William Boyd
Acting • Born 1895-06-04 – Died 1972-09-12
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.
Filmography
145 credits
The Movie Orgy
Movie • 1968
Hopalong Cassidy (archive footage)
Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs
Movie • 2000
(archive footage)
Bobbed Hair
Movie • 1922
Dick Barton
The Temple of Venus
Movie • 1923
Stanley Dale
Enemies of Children
Movie • 1923
Sidney Godfrey
Hollywood
Movie • 1923
William Boyd
After the Show
Movie • 1921
(uncredited)
The Big Gamble
Movie • 1931
Alan Beckwith
The Volga Boatman
Movie • 1926
Feodor
Forty Winks
Movie • 1925
Lt. Gerald Hugh Butterworth
Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 5
Movie • 1930
William Boyd
Lucky Devils
Movie • 1933
Skipper Clark
Border Patrol
Movie • 1943
Hopalong Cassidy
Doomed Caravan
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Fool's Gold
Movie • 1946
Hopalong Cassidy
Forty Thieves
Movie • 1944
Hopalong Cassidy
Hidden Gold
Movie • 1940
Hopalong Cassidy
Pirates on Horseback
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Borrowed Trouble
Movie • 1948
Hopalong Cassidy
Dangerous Venture
Movie • 1947
Hopalong Cassidy
False Colors
Movie • 1943
Hopalong Cassidy
The Devil's Playground
Movie • 1946
Hopalong Cassidy
In Old Colorado
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Leather Burners
Movie • 1943
Hopalong Cassidy
Stagecoach War
Movie • 1940
Hopalong Cassidy
Sinister Journey
Movie • 1948
Hopalong Cassidy
The Showdown
Movie • 1940
Hopalong Cassidy
Riders of the Timberline
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Riders of the Deadline
Movie • 1943
Ranger William "Hopalong" Cassidy
False Paradise
Movie • 1948
William "Hopalong" Cassidy
Unexpected Guest
Movie • 1947
Hopalong Cassidy
Wide Open Town
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Undercover Man
Movie • 1942
Hopalong Cassidy
Three Men from Texas
Movie • 1940
Hopalong Cassidy
Stick to Your Guns
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
The Dead Don't Dream
Movie • 1948
Hopalong Cassidy
Colt Comrades
Movie • 1943
Hopalong Cassidy
Silent Conflict
Movie • 1948
Hopalong Cassidy
Hoppy Serves a Writ
Movie • 1943
Hopalong Cassidy
Secret of the Wastelands
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Mystery Man
Movie • 1944
Hopalong Cassidy
Hoppy's Holiday
Movie • 1947
Hopalong Cassidy
Texas Masquerade
Movie • 1944
Hopalong Cassidy
The Marauders
Movie • 1947
Hopalong Cassidy
Border Vigilantes
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Strange Gamble
Movie • 1948
Hopalong Cassidy
Twilight on the Trail
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Outlaws of the Desert
Movie • 1941
Hopalong Cassidy
Lost Canyon
Movie • 1942
Hopalong Cassidy
Bar 20
Movie • 1943
Hopalong Cassidy
The Eagle's Brood
Movie • 1935
Hopalong Cassidy
Lumberjack
Movie • 1944
Hopalong Cassidy
Bar 20 Justice
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
The Frontiersmen
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
In Old Mexico
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
Pride of the West
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
Law of the Pampas
Movie • 1939
Hopalong Cassidy
Range War
Movie • 1939
Hopalong Cassidy
Renegade Trail
Movie • 1939
Hopalong Cassidy
Silver on the Sage
Movie • 1939
Hopalong Cassidy
Sunset Trail
Movie • 1939
Hopalong Cassidy
Santa Fe Marshal
Movie • 1940
Hopalong Cassidy
Three on the Trail
Movie • 1936
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy Returns
Movie • 1936
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Rides Again
Movie • 1937
Hopalong Cassidy
North of the Rio Grande
Movie • 1937
Hopalong Cassidy
