William Boyd

Highest Rated: 100% Forty Winks (1925)

Lowest Rated: 50% Tune in Tomorrow... (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) (1990)

Birthday: Jun 5, 1895

Birthplace: Hendrysburg, Ohio, USA

The son of a day laborer, William Boyd moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was seven. His parents died while he was in his early teens, forcing him to quit school and take such jobs as a grocery clerk, surveyor and oil field worker. He went to Hollywood in 1919, already gray-haired. His first role was as an extra in Cecil B. DeMille's Why Change Your Wife? (1920). He bought some fancy clothes, caught DeMille's eye and got the romantic lead in The Volga Boatman (1926), quickly becoming a matinée idol and earning upwards of $100,000 a year. With the end of silent movies, Boyd was without a contract and going broke. By mistake his picture was run in a newspaper story about the arrest of another actor with a similar name ('William Stage Boyd') on gambling and liquor charges, and that hurt his career even more. In 1935 he was offered the lead role in Hop-Along Cassidy (1935). He changed the original pulp-fiction character to its opposite, made sure that "Hoppy" didn't smoke, drink, chew tobacco or swear, rarely kissed a girl, and let the bad guy draw first. By 1943 he had made 54 "Hoppies" for his original producer, Harry Sherman; after Sherman dropped the series, Boyd produced and starred in 12 more on his own. The series was wildly popular and all at least doubled their profit. In 1948 Boyd, in a savvy and precedent-setting move, bought the rights to all his pictures (he had to sell his ranch to raise the money) just as TV was looking for Saturday-morning western fare. He marketed all sorts of products and received royalties from comic books, radio and records. He retired to Palm Desert, California, in 1953. In 1968 he had surgery to remove a tumor from a lymph gland and, from then on, refused all interview and photograph requests. He died on September 12,1972 in Laguna Beach, California, USA from Parkinson's disease and heart failure.

