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. Yet another outstanding page Cogerson. I’ve never seen any of his movies…I was out getting into trouble during his prime celebrity years. I enjoyed the tribute and the comments!

    Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by Sunshine625….your support for my hubs is always appreciated….especially when it is someone that you are not really familiar with….but the next one will be somebody with a pulse.

      Reply

  2. I thought the Revengers should have rated higher. Also Wild Rovers. I heard somewhere that Holden had it written into his contract that whenever The Bridge On the River Kwai played on t,v, Bill would get payed $i00,000 dollars from the studio.

    I don’t know if this was true but it would explain why the movie never played on network t.v.

    Wild Bunch and Sunset Blouvard were my favorite William Holden movies

    Reply

    1. Hey Ruffridyer….Holden got a sweet deal from The Bridge Over The River Kwai….he got paid 300,000 for the role and 10% of the gross receipts, payable at a maximum rate of $50,000 dollars a year….when it became a hit….Holden was set for life…as he drew that 50,000 a year from 1957 to 1981…his heirs and the studio came up with a settlement in 1982…that got Holden’s heir the rest of the money that was due…..now that is a great deal. I did not read anything about the 100,000 if it played on tv….but I would not be surprised if that existed in the contract.

      As for The Revengers…it reunited Holden with Borgnine….but it did not do very well at the box office….I have an interest in seeing the movie….Thanks for stopping by and for the comments.

      Reply

  3. What is the source of the data? Variety published information of Big Rental Films more than $1,000,000, where information about the films with less than one million rent?

    The Turning Point (1952)

    Tickets Sold 1.60 * Ticket price $0.55 =$0,880,000

    Rentals = 0,440,00

    Reply

    1. Hey DirtyGarry….true Variety does not publish movies that are under 1,000,000 in rentals. So The Turning Point which is credited with a 1952 release date… opened in November of 1952…so if it earned over a million in rentals…it would appear in the Top Grossers of 1953 not the Top Grossers of 1952..which was published Jan. 13th 1954 in Variety. The Turning Point is not on the list…so we know it earned less than a million. When doing the research on these hubs….these movies are the ones that are the most difficult to find. So like putting a puzzle together…I have to figure out just how little a movie made….I got pieces of The Turning Point puzzle…from the books Golden Boy by Bob Thomas, William Holden a Biography by M. Capua…numerous online sources that gave me the budget.

      So after finding out the budget of the film, and finding out it only made a little money….I was able to get a rental of just over 400,000 …plus this is what the studio gets so I use a multiplier of 2.2 to arrive at the gross….which is 880,000 …which back then average ticket prices were .55 cents a ticket….which translates to 1.6 million tickets. Also after Holden hit it big with Stalag 17 the studios rereleased all his recent movies…but that still did not really help The Turning Point. From one of the books I read, Holden felt The Turning Point was too similiar to the movies he made in the 1940s and that it was going to kill his career….he complained to Billy Wilder…and Wilder found Stalag 17 for him. Finally I do not think anybody knows the exact figure for some of the movies that failed at the box office….but I feel my number is pretty close. Although I have made mistakes in the past…I completely screwed up the Myrna Loy/Paul Newman 1960 movie From The Terrace..but I was able to fix my issue…hope that explains the number I came up with….thanks for asking

      Reply

  4. Hello Cogerson. I am happy to see such a big turnout for your William Holden hub. It means all the ballet box stuffing I did to no avail was worth it.

    Reply

    1. Hey mckbirdbks….your suggestion has indeed had a good turn out….I am surprised there have not been many comments about the movie Picnic. Kim Novak is on the list as well….she is just near the bottom of the list. Thanks for checking back in

      Reply

  5. Cogerson – thanks for the update on William Holden’s charity work. Very important news for preventing extinction. Remember the Star Trek movie The Voyage Home where they go back in time to get Humpback Whales that we humans had nearly destroyed and that affected the future…THANKS AGAIN.

    Reply

    1. His death was disturbing. He tripped on a throw rug, and hit his head on a night stand. His blood alcohol level was extreme, and he apparently failed to realize how badly he’d been injured. He bled to death and wasn’t found for several days.

      Sad demise.

      Reply

      1. Hey Will Starr….yes he death was very disturbing…especially since people were hoping that he had finally been able to kick his problems with alcohol…he actually had a manslaughter conviction against him 1n 1966 where accidentally killed a person while drinking and driving. Thanks for the information and for checking out my Holden page.

        Reply

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