Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wild Bill Elliott (October 16, 1904 β November 26, 1965) was an American film actor. He specialized in playing the rugged heroes of B Westerns, particularly the Red Ryder series of films. By 1925, he was getting occasional extra work in films. He took classes at the Pasadena Playhouse and appeared in a few stage roles there. By 1927, he had made his first Western, The Arizona Wildcat, playing his first featured role. Several co-starring roles followed, and he renamed himself Gordon Elliott. But as the studios made the transition to sound films, he slipped back into roles as an extra and bit parts, as in Broadway Scandals, in 1929. For the next eight years, he appeared in over a hundred films for various studios, but almost always in unbilled parts as an extra.
Elliott began to be noticed in some minor B Westerns, enough so that Columbia Pictures offered him the title role in a serial, The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1938). The serial was so successful, and Elliott so personable, that Columbia promoted him to starring in his own series of Western features, replacing Columbia's number-two cowboy star Robert "Tex" Allen. Henceforth Gordon Elliott would be known as Bill Elliott. Within two years, he was among the Motion Picture Herald's Top Ten Western Stars, where he would remain for the next 15 years.
In 1943, Elliott signed with Republic Pictures, which cast him in a series of Westerns alongside George "Gabby" Hayes. The first of these, Calling Wild Bill Elliott, gave Elliott the name by which he would be best known and by which he would be billed almost exclusively for the rest of his career.
Following several films in which both actor and character shared the name Wild Bill Elliott, he took the role for which he would be best remembered, that of Red Ryder in a series of sixteen movies about the famous comic strip cowboy and his young Indian companion, Little Beaver (played in Elliott's films by Bobby Blake). Elliott played the role for only two years but would forever be associated with it. Elliott's trademark was a pair of six guns worn butt-forward in their holsters.
Elliott's career thrived during and after the Red Ryder films, and he continued making B Westerns into the early 1950s. He also had his own radio show during the late 1940s. His final contract as a Western star was with Monogram Pictures, where budgets declined as the B Western lost its audience to television. When Monogram became Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in 1953, it phased out its Western productions, and Elliott finished out his contract playing a homicide detective in a series of five modern police dramas, his first non-Westerns since 1938.
Elliott retired from films (except for a couple of TV Western pilots which were not picked up). He worked for a time as a spokesman for Viceroy cigarettes and hosted a local TV program in Las Vegas, Nevada, which featured many of his Western films.
Filmography
all 212
Movies 211
self 14
TV Shows 1
Director 1
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch (1976)
It's Showtime (1976)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975)
Adam-12 (1968)
Footsteps in the Night (1957)
Chain of Evidence (1957)
Calling Homicide (1956)
Sudden Danger (1955)
Dial Red O (1955)
The Forty-Niners (1954)
Bitter Creek (1954)
Vigilante Terror (1953)
Topeka (1953)
Rebel City (1953)
The Homesteaders (1953)
The Maverick (1952)
Fargo (1952)
Kansas Territory (1952)
Waco (1952)
The Longhorn (1951)
The Showdown (1950)
The Savage Horde (1950)
The Marshall of Trail City (1950)
Hellfire (1949)
The Last Bandit (1949)
The Gallant Legion (1948)
Old Los Angeles (1948)
The Fabulous Texan (1947)
Wyoming (1947)
The Plainsman and the Lady (1946)
Conquest of Cheyenne (1946)
In Old Sacramento (1946)
Sun Valley Cyclone (1946)
California Gold Rush (1946)
Wagon Wheels Westward (1945)
Colorado Pioneers (1945)
Marshal of Laredo (1945)
Phantom of the Plains (1945)
Bells of Rosarita (1945)
Lone Texas Ranger (1945)
Great Stagecoach Robbery (1945)
Sheriff of Las Vegas (1944)
Vigilantes of Dodge City (1944)
Cheyenne Wildcat (1944)
San Antonio Kid (1944)
Marshal of Reno (1944)
Tucson Raiders (1944)
Hidden Valley Outlaws (1944)
Mojave Firebrand (1944)
Death Valley Manhunt (1943)
Overland Mail Robbery (1943)
Wagon Tracks West (1943)
