William Hopper
Encyclopedia
William Hopper, born DeWolf Hopper, Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American
actor
. He is best-remembered for playing Paul Drake on television's Perry Mason
.
, the only child of singer comic actor DeWolf Hopper
(1858–1935), a stage star, and actress and gossip columnist
Hedda Hopper
(1885–1966). He was named DeWolf Hopper, Jr.
His debut motion picture
appearance was as a baby in his father's 1916 silent movie
Sunshine Dad. His mother divorced his father in 1922, and she moved with her son to Hollywood.
in 1942, served as a frogman
, and won a Bronze Star
for bravery and heroic action during operations in the Pacific.
He was discharged when the war ended in 1945, and worked as a car salesman in Hollywood for eight years.
in Ogunquit, Maine
. He went from there to Broadway
, where he appeared in two plays in 1934, Order Please and Romeo and Juliet.
Early in his film career, Hopper appeared uncredited in numerous movies or under the name DeWolf Hopper. In 1936, he played the small role as a photographer in the Columbia Pictures
film The King Steps Out starring Grace Moore
and Franchot Tone
. In 1937 he portrayed the leading man in two films, Public Wedding with Jane Wyman
and Over the Goal. He also enjoyed significant roles alongside Ann Sheridan
in The Footloose Heiress (1937) and Mystery House (1938).
After that he had roles that included playing a sergeant in the Western Stagecoach (1939) starring Claire Trevor
and John Wayne
; an intern in The Return of Dr. X, starring Humphrey Bogart
; a New York reporter in Knute Rockne, All American
(1940) starring Pat O'Brien
, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan
, and Donald Crisp
; a reporter in the post-Hollywood Production Code version of The Maltese Falcon
(1941) starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor
; and a reporter in Yankee Doodle Dandy
(1942) starring James Cagney
and Walter Huston
. Reagan and Hopper appeared in nine films together between 1937 and 1942.
, Claire Trevor
, Laraine Day
, and Robert Stack
. In 1956, Hopper starred in Wayne's production of Good-bye, My Lady
.
Other appearances included his iconic role as the father of Natalie Wood
in the James Dean
classic Rebel Without a Cause
(1955), as Robert Mitchum
's ill fated brother Arthur in the William Wellman adventure Track of the Cat
(1954), and as the often absent father Col. Kenneth Penmark in The Bad Seed
(1956) also starring Nancy Kelly
and Patty McCormack
. Hopper, along with Joan Taylor and a very young Bart Braverman
, starred in the classic Ray Harryhausen
science fiction film 20 Million Miles to Earth
(1957).
Also in 1957, he played a supporting role in the pilot episode of the television series The Restless Gun
, which was broadcast as an episode of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
. His television guest appearances included the The Joseph Cotten Show
, Gunsmoke
, Studio 57
, The Millionaire, and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
.
He made two movie appearances during his years on Perry Mason, but retired after the television show was canceled in 1966. He made one final movie appearance as a judge, Frederic D. Cannon, in Gore Vidal
's Myra Breckinridge
(1970) starring Raquel Welch
, John Huston
, Farrah Fawcett
, Rex Reed
, and Mae West
.
(1957–1966) with Raymond Burr
in the title role and Barbara Hale
as secretary Della Street.
In 1959, Hopper was nominated for an Emmy Award
for Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series for his performance as Paul Drake.
. He married actress Jane Gilbert (née Kies, sister of the better-known Margaret Lindsay
) in 1940, with whom he had one daughter, Joan (born 1942).
The couple divorced in 1959, and shortly thereafter he married Jeanette J. Hopper. Jeanette Hopper passed away due to heart failure in California in 2008. He became stepfather to her son, Gordon Casimire Williamsii a Freemason, Journalist, and Master Jeweler who lives in Portland Oregon.
, and was transferred to a hospital in Palm Springs
when pneumonia
developed. He died of a heart attack on March 6 at the age of fifty-five.
He was buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park
in Whittier, California
.
Actor Dennis Hopper
is his cousin.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He is best-remembered for playing Paul Drake on television's Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
.
