William Holden Movies

William Holden in 1969's The Wild Bunch
William Holden in 1969’s The Wild Bunch

Want to know the best William Holden movies?  How about the worst William Holden movies?  Curious about William Holden’s box office grosses or which William Holden movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which William Holden movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

This William Holden page comes from a suggestion from fellow movie watcher mckbirdbks, as well as lots of Holden support from more movie lovers Steve Lensman, Flora Breen Robison and BERN1960 (whose every comment lately has been…”still waiting on that William Holden page”). So without any further delay…here is a movie page on the one… the only…. William Holden.

William Holden (1918-1981) was an Oscar® winning actor who appeared in motion pictures from 1939 to 1981. After appearing in two uncredited parts, Holden got his big break in 1939’s Golden Boy. Golden Boy was not a huge hit, but people became aware of William Holden the actor. For the next 10 years, he appeared in numerous movies, but it is safe to say his career was disappointing. That changed when Holden appeared in 1950’s Sunset Boulevard. He received his first Oscar® nomination for that role and it started a 10 year run for Holden that was filled with classic blockbuster movies. He won an Oscar® for 1953’s Stalag 17, appeared in the box office hits….1954’s Sabrina, 1954’s The Bridges of Toko-Ri, and 1955’s Picnic. He also helped Grace Kelly win her Oscar® for 1954’s The Country Girl and was the lead actor in 1957’s The Bridge on the River Kwai…which won the Oscar® for Best Picture.

From 1962 to 1981, Holden would appear in almost one movie a year. During this time period only three movies really stand out….1969’s The Wild Bunch, 1974’s The Towering Inferno and 1976’s Network….for which Holden would receive his final Oscar® nomination. William Holden passed away in November 1981 from injuries from a fall and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. And finally…… one of my father’s favorite movies was The Bridge on the River Kwai….so I am sure he would be happy to see that it finished ranked number one of all of Holden’s movies according to Cogerson Movie Score.

His IMDb page shows 77 acting credits from 1938-1981. This page will rank 66 William Holden movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, cameos and his uncredited or bit roles were not included in the rankings.

What a cast! Bogart, Hepburn and William Holden in 1954's Sabrina
What a cast! Bogart, Hepburn and William Holden in 1954’s Sabrina

William Holden Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

William Holden Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort William Holden movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort William Holden movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort William Holden movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort William Holden movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort William Holden movies by how many Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins each movie won received
  • Sort William Holden movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
 
William Holden in his Oscar® winning performance in 1953's Stalag 17
William Holden in his Oscar® winning performance in 1953’s Stalag 17

Possibly Interesting Facts About William Holden

1. William Holden was Ronald Reagan’s best man, when Reagan married Nancy Davis in 1952. Holden also did the honors for lifelong friend, Glenn Ford, when Ford married Cynthia Hayward in 1977.

2. According to the book, Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden by Bob Thomas, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn considered getting married while filming the 1954’s Sabrina. Hepburn ended the relationship when she found out Holden could no longer have children. When Hepburn and Holden were filming 1964’s Paris When It Sizzles, Holden tried to rekindle the relationship. At one point, Holden climbed a tree outside Hepburn’s hotel window looking for a kiss from her. After the kiss, Holden promptly fell out of the tree and crashed landed on a parked car.

3. William Holden appeared on Quigley Publishing’s Top Ten Money Making Stars list six times between 1954-1961. In 1956 he appeared as the number one Top Money Making Star.

4. William Holden received 3 Oscar® nominations for acting. He won the Oscar® for 1953’s Stalag 17. His other two nominations were for 1950’s Sunset Boulevard and 1976’s Network. He never received a Golden Globe® nomination.

5. He was so grateful to Barbara Stanwyck for her insistence on casting him in 1939’s Golden Boy, that he sent her flowers every year on the anniversary of the first day of the filming. He was also grateful to Montgomery Clift for turning down the lead role in Sunset Boulevard. After Clift turned the role down, the role went to Holden. Sunset Boulevard is considered the turning point in Holden’s 40 year career.

6. Has one of the shortest acceptance speeches in the history of the Oscars®. When his named was called as Best Actor for Stalag 17, Holden walked to the podium, said “Thank you” and left the stage.

7. Entertainment Weekly voted William Holden as the 63rd Greatest Movie Star. Holden also finished 25th in the American Film Institute’s Greatest Screen Legends poll.

8. William Holden was married one time in his life. Holden married Ardis Ankerson in 1941. They divorced in 1971. William Holden had three children….sons Peter and Scott and daughter, Virginia. Virginia was Ankerson’s daughter from her first marriage. Holden legally adopted her.

9. Roles William Holden turned down or was seriously considered for: Strangers on a Train, North By Northwest, The Guns of Navarone, The Omen, The Americanization of Emily, Mister Roberts and The Trouble With Harry.