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

RATING	TITLE	CREDIT	BOX OFFICE	YEAR
No Score Yet	Restless	Screenwriter	—	2014
60%	Chaplin	Screenwriter	—	1992
82%	Mister Johnson	Screenwriter	—	1991
50%	Tune in Tomorrow... (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter)	Screenwriter	—	1990
No Score Yet	Stars and Bars	Screenwriter	—	1988
No Score Yet	Scoop	Screenwriter	—	1987
50%	The Greatest Show on Earth	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1952
No Score Yet	Strange Gamble	Producer Hopalong Cassidy	—	1948
No Score Yet	The Dead Don't Dream	Producer Hopalong Cassidy	—	1948
No Score Yet	Silent Conflict	Hopalong Cassidy Producer	—	1948
No Score Yet	Borrowed Trouble	Hopalong Cassidy Producer	—	1948
No Score Yet	Sinister Journey	Producer Hopalong Cassidy	—	1948
No Score Yet	False Paradise	Producer Hopalong Cassidy	—	1948
No Score Yet	King of the Range	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1947
No Score Yet	Dangerous Venture	Producer Hopalong Cassidy	—	1947
No Score Yet	Fool's Gold	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1947
No Score Yet	Marauders	Hopalong Cassidy Producer	—	1947
No Score Yet	Hoppy's Holiday	Hopalong Cassidy Producer	—	1947
No Score Yet	Unexpected Guest	Hopalong Cassidy Producer	—	1947
No Score Yet	The Devil's Playground	Producer Hopalong Cassidy	—	1946
No Score Yet	Texas Masquerade	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1944
No Score Yet	Mystery Man	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1944
No Score Yet	Forty Thieves	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1944
No Score Yet	Lumberjack	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1944
No Score Yet	Riders of the Deadline	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	False Colors	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	The Leather Burners	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	Border Patrol	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	Lost Canyon	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	Colt Comrades	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	Hoppy Serves a Writ	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	Bar 20	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1943
No Score Yet	Undercover Man	Actor	—	1942
No Score Yet	Prairie Pals	Actor	—	1942
No Score Yet	Rolling Down the Great Divide	Actor	—	1942
No Score Yet	Along the Sundown Trail	Himself	—	1942
No Score Yet	Stick to Your Guns	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Twilight on the Trail	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Secrets of the Wastelands	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Riders of the Timberline	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Doomed Caravan	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Outlaws of the Desert	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Border Vigilantes	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Wide Open Town	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Pirates on Horseback	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1941
No Score Yet	Stagecoach War	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1940
No Score Yet	Hidden Gold	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1940
No Score Yet	Three Men From Texas	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1940
No Score Yet	The Showdown	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1940
No Score Yet	Santa Fe Marshal	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1940
No Score Yet	Renegade Trail	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1939
No Score Yet	Law of the Pampas	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1939
No Score Yet	Range War	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1939
No Score Yet	Silver on the Sage	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1939
No Score Yet	Pride of the West	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	Heart of Arizona	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	Sunset Trail	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	The Frontiersman	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	Bar 20 Justice	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	Cassidy of Bar 20	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	Partners of the Plains	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	In Old Mexico	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1938
No Score Yet	Hopalong Rides Again	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1937
No Score Yet	Rustler's Valley	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1937
No Score Yet	North of the Rio Grande	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1937
No Score Yet	Texas Trail	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1937
No Score Yet	Hills of Old Wyoming	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1937
No Score Yet	Borderland	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1937
No Score Yet	Heart of the West	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1936
No Score Yet	Go-Get-'em Haines	Steve Haines	—	1936
No Score Yet	Hopalong Cassidy Returns	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1936
No Score Yet	Trail Dust	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1936
No Score Yet	Call of the Prairie	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1936
No Score Yet	Three on the Trail	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1936
No Score Yet	Bar 20 Rides Again	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1936
No Score Yet	The Eagle's Brood	Hopalong Cassidy	—	1935
No Score Yet	Hopalong Cassidy Enters	Bill Cassidy	—	1935
No Score Yet	East Side Kids - The Lost City	Actor	—	1935
No Score Yet	The Girl From Missouri (100 Per Cent Pure) (Born to Be Kissed)	Eadie's Stepfather	—	1934
No Score Yet	Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round	Joe Saunders	—	1934
No Score Yet	Laughing at Life	Inspector Mason	—	1933
No Score Yet	Midnight Warning	William 'Bill' Cornish	—	1932
No Score Yet	Madison Square Garden	Sloane	—	1932
No Score Yet	The Painted Desert	Bill Holbrook	—	1931
No Score Yet	State's Attorney	Valentine 'Vanny' Powers	—	1931
No Score Yet	Officer O'Brien	Bill O'Brien	—	1930
No Score Yet	High Voltage	Actor	—	1929
No Score Yet	The Leatherneck	Joseph Hanlon	—	1929
No Score Yet	Flying Fool	Actor	—	1929
No Score Yet	His First Command	Terry Culver	—	1929
No Score Yet	The Night Flyer	Jimmy Bradley	—	1928
No Score Yet	Power	Husky	—	1928
No Score Yet	Skyscraper	Blondy	—	1928
No Score Yet	Two Arabian Knights	Private	—	1927
71%	The King of Kings	Simon Of Cyrene	—	1927
No Score Yet	The Yankee Clipper	Hal Winslow	—	1927
No Score Yet	The Volga Boatman	Feodor, A Volga Boatman	—	1926
No Score Yet	Eve's Leaves	Actor	—	1926
100%	Forty Winks	Lt. Gerald Hugh Butterworth	—	1925
No Score Yet	The Road to Yesterday	Jack Moreland	—	1925
100%	Hollywood	Guest Appearance	—	1923
No Score Yet	Moran of the Lady Letty	Bit	—	1922
No Score Yet	The Young Rajah	Stephen Van Kovert	—	1922
No Score Yet	Exit the Vamp	Robert Pitts	—	1921
No Score Yet	The Affairs of Anatol	Guest	—	1921
100%	Brewster's Millions	Harrison	—	1921
No Score Yet	Old Wives for New	Actor	—	1918

TV

RATING	TITLE	CREDIT	YEAR
50%	Any Human Heart 2010	Screenwriter

Quotes from William Boyd's Characters

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On Dvd & Streaming

William Boyd

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

TV

Quotes from William Boyd's Characters