Partners of the Plains
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
Hop-a-long Cassidy
Movie • 1935
Hopalong Cassidy
Heart of the West
Movie • 1936
Hopalong Cassidy
Texas Trail
Movie • 1937
Hopalong Cassidy
Borderland
Movie • 1937
Hopalong Cassidy
Cassidy of Bar 20
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
Bar 20 Rides Again
Movie • 1935
Hopalong Cassidy
Call of the Prairie
Movie • 1936
Hopalong Cassidy
Rustlers' Valley
Movie • 1937
Hopalong Cassidy
Hills of Old Wyoming
Movie • 1937
Hopalong Cassidy
Heart of Arizona
Movie • 1938
Hopalong Cassidy
Trail Dust
Movie • 1936
Hopalong Cassidy
New Lives for Old
Movie • 1925
Soldier (uncredited)
A Wise Fool
Movie • 1921
Gerard Fynes
Manslaughter
Movie • 1922
(uncredited)
Emergency Call
Movie • 1933
Joe Bradley
The Midshipman
Movie • 1925
Spud
The Yankee Clipper
Movie • 1927
Hal Winslow
High Voltage
Movie • 1929
Bill
The Cop
Movie • 1928
Pete Smith
The Road to Yesterday
Movie • 1925
Jack Moreland
Brewster's Millions
Movie • 1921
Harrison
Carnival Boat
Movie • 1932
Buck Gannon
Port of Lost Dreams
Movie • 1934
Lars Christensen
The Flying Fool
Movie • 1929
Bill Taylor
Suicide Fleet
Movie • 1931
Baltimore
Go-Get-'Em, Haines
Movie • 1936
Steve Haines
The Six Best Cellars
Movie • 1920
Holsappel (uncredited)
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Movie • 1976
(archive footage)
Cheaters
Movie • 1934
Steve Morris
Men Of America
Movie • 1932
Jim Parker
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Movie • 1984
(archive footage)
The Affairs of Anatol
Movie • 1921
Guest
Officer O'Brien
Movie • 1930
Bill O'Brien
The Painted Desert
Movie • 1931
Bill Holbrook
Beyond Victory
Movie • 1931
Bill Thatcher
Nice People
Movie • 1922
Oliver Comstock
Land of Liberty
Movie • 1939
(archive footage)
Dress Parade
Movie • 1927
Vic Donovan
The Night Flyer
Movie • 1928
Jimmy Bradley
Skyscraper
Movie • 1928
Blondy
Two Arabian Knights
Movie • 1927
Daingerfield Phelps
The King of Kings
Movie • 1927
Simon Of Cyrene
Moran of the Lady Letty
Movie • 1922
Ramon's Friend at Homecoming
Racing Luck
Movie • 1935
Dan Morgan
Feet of Clay
Movie • 1924
Young Society Man (uncredited)
The Young Rajah
Movie • 1922
Stephen Van Kovert
Saturday Night
Movie • 1922
Party Guest
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
Movie • 1991
Self (archive footage)
Lady of the Pavements
Movie • 1929
Karl Von Arnim
Forbidden Fruit
Movie • 1921
Billiards Player
Television: The First Fifty Years
Movie • 1999
Hopalong Cassidy (archive footage)
His First Command
Movie • 1929
Terry Culver
Federal Agent
Movie • 1936
Bob Woods
Burning Gold
Movie • 1936
Jim Thornton
On the High Seas
Movie • 1922
Dick Deveraux
Her Man o' War
Movie • 1926
Jim Sanderson
Old Wives for New
Movie • 1918
(uncredited)
The Greatest Show on Earth
Movie • 1952
Hopalong Cassidy (uncredited)
Michael O'Halloran
Movie • 1923
Douglas Bruce
Something to Think About
Movie • 1920
(uncredited)
Flaming Gold
Movie • 1932
Dan Manton
Power
Movie • 1928
Husky
Changing Husbands
Movie • 1924
Conrad Bardshaw
The Leatherneck
Movie • 1929
William Calhoun
It's Showtime
Movie • 1976
Self (archive footage)
Tarnish
Movie • 1924
Bill
Eve's Leaves
Movie • 1926
Bill Stanley
Little Smokey
Movie • 1953
Hopalong Cassidy
A City Sparrow
Movie • 1920
Hughie Ray
Moonlight and Honeysuckle
Movie • 1921
Robert V. Courtney
Was He Guilty?
Movie • 1919
The Last Frontier
Movie • 1926
Tom Kirby
Jim the Conqueror
Movie • 1926
Jim Burgess
Exit the Vamp
Movie • 1921
Robert Pitts
The Jucklins
Movie • 1921
Dan Stuart
The City of Masks
Movie • 1920
Carpenter
Hopalong Cassidy
TV • 1952
Hopalong Cassidy
Western von gestern
TV • 1978
Bill Holbrook (archive footage)