Hollywood's "Golden Boy"

There are very few "overnight" stars in Hollywood history; their creation is a convention generally reserved for the movies themselves. But William Holden beat the odds by achieving instant stardom with his first leading role, that of the wholesome young prizefighter who wants to be a violinist in Golden Boy (1939). His inexperience made filming difficult, and after two weeks Columbia president Harry Cohn was ready to fire him, but costar Barbara Stanwyck, who had great faith in Holden, persuaded the executive to relent. Although the film took some liberties with the Clifford Odets play, Holden's performance was singled out for near unanimous praise. (The actor remained forever grateful to Stanwyck for "pulling him through" that picture). After Columbia Pictures picked up half of his contract, he was soon very much in demand as a clean-cut leading man in pictures for Paramount and Columbia. His early films didn't always show him to best advantage, but Holden built a fan following on the strength of well-received appearances in Our Town, Arizona (both 1940), I Wanted Wings, Texas (both 1941), The Remarkable Andrew, Meet the Stewarts, The Fleet's In (all 1942), and Young and Willing (1943).

He served with the Army Air Corps during World War II, where he acted in training films and achieved the rank of lieutenant. He returned to the screen in 1947, first with a cameo in Variety Girl then with a leading role as an aviator in Blaze of Noon. Still youthfully handsome, Holden worked in comedies, dramas, thrillers, and Westerns with equal facility, appearing in Dear Ruth (1947), Apartment for Peggy, The Man From Colorado, Rachel and the Stranger (all 1948), Miss Grant Takes Richmond, Streets of Laredo and Dear Wife (all 1949).

But Holden's maturity, built in part on his wartime experiences, came to the fore in The Dark Side (1948), in which he played an escaped killer, and reached fruition in Billy Wilder's sardonic black comedy, Sunset Blvd (1950, regarded by many as his finest performance), as the hack screenwriter who milks his unhealthy relationship with washed-up movie star Gloria Swanson. His unqualified success in these characterizations (he was Oscar-nominated for Sunset Blvd.) presaged many later portrayals of cynical, world-weary opportunists. Wilder exploited that aspect of Holden's talent in his 1953 prisoner of war drama Stalag 17 which won the star his only Academy Award for his finely limned characterization of a smooth-talking con man who may or may not be informing on his fellow prisoners.

Unfortunately, Holden was a double victim of the studio system. His long-term contract was shared by Columbia and Paramount, which not only underpaid him, but forced him into potboilers unworthy of his talent and popularity. Good movies like Born Yesterday (1950), in which he played the tutor hired by gangster Broderick Crawford to give Judy Holliday "class," were counterbalanced by strictly standard time-fillers like Submarine Command (1951) and Forever Female (1953). Other 1950s' assignments included Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951), Boots Malone, The Turning Point (both 1952), The Moon Is Blue and Escape From Fort Bravo (both 1953). His luck improved in mid-decade, with a string of fine films: Executive Suite (which reunited him with Stanwyck), The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Sabrina, The Country Girl (all 1954), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), and Picnic (also 1955, which included the smoldering dance scene with Kim Novak that Holden was so nervous about he had to film it dead drunk!). Many of these films were among the top grossers of their day, solidifying Holden's star standing during the transitional decade of the 1950s, which saw many big names of the 1930s and 1940s pass from the scene. He became one of Hollywood's most popular and potent leading men.

He suffered from alcoholism and 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 car accident in which the other driver was killed. It was determined Holden had been 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 bouts of drinking. The actor reportedly had another secret: For many years he did undercover work for the CIA, delivering messages to foreign leaders during his travels.

Later career

Sam Peckinpah's blood-soaked Western, The Wild Bunch (1969), took advantage of Holden's increasingly apparent weariness; as one of the aging outlaws who plans to retire after staging a final haul, he turned in one of his best performances in years. Wild Rovers (1971), The Revengers (1972), and Breezy (1973, directed by Clint Eastwood) didn't amount to much, but Holden enjoyed considerable success in the TV-movie The Blue Knight (1973, earning an Emmy Award for his performance), The Towering Inferno (1974), and, especially, Network (1976). The latter film, a brilliant black comedy written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, offered him one last really impressive star turn (for which he secured his final Oscar nomination), as the jaded TV executive at first indifferent to, then finally repulsed by, the disgraceful practices of his peers. In 1980 Holden appeared in The Earthling with child actor 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 how to survive. Schroder later named one of his sons Holden.

Holden's final few films included Damien-Omen II (1978), Fedora (also 1978, for Billy Wilder), Ashanti (1979), The Earthling (1980), and Blake Edwards' black comedy about Hollywood, S.O.B (1981, a fitting follow-up for the man who'd starred in Sunset Blvd.

Private life

Holden was married to actress Brenda Marshall (Ardis Ankerson) from 1941 until their divorce (after many long separations) in 1971. They had two sons, Peter Westfield (born in 1944) and Scott Porter (born in 1946). He also adopted Virginia, his wife's daughter from her first marriage. Holden had a busy social life, maintained a home in Switzerland to avoid heavy taxation on his earnings and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner of the Mount Kenya Safari Club in East Africa. He began a long relationship with actress Stefanie Powers which sparked her interest in animal welfare (Powers later became President of the "William Holden Wildlife Foundation" and a director of their Mount Kenya Game Ranch).

Other possible children

In addition to reported affairs with a number of Hollywood actresses (including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Capucine, and a "yearly rendezvous" with Shelley Winters), Holden is said to have had a seven-year relationship with Eva May Hoffman, the wife of composer Emil Newman (Randy Newman's uncle). Hoffman had two children, Arlene Newman (who later married Dennis Crosby), and William Robert Newman. Arlene was apparently told by her uncle Irving Newman (the father of Randy Newman) that Holden was her father. Some have further speculated that her brother William, who is said to resemble the actor, was named after him and is also his child.

Death

William Holden died as the result of a fall in his high-rise apartment on the seaside cliffs of Santa Monica, California in November 1981. Holden was alone and heavily intoxicated when he apparently slipped on a throw rug, gashed his head on a night table and bled to death. Evidence suggests he was conscious for at least a half an hour after the fall but may not have realized the severity of the injury and didn't summon aid. His body was found on November 16, but forensic and other evidence suggested he had been dead for several days and most likely died on November 12.

His body was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Bob Thomas' melancholy biography, "Golden Boy," revealed that the handsome, self-assured actor so admired by men and women alike onscreen was in fact a man fraught with insecurity who essentially drank himself to an early grave.