William Boyd - Hopalong Cassidy | Western Hero

William Lawrence Boyd was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, on June 5, 1895, but spent much of his youth i n Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 1918, Boyd traveled to Hollywood, where he became famous in silent movies. By the end of the 1920s, Boyd was without an acting contract and his career was deteriorating.

Boyd's break as a western actor came in 1935, when he was offered the lead role in the western movie Hopalong Cassidy.

The original Hopalong Cassidy western character was cast as a whisky-guzzling wild west wrangler but Boyd changed the character to a western cowboy hero who did not smoke, drink or swear and who always let the bad guy start the fight.

Over the years, William Boyd and his version of the Hopalong Cassidy western character became one and he gained lasting fame because of it.

Hopalong Cassidy & his famous white horse Topper.

Boyd purchased the rights to the western character and the rights to the 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies and released the movies to television in the 1950s.

William Boyd used his fame and fortune in meeting with children around the world and explaining to them the fine qualifies portrayed by the Hopalong Cassidy character. William Boyd, as a man and a western actor, was a hero to a generation of American children who loved him.

William Boyd died on September 12, 1972 in Laguna Beach, California.