William Boyd
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1895-06-04
Day of Death
1972-09-12 (77 years old)
Place of Birth
Hendrysburg, Ohio, USA
William Boyd
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Lawrence Boyd (June 5, 1895 – September 12, 1972) was an American film actor who is best known for portraying the cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy. Boyd was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, and reared in Cambridge, Ohio and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the son of a day laborer, Charles William Boyd, and his wife, the former Lida Wilkens (aka Lyda). Following his father's death, he moved to California and worked as an orange picker, surveyor, tool dresser and auto salesman.
In Hollywood, he 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 "weak heart". More prominent film roles followed, including his breakout role as Jack Moreland in Cecil B. DeMille's The Road to Yesterday (1925) which starred also Joseph Schildkraut, Jetta Goudal, and Vera Reynolds. Boyd's performance in the film was praised by critics, while movie-goers were equally impressed by his easy charm, charisma, and intense good-looks. Due to Boyd's growing popularity, DeMille soon cast him as the leading man in the highly acclaimed silent drama film, The Volga Boatman. Boyd's role as Feodor blew critics away, 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 extravaganza The King of Kings (in which he played Simon of Cyrene, helping Jesus carry the cross) and DeMille's Skyscraper (1928). He then appeared in D.W. Griffith's Lady of the Pavements (1929).
Radio Pictures ended Boyd's contract in 1931 when his picture 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." William "Stage" Boyd died in 1935, the same year William L. Boyd became Hopalong Cassidy, the role that led to his enduring fame. But at the time in 1931, Boyd was virtually broke and without a job, and for a few years he was credited in films as "Bill Boyd" to prevent being mistaken for the other William Boyd.
Known For
Acting
(2000)
Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs
as (archive footage)
(1999)
Television: The First Fifty Years
as Hopalong Cassidy (archive footage)
(1991)
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
as Self (archive footage)
(1984)
Going Hollywood: The '30s
as (archive footage)
(1976)
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
as (archive footage)
(1976)
It's Showtime
as Self (archive footage)
(1968)
The Movie Orgy
as Hopalong Cassidy (archive footage)
(1953)
Little Smokey
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1952)
The Greatest Show on Earth
as Hopalong Cassidy (uncredited)
(1948)
False Paradise
as William "Hopalong" Cassidy
(1948)
Silent Conflict
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1948)
Borrowed Trouble
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1948)
Strange Gamble
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1948)
Sinister Journey
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1948)
The Dead Don't Dream
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1947)
The Marauders
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1947)
Hoppy's Holiday
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1947)
Dangerous Venture
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1947)
Unexpected Guest
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1946)
Fool's Gold
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1946)
The Devil's Playground
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1944)
Lumberjack
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1944)
Forty Thieves
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1944)
Mystery Man
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1944)
Texas Masquerade
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1943)
Hoppy Serves a Writ
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1943)
Bar 20
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1943)
False Colors
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1943)
Riders of the Deadline
as Ranger William "Hopalong" Cassidy
(1943)
Leather Burners
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1943)
Colt Comrades
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1943)
Border Patrol
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1942)
Lost Canyon
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1942)
Undercover Man
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Doomed Caravan
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Wide Open Town
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Stick to Your Guns
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Twilight on the Trail
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
In Old Colorado
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Pirates on Horseback
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Secret of the Wastelands
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Outlaws of the Desert
