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1918 – He was born this year in O'Fallon, Illinois, he was the eldest of three sons of William Franklin Beedle, Sr., an industrial chemist, and Mary Blanche Ball, a teacher.
1937 – He attended Pasadena Junior College; he became involved in local radio plays. A talent scout from Paramount Pictures spotted him this year while appearing as an old man in a play at the Playbox, a private theatre owned by Pasadena Playhouse director Gillmor Brown.
1939 – His first starring role was in Golden Boy, in which he played a violinist turned boxer. He was originally looked over in the first Broadway production for the lead role.
1941 – He was married to actress Brenda Marshall from this year until their divorce (after many long separations) in 1971.
1951 – He received Best Actor Nomination in the Academy Award for Sunset Boulevard.
1952 – He had a busy social life; he was best man at the marriage of his friend Ronald Reagan to Nancy Davis in this year.
1953 - Following this breakthrough film, he played a series of roles that combined good looks with cynical detachment, including the prisoner-of-war entrepreneur in Stalag 17, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
1954 – He played the role of a pressured young engineer/family man in Executive Suite.
1954 – He portrayed the role of an acerbic playwright in The Country Girl.
1955 – He was starred in the movie “Picnic” as a wandering braggart.
1960 – He starred opposite Nancy Kwan in the film adaptation of the novel The World of Suzie Wong, playing a struggling artist captivated by a free-spirited Hong Kong prostitute.
1964 - However, he starred in his share of forgettable movies, which he was, forced to do by studio contracts, such as Paris When It Sizzles.
1966 – He suffered from alcoholism and depression for many years. In this year, Holden was involved in a car accident in Italy in which the other driver was killed.
1969 – He starred in director Sam Peckinpah's graphically violent Western The Wild Bunch, winning much acclaim.
1977 – He was nominated Best Actor in the Academy Awards for the movie “Network”.
1981 – He died as the result of a fall in his high-rise apartment on the seaside cliffs of Santa Monica, California in November 1981. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
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- "Hell is paved with good Samaritans."