Bordertown Gun Fighters (1943)
The Man from Thunder River (1943)
Calling Wild Bill Elliott (1943)
The Valley of Vanishing Men (1942)
Vengeance of the West (1942)
Prairie Gunsmoke (1942)
The Devil's Trail (1942)
North of the Rockies (1942)
Bullets for Bandits (1942)
The Lone Star Vigilantes (1942)
Roaring Frontiers (1941)
King of Dodge City (1941)
The Son of Davy Crockett (1941)
Hands Across the Rockies (1941)
The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)
North from the Lone Star (1941)
Across the Sierras (1941)
The Wildcat of Tucson (1940)
Beyond the Sacramento (1940)
Prairie Schooners (1940)
The Return of Wild Bill (1940)
The Man from Tumbleweeds (1940)
Pioneers of the Frontier (1940)
The Taming of the West (1939)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Overland with Kit Carson (1939)
The Law Comes to Texas (1939)
Lone Star Pioneers (1939)
Frontiers of '49 (1939)
In Early Arizona (1938)
Letter of Introduction (1938)
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1938)
The Lady in the Morgue (1938)
Boy of the Streets (1938)
Love Takes Flight (1937)
Roll Along, Cowboy (1937)
Boots and Saddles (1937)
Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937)
You Can't Have Everything (1937)
Michael O'Halloran (1937)
Speed to Spare (1937)
Melody for Two (1937)
Midnight Court (1937)
King of Hockey (1936)
Fugitive in the Sky (1936)
Polo Joe (1936)
The Case of the Black Cat (1936)
Down the Stretch (1936)
Trailin' West (1936)
China Clipper (1936)
Two Against the World (1936)
The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936)
The Big Noise (1936)
Murder by an Aristocrat (1936)
Bullets or Ballots (1936)
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (1936)
Man of Iron (1935)
Broadway Hostess (1935)
Stars Over Broadway (1935)
Moonlight on the Prairie (1935)
Personal Maid's Secret (1935)
Dr. Socrates (1935)
Page Miss Glory (1935)
Broadway Gondolier (1935)
Bright Lights (1935)
The Girl from 10th Avenue (1935)
'G' Men (1935)
Go Into Your Dance (1935)
A Night at the Ritz (1935)
While the Patient Slept (1935)
The Woman in Red (1935)
The Right to Live (1935)
The Payoff (1935)
The Secret Bride (1934)
Murder in the Clouds (1934)
A Lost Lady (1934)
Good Morning, Eve! (1934)
The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)
Desirable (1934)
The Merry Frinks (1934)
Smarty (1934)
Registered Nurse (1934)
Wonder Bar (1934)
Only Yesterday (1933)
Stage Mother (1933)
Handlebars (1933)
Midnight Mary (1933)
Private Detective 62 (1933)
Cocktail Hour (1933)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
The Little Giant (1933)
Taxi Barons (1933)
The Keyhole (1933)
The Mummy (1932)
Night After Night (1932)
A Successful Calamity (1932)
Jewel Robbery (1932)
Bachelor's Affairs (1932)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
The Rich Are Always with Us (1932)
Scarface (1932)
One Hour with You (1932)
Vanity Fair (1932)
Lady with a Past (1932)
The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
Delicious (1931)
Working Girls (1931)
Consolation Marriage (1931)
Platinum Blonde (1931)
Expensive Women (1931)
Left Over Ladies (1931)
The Road to Reno (1931)
Blonde Crazy (1931)
Smart Woman (1931)
Traveling Husbands (1931)
Broadminded (1931)
The Public Defender (1931)
The Magnificent Lie (1931)
Sweepstakes (1931)
Five and Ten (1931)
Let's Do Things (1931)
Party Husband (1931)
Born to Love (1931)
God's Gift to Women (1931)
Going Wild (1930)
Expensive Kisses (1930)
Sunny (1930)
The Truth About Youth (1930)
What Men Want (1930)
She Who Gets Slapped (1930)
A Notorious Affair (1930)
The Girl Said No (1930)
Lord Byron of Broadway (1930)
She Couldn't Say No (1930)
Broadway Scandals (1929)
Night Parade (1929)
The Great Divide (1929)
Restless Youth (1928)
The Boy Friend (1928)
Her Wild Oat (1927)
The Arizona Wildcat (1927)
The Drop Kick (1927)
On Ze Boulevard (1927)
Children of Divorce (1927)
Napoleon, Jr. (1926)
The Shamrock Handicap (1926)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
The Plastic Age (1925)
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1904-10-16
Deathday1965-11-26 (61 years old)
Birth NameGordon Nance
Birth PlacePattonsburg, United States
CitizenshipsUnited States
Also Known AsWild Bill Elliott, Gordon Nance, Gordon Eliott, 'Wild' Bill Elliot, Gordon Elliott, William 'Wild Bill' Elliott, William Elliott
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