Grace Bradley
A petite and extremely lovely blonde "B" film actress who eventually deserted her career in favor of standing by her man (cowboy icon William Boyd, aka, "Hopalong Cassidy"), Grace Bradley spent the rest of her life in his shadow and devoting herself to her husband's career. Bill's Hoppy was the longest span of any fictional character played by the same actor. Following his death in 1972, she spent a good deal of her time keeping his good name and image in tact.
Grace initially studied to be a concert pianist, playing Carngie Hall at age 15. She also took advantage of her budding loveliness by modeling full time and taking singing/dancing lessons on the sly. She went on to act, sing, and dance on the Broadway stage in the musicals "Strike Me Pink" and "The Little Show". While performing at the Paradise nightclub in Manhattan in 1933, the dancer was "discovered" and signed by a Paramount Pictures director.
Heading west, she often came off as an assertive "bad girl" or femme-fatale at Paramount with such fun, party-girl names as Goldie, Trixie, Flossie, Lily and Sadie. Her first full-length movie was as a second lead in the Bing Crosby/Jack Oakie musical comedy Too Much Harmony (1933), in which she sang and danced to the feisty tune "Cradle Me With a Hotcha Lullaby". She subsequently appeared in the W.C. Fields classic Six of a Kind (1934); the Richard Arlen pictures Come On, Marines! (1934) and She Made Her Bed (1934); the Claudette Colbert/Fred MacMurray comedy The Gilded Lily (1935), and had the female lead opposite Bruce Cabot in Redhead (1934). Appearing secondary in the Bing Crosby/Ethel Merman version of Anything Goes (1936), her musical talents were tapped into with the films The Cat's-Paw (1934), Stolen Harmony (1935), Old Man Rhythm (1935), Sitting on the Moon (1936) and Wake Up and Live (1937). Elsewhere, various "B" male co-stars would include Wallace Ford, Lee Tracy, Jack Haley, John Boles, Robert Livingston, Jack Holt and Robert Armstrong.
In 1937, Grace happened to cross paths with Bill Boyd, who became her "Prince Charming on a big white horse". She had a long-time school-girl crush on Boyd and was instantly smitten upon their first meeting. He was 42 and she 23. He asked her to marry him within a few days and they were married three weeks later on June 5th. Boyd had already been married four times, none lasting longer than six years. Grace would become the fifth (and last) Mrs. William Boyd in a marriage that lasted 35 years. The couple had no children together; Bill had one child from his third marriage.
William Lawrence Boyd retired from show business in 1953 quite wealthy. Suffering from Parkinson's disease, he died of heart failure in Laguna Beach in 1972 at age 77. Grace went on to spend the last decades of her life devoting herself to volunteer work at the Laguna Beach hospital where her husband lived out his final days. She later withstood legal battles that stemmed from copyright infringements, but enjoyed appearing occasionally at Hopalong Cassidy tributes. The definitive biography Hopalong Cassidy - An American Legend was co-authored by Grace and Michael Cochran in 2008. Grace Bradley Boyd died, 21 September 2010, Dana Point, California. of complications from old age at age 97 on her birthday; and she was interred next to her husband at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Clendale, California.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.762 |
Birthday | 1913-09-21 |
Place of Birth | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
Also Known As |
1934
The Cat's-Paw
6.2/18
Naive Ezekial Cobb, brought up by his missionary father in China returns to America to seek a wife. Corrupt politicians enlist him to run for mayor as...
Watch Now
The Cat's-Paw
1942
Brooklyn Orchid
7/1
Two taxi-fleet operators rescue a girl and she follows them to a mountain resort.
Watch Now
Brooklyn Orchid
1934
Six of a Kind
5.8/12
The Whinneys share expenses for their trip to Hollywood with George and Gracie and their great Dane. A clerk in Whinney's bank has put fifty thousand...
Watch Now
Six of a Kind
1939
The Invisible Killer
4/5
Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of t...
Watch Now
The Invisible Killer
1936
Sitting on the Moon
6/1
A successful songwriter and a struggling singer become involved professionally and romantically on the road to stardom.
Watch Now
Sitting on the Moon
1937
Larceny on the Air
5/0
A doctor working with the Bureau of Pure Foods and Drugs, uses radio broadcasts to expose fraudulent patent medicines.
Watch Now
Larceny on the Air
1943
Taxi, Mister
4/3
The owner (William Bendix) of a cab company tries to foil a racketeer.
Watch Now
Taxi, Mister
1942
The McGuerins from Brooklyn
5/1
Tim McGuerin and Eddie Corbett operates a big taxi-fleet company together and because of a misunderstanding Tim's wife Sadie thinks he is having an af...
Watch Now
The McGuerins from Brooklyn
1937
O.H.M.S.
5/1
American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie i...
Watch Now
O.H.M.S.