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Riders of the Timberline
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1941)
Border Vigilantes
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1940)
Santa Fe Marshal
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1940)
Three Men from Texas
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1940)
Stagecoach War
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1940)
Hidden Gold
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1940)
The Showdown
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1939)
Range War
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1939)
Sunset Trail
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1939)
Renegade Trail
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1939)
Law of the Pampas
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1939)
Silver on the Sage
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1939)
Land of Liberty
as (archive footage)
(1938)
The Frontiersmen
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1938)
Pride of the West
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1938)
Heart of Arizona
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1938)
In Old Mexico
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1938)
Partners of the Plains
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1938)
Bar 20 Justice
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1938)
Cassidy of Bar 20
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1937)
Borderland
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1937)
Texas Trail
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1937)
Hopalong Rides Again
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1937)
Rustlers' Valley
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1937)
North of the Rio Grande
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1937)
Hills of Old Wyoming
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1936)
Go-Get-'Em, Haines
as Steve Haines
(1936)
Three on the Trail
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1936)
Trail Dust
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1936)
Hopalong Cassidy Returns
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1936)
Burning Gold
as Jim Thornton
(1936)
Call of the Prairie
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1936)
Federal Agent
as Bob Woods
(1936)
Heart of the West
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1935)
Hop-a-long Cassidy
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1935)
Bar 20 Rides Again
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1935)
Racing Luck
as Dan Morgan
(1935)
The Eagle's Brood
as Hopalong Cassidy
(1934)
Port of Lost Dreams
as Lars Christensen
(1934)
Cheaters
as Steve Morris
(1933)
Emergency Call
as Joe Bradley
(1933)
Lucky Devils
as Skipper Clark
(1932)
Men Of America
as Jim Parker
(1932)
Flaming Gold
as Dan Manton
(1932)
Carnival Boat
as Buck Gannon
(1931)
The Painted Desert
as Bill Holbrook
(1931)
Suicide Fleet
as Baltimore
(1931)
Beyond Victory
as Bill Thatcher
(1931)
The Big Gamble
as Alan Beckwith
(1930)
Officer O'Brien
as Bill O'Brien
(1930)
Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 5
as William Boyd
(1929)
The Leatherneck
as William Calhoun
(1929)
Lady of the Pavements
as Karl Von Arnim
(1929)
High Voltage
as Bill
(1929)
His First Command
as Terry Culver
(1929)
The Flying Fool
as Bill Taylor
(1928)
Power
as Husky
(1928)
The Cop
as Pete Smith
(1928)
Skyscraper
as Blondy
(1928)
The Night Flyer
as Jimmy Bradley
(1927)
The King of Kings
as Simon Of Cyrene
(1927)
The Yankee Clipper
as Hal Winslow
(1927)
Two Arabian Knights
as Daingerfield Phelps
(1927)
Dress Parade
as Vic Donovan
(1926)
The Volga Boatman
as Feodor
(1926)
Eve's Leaves
as Bill Stanley
(1926)
Her Man o' War
as Jim Sanderson
(1925)
The Road to Yesterday
as Jack Moreland
(1925)
Forty Winks
as Lt. Gerald Hugh Butterworth
(1925)
New Lives for Old
as Soldier (uncredited)
(1925)
The Midshipman
as Spud
(1924)
Feet of Clay
as Young Society Man (uncredited)
(1924)
Tarnish
as Bill
(1924)
Changing Husbands
as Conrad Bardshaw
(1923)
Hollywood
as William Boyd
(1923)
Michael O'Halloran
as Douglas Bruce
(1923)
Enemies of Children
as Sidney Godfrey
(1923)
The Temple of Venus
as Stanley Dale
(1922)
Manslaughter
as (uncredited)
(1922)
Saturday Night
as Party Guest
(1922)
The Young Rajah
as Stephen Van Kovert
(1922)
Nice People
as Oliver Comstock
(1922)
Bobbed Hair
as Dick Barton
(1922)
Moran of the Lady Letty
as Ramon's Friend at Homecoming
(1922)
On the High Seas
as Dick Deveraux
(1921)
The Affairs of Anatol
as Guest
(1921)
Brewster's Millions
as Harrison
(1921)
A Wise Fool
as Gerard Fynes
(1921)
Moonlight and Honeysuckle
as Robert V. Courtney
(1921)
Forbidden Fruit
as Billiards Player
(1921)
After the Show
as (uncredited)
(1920)
A City Sparrow
as Hughie Ray
(1920)
Something to Think About
as (uncredited)
(1920)
The Six Best Cellars
as Holsappel (uncredited)
(1918)
Old Wives for New
as (uncredited)
Crew
(1932)
Men Of America
Director