William Holden

Actors

William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor who was one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Billy Wilder‘s Stalag 17 (1953) and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television film The Blue Knight (1973). Holden starred in some of Hollywood’s most popular and critically acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard (1950), his first collaboration with Wilder; Sabrina (1954), with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn; David Lean‘s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), with Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa; Sam Peckinpah‘s The Wild Bunch (1969), with Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O’Brien, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates; Picnic (1955), with Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell, Susan Strasberg, and Cliff Robertson; and Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976), with Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, and Beatrice Straight. He was named one of the “Top 10 Stars of the Year” six times (1954–1958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute’s list of 25 greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

Other notable films include Golden Boy (1939), with Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou; George Marshall‘s Texas (1941), with Claire Trevor and Glenn Ford; John Farrow‘s Blaze at Noon (1947), with Anne Baxter; Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), with Lucille Ball; Forever Female (1953), with Ginger Rogers; The Bridges of Toka-Ri (1954), with Grace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey Rooney, and Robert Strauss; The Country Girl (1954), with Bing Crosby; Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), with Jennifer Jones; Carol Reed’s The Key (1958), with Sophia Loren and Trevor Howard; John Ford‘s The Horse Soldiers (1959), with John Wayne and Constance Towers; The World of Suzie Wong (1960), with Nancy Kwan; The Towering Inferno (1974), with Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, and Robert Wagner; and Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976), with Dunaway, Peter Finch, and Robert Duvall.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • Prison Farm (1938) – directed by Louis King – uncredited
  • Million Dollar Legs (1939) – directed by Nick Grinde & Edward Dmytryk (uncredited) – uncredited
  • Golden Boy (1939) – directed by Rouben Mamoulian
  • Invisible Stripes (1939) – directed by Lloyd Bacon
  • Those Were the Days! (1940) – directed by Theodore Reed
  • Our Town (1940) – directed by Sam Wood
  • Arizona (1940) – directed by Wesley Ruggles
  • I Wanted Wings (1941) – directed by Mitchell Leisen
  • Texas (1941) – directed by George Marshall
  • The Fleet’s In (1942) – directed by Victor Schertzinger
  • The Remarkable Andrew (1942) – directed by Stuart Heisler
  • Meet the Stewarts (1942) – directed by Alfred E. Green
  • Young and Willing (1943) – directed by Edward H. Griffith
  • Blaze of Noon (1947) – directed by John Farrow
  • Dear Ruth (1947) – directed by William D. Russell
  • Variety Girl (1947) – directed by George Marshall – cameo as himself
  • Rachel and the Stranger (1948) – directed by Norman Foster
  • Apartment for Peggy (1948) – directed by George Seaton
  • The Dark Past (1948) – directed by Rudolph Maté
  • The Man from Colorado (1949) – directed by Henry Levin
  • Streets of Loredo (1949) – directed by Leslie Fenton
  • Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) – directed by Lloyd Bacon
  • Dear Wife (1949) – directed by Richard Haydn
  • Father Is a Bachelor (1950) – directed by Abby Berlin & Norman Foster
  • Sunset Boulevard (1950)** – directed by Billy Wilder
  • Union Station (1950) – directed by Rudolph Maté
  • Born Yesterday (1950) – directed by George Cukor
  • Force of Arms (1951) – directed by Michael Curtiz
  • Submarine Command (1951) – directed by John Farrow
  • Boots Malone (1952) – directed by William Dieterle
  • The Turning Point (1952) – directed by William Dieterle
  • Stalag 17 (1953) – directed by Billy Wilder
  • The Moon Is Blue (1953) – directed by Otto Preminger
  • The Virgin on the Roof (1953) – directed by Otto Preminger – uncredited – aka Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach
  • Forever Female (1953) – directed by Irving Rapper
  • Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) – directed by John Sturges
  • Executive Suite (1954) – directed by Robert Wise
  • Sabrina (1954)** – directed by Billy Wilder
  • The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) – directed by Mark Robson
  • The Country Girl (1954) – directed by George Seaton
  • Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) – directed by Henry King
  • Picnic (1955) – directed by Joshua Logan
  • The Proud and Profane (1956) – directed by George Seaton
  • Toward the Unknown (1956) – directed by Mervyn LeRoy
  • The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957) – directed by David Lean
  • The Key (1958) – directed by Carol Reed
  • The Horse Soldiers (1959) – directed by John Ford
  • The World of Suzie Wong (1960) – directed by Richard Quine
  • Satan Never Sleeps (1962) – directed by Leo McCarey
  • The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) – directed by George Seaton
  • The Lion (1962) – directed by Jack Cardiff
  • Paris When It Sizzles (1964) – directed by Richard Quine
  • The 7th Dawn (1964) – directed by Lewis Gilbert
  • Alvarez Kelly (1966) – directed by Edward Dmytryk
  • Casino Royale (1967) – directed by Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, & Richard Talmadge (uncredited) – cameo
  • The Devil’s Bridge (1968) – directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
  • The Wild Bunch (1969) – directed by Sam Peckinpah
  • The Christmas Tree (1969) – directed by Terence Young
  • Wild Rovers (1971) – directed by Blake Edwards
  • The Revengers (1972) – directed by Daniel Mann
  • Breezy (1973) – directed by Clint Eastwood
  • The Blue Knight (1973) – directed by Robert Butler – TV movie
  • Open Season (1974) – directed by Peter Collinson
  • The Towering Inferno (1974) – directed by John Guillermin
  • 21 Hours at Munich (1976) – directed by William A. Graham – TV movie
  • Network (1976) – directed by Sidney Lumet
  • Fedora (1978) – directed by Billy Wilder
  • Damien: Omen II (1978) – directed by Don Taylor
  • Escape to Athena (1979) – directed by George P. Cosmatos – uncredited
  • Ashanti (1979) – directed by Richard Fleischer
  • When the Time Ran Out (1980) – directed by James Goldstone
  • The Earthling (1980) – directed by Peter Collinson
  • S.O.B. (1981) – directed by Blake Edwards