of America – Jim ParkerFlaming Gold – Dan MantonLucky Devils – Skipper ClarkEmergency Call – Joe BradleyCheaters – Steve MorrisPort of Lost Dreams – Lars ChristensenHop–Along Cassidy – Bill Hopalong CassidyThe Eagle's Brood – Bill Hopalong CassidyRacing Luck – Dan MorganBar 20 Rides Again – Hopalong CassidyHeart of the West – Hopalong CassidyCall of the Prairie – Hopalong CassidyThree on the Trail – Hopalong CassidyFederal Agent – Bob WoodsBurning Gold – Jim ThorntonGo–Get–'Em–Haines – Steve HainesHopalong Cassidy Returns – Hopalong CassidyTrail Dust – Hopalong CassidyBorderland – Hopalong CassidyHills of Old Wyoming – Hopalong CassidyNorth of the Rio Grande – Hopalong CassidyRustlers' Valley – Hopalong CassidyHopalong Rides Again – Hopalong CassidyTexas Trail – Hopalong CassidyPartners of the Plains – Hopalong CassidyCassidy of Bar 20 – Hopalong CassidyHeart of Arizona – Hopalong CassidyBar 20 Justice – Hopalong CassidyPride of the West – Hopalong CassidySunset Trail – Hopalong CassidyIn Old Mexico – Hopalong CassidyThe Frontiersmen – Hopalong CassidySilver on the Sage – Hopalong CassidyRenegade Trail – Hopalong CassidyRange War – Hopalong CassidyLaw of the Pampas – Hopalong CassidySanta Fe Marshal – Hopalong CassidyThe Showdown – Hopalong CassidyHidden Gold – Hopalong CassidyStagecoach War – Hopalong CassidyThree Men from Texas – Hopalong CassidyDoomed Caravan – Hopalong CassidyIn Old Colorado – Hopalong CassidyBorder Vigilantes – Hopalong CassidyPirates on Horseback – Hopalong CassidyWide Open Town – Hopalong CassidyStick to Your Guns – Hopalong CassidyRiders of the Timberline – Hopalong CassidyTwilight on the Trail – Hopalong CassidyOutlaws of the Desert – Hopalong CassidySecrets of the Wasteland – Hopalong CassidyUndercover Man – Hopalong CassidyLost Canyon – Hopalong CassidyHoppy Serves a Writ – Hopalong CassidyBorder Patrol – Hopalong CassidyLeather Burners – Hopalong CassidyColt Comrades – Hopalong CassidyBar 20 – Hopalong CassidyFalse Colors – Hopalong CassidyRiders of the Deadline – Hopalong CassidyLumberjack – Hopalong CassidyMystery Man – Hopalong CassidyTexas Masquerade - Hopalong CassidyForty Thieves – Hopalong CassidyThe Devil's Playground – Hopalong CassidyFool's Gold – Hopalong CassidyUnexpected Guest – Hopalong CassidyDangerous Venture – Hopalong CassidyThe Marauders – Hopalong CassidyHoppy's Holiday – Hopalong CassidySilent Conflict – Hopalong CassidyThe Dead Don't Dream – Hopalong CassidySinister Journey – Hopalong CassidyBorrowed Trouble – Hopalong CassidyFalse Paradise – Hopalong CassidyStrange Gamble – Hopalong CassidyThe Greatest Show on Earth – Hopalong Cassidy Little Smokey: The True Story of America's Forest Fire Preventin' Bear – Hopalong Cassidy Hopalong Cassidy – Hopalong Cassidy