William Boyd Trivia

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National Cowboy Hall of Fame (1995)

Remains: Buried, Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA

His career was derailed in the early nineteen thirties when he was mistakenly identified as a William Boyd who had been arrested for public drunkenness after his own picture was mistakenly used in articles about the arrest. In fact, the culprit was William "Stage" Boyd, an actor who later portrayed the villain in the serial called "The Lost City.".

There is a Hopalong Cassidy Museum located in Cambridge Ohio.

The "Hoppies" launched the formula "Trio Western". Boyd was 40 years old when the series started. He got a younger partner to play the romantic leads (James Ellison, Russell Hayden, Brad King, Jay Kirby, Jimmy Rogers and Rand Brooks) and a second, usually older partner for comic relief (Britt Wood and Andy Clyde).

Television talk-show host Johnny Carson told a story of how, in the mid-1960s, he met Boyd on a plane while flying cross-country. He asked Boyd, who hadn`t made any public appearances in many years, if he would like to come on Carson`s show, "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). Boyd politely declined, and when Carson asked why, Boyd replied that he thought it would be too much of a jolt for kids--even though they were now adults--who had grown up seeing Hoppy as a tall, strong young cowboy hero to see him as the old man that Boyd now was.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1995.

Star of the syndicated radio show "Hopalong Cassidy" (1950-1952). The shows were actually recorded between 1948 and 1950.

One of the factors in Boyd`s financial success in the distribution of his films on television was that he negotiated deals with individual stations, and not the networks.

After buying the rights to all of his films, he secured the rights to the name "Hopalong Cassidy", and formed a company called "Hopalong Cassidy Productions".

Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Sacred Promise.

Hopalong Cassidy`s beautiful white horse was named "Topper".

In an early movie Hoppy kissed Evelyn Brent on the forehead as she was dying. His fans saw this as unmanly, so all future romance was left to his partners and there was a different leading lady in each picture.

Boyd was Cecil B. DeMille`s first choice for Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956). Boyd turned the role down, fearing the Hopalong Cassidy identification would hurt the movie.