If this Holdenathon Extravaganza has left you wanting to know more about William Holden, he may be as close as your public library, your video store, or your computer. Here is a quick and dirty guide to some of the best materials available for gaining a casual knowledge about the life and works of Bill Holden.
In terms of biographies, there is one standard book. Bob Thomas’ Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden (St. Martin’s Press, 1983) was written while the world still reeled from Holden’s untimely and well-publicized 1981 death. It is a good standard rendition of the life story, with a good wealth of anecdotal and small details, such as how he held his cigarettes and why, and the unknown details behind the films. The bio is, naturally, heavily preoccupied with Holden’s alcoholism, but it is not severely flawed too far that way.
For a personal look at Kenya through the eyes of Holden himself, see his introduction to William Holden’s Journey Through Kenya, edited by Mohamed Amin, et al (Bodley Head, 1982).
There are many documentaries that feature or mention Bill Holden, including several available on the better DVD editions of his films. However, the A&E Biography series documentary, “William Holden: An Untamed Spirit,” is a solid illustrated piece, and is available as a special feature on the Love is a Many-Splendored Thing 20th Century Fox Studio Classics DVD, released in 2003.
By way of web pages, I was surprised at the relatively small presence Holden had on the web. There is, of course, the William Holden Wildlife Foundation site, which does contain William Holden information, and Wikipedia, as well as a few choice fan pages (most of which can be found on The Golden Years links page). If you find yourself getting more and more into Bill Holden, consider making a tribute page. Again, this is a name that needs to be remembered.
And finally, by way of film recommendations for someone unfamiliar with Holden’s work, I have tried to give you reviews and glimpses throughout this tribute. You can also find quite a few trailers at Video Detective. However, I will re-state that the big ones have to be Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1952), The Wild Bunch (1969), and Network (1976). Once you are familiar with this core set of works, I certainly encourage you to fan out from there.
Happy hunting, and I hope I have been able to share with you a small bit of the fascination I carry for William Holden, one of my picks for the great Stars of all times.
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3 comments:
I apologize. I had originally planned to tag each review with the trailer on Video Detective if they had it, but it seems that I forgot.
However, here is his filmography link. Well worth a peek, especially if you aren't sure what Holden sounds or looks like!
That was amazing. One of the things on my "to do" list is "watch more old school movies". I will be coming back to this series of posts for recommendations and inspiration! Of the Holden films IMDB knows about, I've only seen Network and Sabrina, so I have plenty to choose from.
Great. Exactly what I wanted to hear. My first goal was to raise money for Bill's pet concern in Kenya, but my second goal was to spread the word about Bill.
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