THE
MANY
WORLDS OF
BILL
HOLDEN
(Continued)
'Stalag 17,' no Oscar in '53. No big star."
Success followed success now, and Bill
should have been happy and contented. Un
fortunately, it wasn't in his nature.
Painter Paul Clemens, one of Bill's few
close friends, explains, "He makes much of
being poised and calm when he meets you,
but he's a worrier when you get to know
him. If he has no worries, he creates them.
And because he has no enemies I know of,
he has to make up one himself."
The Prankster
Bill's animosity toward himself at times
seems like a self-destruction tendency and
dates back to his boyhood.
Bill Holden was born William Franklyn
Becdlc on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, 111.,
about 20 miles east of St. Louis. His father
was a chemist and his mother a schoolteach
er. Bill was only four when they moved to
Pasadena, where he grew up in middle-class
respectability.
Bill was a good kid but a prankster. One
night he threw a straw man onto the high
way in front of a passing car. It happened
to be a police car, so for the next six weeks
Bill spent his spare time at the station
house, memorizing traffic regulations.
Before long, his escapades became more
hazardous. For instance, in Pasadena there
is a span known locally as "Suicide Bridge"
because so many people have leaped to
their death from it. Today it is guarded by
a high fence, but as a boy Bill walked the
railing 200 feet high on his hands!
Later, he became one of the few actors
who did their own stunts, no matter what
the danger. And often he took chances
when it wasn't necessary at all, just for
the heck of it.
An example occurred at a preproduction
conference in New York with Joshua Lo
gan, who was about to direct him in "Pic
nic." Logan is terrified of heights, so
prankster Bill calmly climbed out a window
and hung by one arm 10 stories over the
street. Logan nearly fainted.
Accidents do Happen
Paradoxically, while he keeps taking un
reasonable chances, he's also convinced that
he's an inevitable victim of every mishap.
Not long ago an airline hostess walked
down a plane aisle toward Bill, carrying hot
Bill and his wife of 20 years, former actress
Brenda Marshall, hove two sons, Scott, now 13,
and Wes, 16, shown here some five years ago.
coffee. Bill tnrned to the person next to
him and said, "When she reaches me, I'll
bet I get that coffee in my lap." He did.
And a few months ago, he went big-game
hunting in Kenya with his partner Carl
Hirschmann. They used a car specially
built for cross-country hunting. The one
animal they weren't allowed to shoot, be
cause they had no license, was a rhinoceros.
About noon, they spotted a 4,000-pound
rhino studying them belligerently.
"I bet he's going to charge us," Bill said
uneasily.
Both Bill and Carl knew what might
happen to their aluminum-protected car if
hit by the two-ton hulk. But Carl was more
optimistic. "Why should he?"
"Because I'm here."
Sure enough, the rhino turned and
charged the car.
The bumpy terrain made it hard to gather
speed, and the galloping rhino caught up
with them. Its horn was just threatening
to butt and overturn the car when a free
stretch of road enabled them to speed away!
A Touch of Hypochondria?
While Bill believes the worst is bound to
happen to him, he emphatically denies be
ing a hypochondriac, as frequently report
ed and seemingly supported by the number
of vitamin pills he takes.
There's one Holden story which deals
with an earthquake that set the windows
of his house rattling. Feeling the tremor, he
clutched his heart and cried, "I'm having
a heart attack!"
Says Bill, "Makes a good conversation
piece, but it's exaggerated. I'm no hypo
chondriac. Sure I've taken vitamins. Lots
of them. And I still do because I'm curious.
If vitamin pills promise to make me feel
better, I try them just as I've tried monkey
brains, octopus, birds' nests, and other
things that promised to be tasty, even if
they weren't. But how would I find out un
less I tried? I'm just a curious character!"
("A curious character" an apt descrip
tion of William Holden! Curious, too, are
his marriage, finances, and recent move
from California to Switzerland curious
but understandable after you read next
week's concluding installment of this re
vealing portrait of a complex man.)
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