WILLIAM HOLDEN: A Lifetime of HEARTBREAK

THE ACTOR NEVER BELIEVED HE WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO DESERVE THE SUCCESS AND LOVE THAT CAME HIS WAY

In 1954, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences named William Holden Best Actor for his portrayal of an embittered POW turned reluctant hero in Stalag 17. After making his way to the stage, the handsome tuxedo-clad actor picked up his Oscar and gave one of the shortest acceptance speeches in history. “Thank you. Thank you,” said Bill before walking off stage.

The Illinois-born, California-reared actor spent some 60 years as one of Hollywood’s favorite leading men, but the longer he spent in the spotlight, the less he wanted to be there. “When he became an established star, he had trouble coping with his success, and that’s when his drinking became uncontrollable,” says Michelangelo Capua, author of William Holden: A Biography.

The roots of Bill’s insecurity began in childhood. “His parents were very strict and detached from him,” explains Capua. Bill, the eldest of three boys, started doing radio plays as a way to overcome his shyness — but his father never respected acting as a profession, even after Paramount Pictures signed Bill to a contract at 21. “And it was definitely not a cure for shyness,” his stepdaughter, Virginia Holden Gaines, tells Closer, adding that Bill never got over his discomfort. “It’s a wonder he could perform as well as he did in so many films.”

In 1941, Bill wed actress Brenda Marshall, a recently divorced beauty who used her given name, Ardis, in her private life. “He married my mother when I was 4. He was 21, and she was 24,” Virginia says.