Boyd, William (1895-1972)

?A star in the 20s, Boyd's career had flagged in the early 30s until he took the title role in Paramount's Hop-A'Long Cassidy in 1935. From this moment Boyd played no other part. After this first outing, Boyd cleaned up the Hopalong character and eliminated the limp which had given him his name. Mounted on his white horse, Topper, Boyd's Hopalong cut a striking figure - blue-eyed with prema?turely white hair, and garbed, somewhat against tradition, in black. The series, which featured Hopalong and his two accomplices in their endeavours to capture rather than kill the villains, popularized the 'trio West?ern'. So successful was the Hopalong for?mula that the series ran for fourteen years and sixty-six films, the last twelve of which Boyd produced himself.