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