10. Check out William Holden’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Steve’s William Holden You Tube Video

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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109 thoughts on “William Holden Movies”

  1. HOLDEN VIDEO Best POSTERS 1-25 Texas [again teaming Golden Holden and Charley Bill with Holden this time getting 1st billing] Foreign Language one for The Horse Soldiers,1st one for Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Invisible Stripes [teaming Bogie, Golden and Raft – wow!] Fedora, the two for Picnic, foreign language one for The Country Girl, Bridges at Toko Ri, stunning one for The Wild Bunch and foreign language one for The Bridge on the River Kwai.

    It should be noted that in your two posters while Golden is 1st billed in both of them, 2nd billing is alternated between then top Brits Hawkins and Guinness. That was so too at the time of the movies release way back in the 1950s. Also opinion as to who gave the best performance varied as well. Guinness got the Oscar of course but some critics thought that Hawkins’ acting was the best in the movie whereas Charley Bill Stuart in a TV interview that I saw said that Golden’s performance was “The most perfect that I have ever seen in any movie.”

    Best STILLS for me are (1) Holden in solo from The Horse Soldiers (2) The Golden Boy as the Golden Boy with mentor Stanwyck! (3) with Eleanor Parker in Escape from Fort Bravo [as all seats in the cinema were full poor little Bob and many others had to stand while watching the first half of that movie] (4) the lobby card for World of Suzie Wong, a film that marked the approaching end of the Golden Holden top star era and his last big hit in that era (5) lobby card of Golden with the Princess (6) Golden with Judy Holliday and Brodie Crawford, who was thrown out of Sinatra’s Rat Pack for while drunk crawling across the floor and attempting to eat Frankie’s toupee while the latter was sleeping off the booze and (7) Golden with Audrey Hepburn whom he asked to marry him. I gather she declined when she learned he couldn’t have children.

    You and our own Golden Boy agree of all 5 of Holden’s Top 5 critically acclaimed movies albeit in a different order. Overall your video was a 98.5% treat for me.

    Reply

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, trivia, billing info and comparison, always appreciated. Glad you liked the posters and stills.

      I didn’t know Hawkins and Guinness alternated between 2nd and third billing in the posters and in theaters, interesting. Maybe it didn’t really matter as long as Holden was billed first.

      Holden had good practice playing a POW after winning an Oscar for Stalag 17.

      William Holden has 7 films scoring 10 out of 10 from my sources, and they make up the top 7 on my video. They are from the top down –

      Sunset Boulevard
      Bridge on the River Kwai ,The
      Wild Bunch ,The
      Stalag 17
      Network
      Born Yesterday
      Sabrina

      Six more scored 9 including Bridges at Toko-Ri, Country Girl and Picnic.

      Sunset Blvd is no.1 at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Bruce’s critics have Network at no.1 followed by Sunset Blvd. Kwai tops the UMR chart.

      Holden on Barbara Stanwyck – “Thirty-nine years ago this month, we were working in a film together called Golden Boy (1939). It wasn’t going so well and I was going to be replaced. But due to this lovely human being and her encouragement and above all her generosity, I’m here tonight.”

      Holden on Bogart – “I hated that bastard.”

      Holden on Clint Eastwood (director of Breezy) – “He’s even-tempered — a personality trait not much in evidence among directors. The crew is totally behind him and that really helps things go smoothly.”

      Bob, my next expanded video will feature another big favorite of yours, and it’s packed with super rare poster art. Should be up some time today.

      Reply

      1. I’ll pop in later to check out Bruce’s interesting new movie pages. I hope he notices my comments this time. 🙂

        Reply

      2. HI STEVE

        Thanks for the feedback, additional information and quotes

        GUINNESS about Golden Holden in Sir Alec’s diaries when they were making Bridge on River Kwai “A nice man but he drove all of us on set and location to distraction by endlessly bitching about business deals of his that had gone sour.”

        BOGART didn’t seem to have much love or even respect for Golden either. I’ve mentioned before that Bogie had a habit of needling Golden on the set of the 1954 Sabrina by making fun of Holden’s wholesome ‘boy next door’ image in some films and Bogie would say thinks like “Done any of your Smiling Jim roles lately?” until Golden finally snapped and challenged Bogart to step outside.

        Bogie reportedly told Golden to go outside and wait for him and when William did that Bogie got off side to bed for the evening leaving Golden pacing and fuming until he realised Humph had no intention of fighting him.

        So much for the “screen’s toughest tough guy”! It is reckoned that politics were really behind the bad blood between them, Bogie being a Democrat and Golden a staunch Republican with neither tolerant of the other’s viewpoint.

        You’ve whetted my appetite for viewing your next presentation and whoever it is he/she will be in good company for I will also be watching over the next few days Jimmy and The Duke in Liberty Valance, Duke and Dino in Rio Bravo and a Charley Bill double The Sheepman and Torpedo Run, all of which will be showing on TV’s Turner movies.

        Reply

        1. Bob, thanks for the extra trivia. I always thought Bogart was miscast in Sabrina, Randolph Scott or Cary Grant would probably have fitted that role better.

          Who were the two actors in the remake? Hang on let me google it… aha Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear. The girl was played by Julia Ormond, who hasn’t appeared in much since the 1990s.