1941
Sign of the Wolf
6/1
Two German shepherds and their mistress (Grace Bradley) crash-land in Canada by a fox breeder's (Michael Whalen) farm.
Watch Now
Sign of the Wolf
1936
Anything Goes
5.4/8
A young man falls in love with a beautiful blonde. When he sees her being forced onto a luxury liner, he decides to follow and rescue her. However, he...
Watch Now
Anything Goes
1935
Two-Fisted
7/1
A fast-talking boxing manager and the somewhat hapless fighter he manages happen to run into a young man who was a good prizefighter in his day but is...
Watch Now
Two-Fisted
1937
Wake Up and Live
5.3/3
Satire on radio, built around the supposed feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and journalist Walter Winchell.
Watch Now
Wake Up and Live
1936
13 Hours by Air
4.333/6
Womanizer and airline pilot Jack Gordon must fly the world's fastest airliner from New York to California while dealing with dangerous jewel thieves o...
Watch Now
13 Hours by Air
1937
It's All Yours
5/2
Jimmy Barnes arrives from Europe to be educated by his multi-millionaire uncle, Edward J. Barnes and in five years the extravagant escapes of Jimmy, n...
Watch Now
It's All Yours
1935
The Gilded Lily
6.4/10
Secretary Marilyn David falls in love with British aristocrat Charles Gray, to the dismay of her best friend, reporter Peter Dawes, who secretly loves...
Watch Now
The Gilded Lily
1935
Stolen Harmony
6/1
Band leader Jack Conrad is impressed by prison inmate Ray Ferrera on saxophone. Conrad hires Ray to join his band and tour upon his release. Ray hooks...
Watch Now
Stolen Harmony
1933
Too Much Harmony
5/1
A singer is involved with two women in his life, one a "good" girl and one a "bad" one."
Watch Now
Too Much Harmony
1938
The Big Broadcast of 1938
5.972/18
The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.
Watch Now
The Big Broadcast of 1938
1938
Romance on the Run
0/0
A (rather shady?) private detective specializing in recovering highly insured items gets involved in recovering a stolen necklace. In the process also...
Watch Now
Romance on the Run
1935
Old Man Rhythm
6.3/3
Romantic rivalries between father and son enrolled at the same college.
Watch Now
Old Man Rhythm
1936
F-Man
0/0
Johnny Dime has aspiration of becoming a "G-Man" , gums up the work of Rogan, an actual government agent is his pursuit of Public Enemy No. 1. Dimes a...
Watch Now
F-Man
1933
Girl Without a Room
5.3/3
A Tennessee art school student wins a scholarship to paint in Paris. He is thrilled until he arrives and discovers that his style is hopelessly passe...
Watch Now
Girl Without a Room
1936
Rose of the Rancho
0/0
It is California in 1852 that only recently being surrendered by Mexico to the United States and admitted into the union. Most of the land-owners of C...
Watch Now
Rose of the Rancho
1934
Redhead
6/1
A girl marries a playboy from a rich family, expecting a life of comfort and luxury. However, her new father-in-law turns his ne'er-do-well son out in...
Watch Now
Redhead
1932
Tip Tap Toe
0/0
Hal and Mitzi have known each other since they were babies. Tap dancer Hal now works as a window dresser in Blake's Department Store, owned by Mitzi's...
Watch Now
Tip Tap Toe
1934
She Made Her Bed
3.5/2
"Duke" Gordon (Robert Armstrong), a circus lion-tamer, tries to tames his wife, Laura (Sally Eilers), just as he does his lions. But she is a one-man...
Watch Now
She Made Her Bed
1936
Don't Turn 'em Loose
4.8/4
A conscientious attorney who is a member of the State Parole Board, finds his own son, using an alias, up for parole and makes the decision to cast th...
Watch Now
Don't Turn 'em Loose
1934
Come On, Marines!
5/3
"Lucky" Davis, a ladies-man and a devil-may-care U. S. Marine Sergeant, is leading a Marine-squadron on an expedition through a Phillipine jungle wher...
Watch Now
Come On, Marines!
1937
Roaring Timber
5/1
Jim Sherwood , toughest logging boss in the timber country, takes on his toughest assignment when he agrees to cut an enormous volume of timber for An...
Watch Now
Roaring Timber
1941
The Hard-Boiled Canary
0/0
A young girl fresh out of reform school who is singing in a burlesque show is offered a scholarship to a famous music camp by the camp's owner. She mu...
Watch Now
The Hard-Boiled Canary
1936
Dangerous Waters
3/1
While a ship captain is at sea dealing with a mutiny among his crew, his wife is at home having an affair with his best friend.
Watch Now
Dangerous Waters
1933
The Way to Love
0/0
Francois, a cheerful Parisian bohemian, wants more than anything to be a tour guide in his beloved city. While working the streets, Francois meets Mad...
Watch Now