William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor who was one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s and 1960s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1953 for his role in Stalag 17, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his role in the 1973 television film The Blue Knight.
Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including such classics as Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch, Picnic, and Network. He was named one of the " Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (1954–1958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
Holden was born William Franklin Beedle Jr. on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, son of William Franklin Beedle (1891–1967), an industrial chemist, and his wife Mary Blanche Ball (1898–1990), a schoolteacher. He had two younger brothers, Robert Westfield Beedle (1921–January 5, 1944) and Richard P. Beedle (1924–1964). One of his father's grandmothers, Rebecca Westfield, was born in England in 1817, while some of his mother's ancestors settled in Virginia's Lancaster County after emigrating from England in the 17th century. His younger brother, Robert W. "Bobbie" Beedle, became a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and was killed in action in World War II, over New Ireland, a Japanese-occupied island in the South Pacific, on January 5, 1944.