Early life
Hopper was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the only child of singer comic actor DeWolf Hopper
DeWolf Hopper
William DeWolf Hopper was an American actor, singer, comedian, and theatrical producer. Although a star of the musical stage, he was best-known for performing the popular baseball poem Casey at the Bat. -Biography:...
(1858–1935), a stage star, and actress and gossip columnist
Gossip columnist
A gossip columnist is someone who writes a gossip column in a newspaper or magazine, especially a gossip magazine. Gossip columns are material written in a light, informal style, which relates the gossip columnist's opinions about the personal lives or conduct of celebrities from show business ,...
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
(1885–1966). He was named DeWolf Hopper, Jr.
His debut motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
appearance was as a baby in his father's 1916 silent movie
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Sunshine Dad. His mother divorced his father in 1922, and she moved with her son to Hollywood.
Military service
He enlisted in the NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in 1942, served as a frogman
Frogman
A frogman is someone who is trained to scuba diving or swim underwater in a military capacity which can include combat. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver or combatant diver or combat swimmer....
, and won a Bronze Star
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
for bravery and heroic action during operations in the Pacific.
He was discharged when the war ended in 1945, and worked as a car salesman in Hollywood for eight years.
1930s–1940s
Hopper began his acting career as a teenager, working in summer stockSummer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...
in Ogunquit, Maine
Ogunquit, Maine
Ogunquit is a town in York County, Maine, United States. As of the 2000 census its population was 1,226. The popularity of the town as a summer resort is epitomized by its motto, "Beautiful Place by the Sea."...
. He went from there to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, where he appeared in two plays in 1934, Order Please and Romeo and Juliet.
Early in his film career, Hopper appeared uncredited in numerous movies or under the name DeWolf Hopper. In 1936, he played the small role as a photographer in the Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
film The King Steps Out starring Grace Moore
Grace Moore
Grace Moore was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience.-Early life:...
and Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
. In 1937 he portrayed the leading man in two films, Public Wedding with Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
and Over the Goal. He also enjoyed significant roles alongside Ann Sheridan
Ann Sheridan
-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
in The Footloose Heiress (1937) and Mystery House (1938).
After that he had roles that included playing a sergeant in the Western Stagecoach (1939) starring Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers...
and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
; an intern in The Return of Dr. X, starring Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
; a New York reporter in Knute Rockne, All American
Knute Rockne, All American
Knute Rockne, All American is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of Knute Rockne, Notre Dame football coach. It stars Pat O'Brien, Ronald Reagan, Gale Page, Donald Crisp, Albert Bassermann, Owen Davis, Jr., Nick Lukats, Kane Richmond, William Marshall and William Byrne. It also...
(1940) starring Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, and Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
; a reporter in the post-Hollywood Production Code version of The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
(1941) starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
; and a reporter in Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owns Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp and Jeanne Cagney.The movie was written by...
(1942) starring James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
and Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
. Reagan and Hopper appeared in nine films together between 1937 and 1942.
1950s–1970s
In the mid 1950s, Hopper resumed his movie career with the part of Roy in The High and the Mighty (1954) starring John WayneJohn Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers...
, Laraine Day
Laraine Day
Laraine Day was an American actress and a former MGM contract star.-Career:Born La Raine Johnson in Roosevelt, Utah, to an affluent Mormon family, she later moved to California where she began her acting career with the Long Beach Players...
, and Robert Stack
Robert Stack
Robert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...
. In 1956, Hopper starred in Wayne's production of Good-bye, My Lady
Good-bye, My Lady (film)
Good-bye, My Lady is a 1956 American film adaptation of the novel Good-bye, My Lady by James H. Street. The book had been inspired by Street's original story appearing in The Saturday Evening Post. As written, the story takes place in Mississippi, but was Hollywood changed to the state of Georgia,...
.
Other appearances included his iconic role as the father of Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
in the James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
classic Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
(1955), as Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
's ill fated brother Arthur in the William Wellman adventure Track of the Cat
Track of the Cat
Track of the Cat is a William A. Wellman film starring Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright. The film is based on a 1949 adventure novel of the same name by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. This was Wellman's second adaptation of a Clark novel, the first being The Ox-Bow Incident...
