William Holden (April 17, 1918 – on or about November 12, 1981) was an Oscar-winning American film actor.

Early life and career

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Born William Franklin Beedle Jr. in O'Fallon, Illinois, he was the eldest of three sons of William Franklin Beedle, Sr., an industrial chemist, and Mary Blanche Ball, a teacher. The family, who moved to Pasadena, California when he was three, was of English descent; Holden's paternal great-grandmother, Rebecca Westfield, was born in England in 1817, while some of his mother's ancestors immigrated to the U.S. in the 17th century from Millenback, Lancaster, England. While attending Pasadena Junior College he became involved in local radio plays and with 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"

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His first starring role was in 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. Following this breakthrough film he played a series of roles that combined good looks with 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 and the ill-fated prisoner in The Bridge on the River Kwai. He also played a number of sunnier roles in light comedy, such as the dashing architect in The Moon is Blue, the tutor in Born Yesterday and Humphrey Bogart's younger, playboy brother in Sabrina. In 1960, he starred opposite Nancy Kwan in the film adaptation of the novel, The World of Suzie Wong. Holden played a struggling artist, Robert Lomax who was captivated by a free-spirited Hong Kong prostitute, Suzie Wong (played by Kwan).

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