          Reply

  2. Just added Steve’s updated Holden video to the page.

    “An updated page on one of Bob and Flora’s favorites. My question is when is the next update?….Over at UMR…we have 66 Holden movies ranked…..you gotta go the Full Monty…lol. Overall I have seen 21 of the 50 movies shown. Favorites include the entire Top 5. Two of those Top 5 are some of my dad’s all-time favorite movies…#2 Bridge at River Kwai (not first?….shocking) and #4 Stalog 17. #30 Paris When It Sizzles is a fun movie….but gets crushed by critics. Good video. Voted up….and shared on our Holden page. Plus sharing it on some Holden Facebook pages that have been nice to our page. Good stuff.”

    Reply

      1. Thanks Bruce, appreciate the comment, vote, and share. 50 films is plenty for a video, your UMR page can list hundreds. Your 21 beats my 12, Flora’s tally was 37. Surprised that Kwai isn’t no.1? I thought it was time Sunset Boulevard ruled the roost for a while, Kwai isn’t even in the top 5 on your chart! [Bruce gasps] :)

        Reply

        1. Hey Steve…..wow I did not even noticed that B.O.T.R.K. was 5th when looking at my Review % column……on the UMR score system it is one of the overall top ranked movies. I think I have watched many of my 21 since writing this page…..like Gregory Peck…I have sought out Holden’s movie pages since doing this “internet thing”…lol Good stuff as always.

          Reply

  3. HI STEVE The tagline of a book about Monty read “Even before Brando, even before Dean there was Montgomery Clift” because Clift’s debut occurred before those of his two great “Method” contemporaries. I personally could well say “Even before Brando and Wayne there was Golden Holden and Chuck Heston,” as the low-grade cinemas that I could afford to frequent would run and re-run those early action/relatively cheap movies that Golden and Chuck churned out such as Submarine Command and Escape from Fort Bravo in Golden’s case and Chuck’s Arrowhead and The Naked Jungle [“The ants -Marabunta”!] etc. Accordingly Holden and Heston were probably my first two A list heroes as I grew up closely followed by Jimmy Stewart, Widmark and Charley Bill and after them Mumbles, Laddie and The Duke.

    Best posters in 50-26 are for me (1) The Lion and Satan Never Sleeps [two back-to-back flops that were a harbinger of the end of Bill Beedle’s days as a top box office star] (2) the racy one for Proud and Profane (3) the 2nd one for Arizona (4) Submarine Command (5) Forever Female – showing that publicists obviously felt that Ginger’s legs were there for more than Astaire to dance with! (6) Union Station (7) The Moon is Blue [thought to be really daring back in 1953] (8) Streets of Laredo – superb, this film a remake of The Texas Rangers which starred MacMurray in Golden’s role (9) a stunning one for Towards the Unknown/Brink of Hell and (10) the foreign language one for Paris When it Sizzles, which unfortunately continued the run of Holden flops in the early sixties.

    Few STILLS in Part One but those that are there please me immensely (1) young Golden with Lake [indirectly linking him to another of my great idols – Laddie!]. In bed with Sophia – I am not sure if we were allowed that scene in the actual movie back in the 1950s (3) again two of my great idols together, the two Bills –Beedle and Stuart! Golden and Charley Bill were said to be lifelong friends but I am not sure about which life that was in! To be continued…
    …
    EXTRA TRIVIA In the 1978 Fedora directed by Billy Wilder, Holden’s character was named Barry Detweiler, which pronounces a bit like “debtwilder”. Apparently the surname there was Golden’s way of acknowledging his “debt” to Billy Wilder who put him in Holden’s two career-making movies Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17 which started off Bill’s fantastic run of flicks in the 1950s when he was never out of Quigley Polls for a while.

    Reply

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing the first half of my William Holden extra long video, it is much appreciated. Glad you liked the visual slideshow.

      Interesting trivia as usual. When I was updating my Barbara Stanwyck video I noticed that she was the star of both Holden’s and Kirk Douglas’s first movies. She couldn’t have known how popular those two young actors would be in cinema.

      I had finished my Bill Holden video and was quite happy with the results and than by chance I noticed the still of Holden in bed with La Loren…. after a moments hesitation I decided it had to go in. So back I went restructuring the music, tweaked the editing, checked all the transitions, all for 8 seconds of Holden with Loren. 🙂

      Reply

      1. Hey Steve…that is cool that she is in both Holden and Douglas’ first movies….sounds like a great movie trivia question.

        Reply

      2. HI STEVE

        Good feedback about the Holden/Loren bed scene. You certainly are painstaking.

        I have mentioned before that Holden was apologetic and sheepish in an interview about have done bedroom scenes with Dunaway in Network whereas my Jimmy Stewart turned down the Finch role in that moviebecause of the strong language in Network.

        Reply

    2. Hey Bob….good thoughts, trivia and Lensman video review. I think some would go even further than your “Even before Brando, even before Dean there was Montgomery Clift” quote…..it would go ” “Even before Clift, even before Brando, even before Dean there was John Garfield”.

      Reply

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