(1954), and as the often absent father Col. Kenneth Penmark in The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed is a 1954 novel by William March, nominated for the 1966 National Book Award for Fiction. It was the last major work written by March, and, although published in his lifetime, its enormous critical and commercial success was largely realized after his death, one month after publication...
(1956) also starring Nancy Kelly
Nancy Kelly
Nancy Kelly was an American actress, who was a movie leading lady in the 1930s, making 36 movies between 1926 and 1977, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James , which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone...
and Patty McCormack
Patty McCormack
Patty McCormack is an American actress with a career in theater, films and television.She achieved success as a child actress, and received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Bad Seed...
. Hopper, along with Joan Taylor and a very young Bart Braverman
Bart Braverman
Bartley Louis "Bart" Braverman is an actor who is well known for guest starring on many shows. He is probably best known today for his Match Game appearances...
, starred in the classic Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
science fiction film 20 Million Miles to Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth is a 1957 American science fiction film written by Bob Williams and Christopher Knopf from an original treatment by Charlott Knight. The film was produced by Charles H. Schneer's Morningside Productions for Columbia Pictures and directed by Nathan H. Juran...
(1957).
Also in 1957, he played a supporting role in the pilot episode of the television series The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict...
, which was broadcast as an episode of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
. His television guest appearances included the The Joseph Cotten Show
The Joseph Cotten Show
The Joseph Cotten Show is an American anthology series series hosted by and occasionally starring Joseph Cotten. The series, which first aired on NBC, aired 31 episodes from September 14, 1956, to September 13, 1957...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, Studio 57
Studio 57
Studio 57 was the name of an American television series that was broadcast on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network.The program was a filmed anthology television series sponsored by Heinz 57 and produced by Revue Studios...
, The Millionaire, and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
.
He made two movie appearances during his years on Perry Mason, but retired after the television show was canceled in 1966. He made one final movie appearance as a judge, Frederic D. Cannon, in Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
's Myra Breckinridge
Myra Breckinridge (film)
Myra Breckinridge is a 1970 American campy comedy film, based on Gore Vidal's 1968 novel of the same name, the film was directed by Michael Sarne, with Raquel Welch in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, Roger Herren,...
(1970) starring Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
, John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
, Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
, Rex Reed
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.-Life and career:...
, and Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
.
Perry Mason
Hopper is best known for his regular role as the private investigator Paul Drake on CBS' classic courtroom television series Perry MasonPerry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
(1957–1966) with Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
in the title role and Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in dozens of made-for-TV movies....
as secretary Della Street.
In 1959, Hopper was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series for his performance as Paul Drake.
Personal life
In the mid to late 1930s Hopper occasionally visited nightclubs with film actress Isabel JewellIsabel Jewell
Isabel Jewell was an American actress most active in the 1930s and early 1940s.-Early life and career:...
. He married actress Jane Gilbert (née Kies, sister of the better-known Margaret Lindsay
Margaret Lindsay
Margaret Lindsay was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive...
) in 1940, with whom he had one daughter, Joan (born 1942).
The couple divorced in 1959, and shortly thereafter he married Jeanette J. Hopper. Jeanette Hopper passed away due to heart failure in California in 2008. He became stepfather to her son, Gordon Casimire Williamsii a Freemason, Journalist, and Master Jeweler who lives in Portland Oregon.
Death
Hopper was hospitalized on February 14, 1970, after a stroke at his home in Yucca ValleyYucca Valley, California
Yucca Valley is an incorporated town located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 20,700 at the 2010 census, up from 16,865 at the 2000 census...
, and was transferred to a hospital in Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
when pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
developed. He died of a heart attack on March 6 at the age of fifty-five.
He was buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park
Rose Hills Memorial Park
Rose Hills Memorial Park is the largest cemetery in the United States and is located in Whittier, California. It is owned and operated by Service Corporation International .-Mausoleums and Chapels:...
in Whittier, California
Whittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
.
Actor Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
is his cousin.
Stage
- Order Please (1934) Playhouse Theatre, as Victor Neilson
- Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
(1934–1935) Martin Beck Theatre