1. William Hopper had a half-brother, John A Hopper, from his father's second marriage in the 1880s.
26 Facts About William Hopper
1. 2.
William Hopper made his film debut as a baby in his father's 1916 silent movie Sunshine Dad.
3.
William Hopper's mother divorced his father in 1922 and took Hopper to live in Hollywood.
4.
Hedda William Hopper became a gossip columnist with nearly 30 million readers in newspapers in the US, and was a proponent of the Hollywood blacklist.
5.
William Hopper made his first stage appearance at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, in She Loves Me Not.
6.
William Hopper appeared on Broadway in Order Please and as a member of the ensemble in Katharine Cornell's production of Romeo and Juliet.
7.
William Hopper was credited in movies as Wolfe Hopper and DeWolf Hopper.
8.
William Hopper became an actor because his mother expected it of him.
9.
William Hopper served with the United States Navy during World War II, as a volunteer with the Office of Strategic Services and as a member of the newly created Underwater Demolition Team.
10.
William Hopper received a Bronze Star and several other medals during operations in the Pacific.
11.
For eight years after the war, William Hopper became involved in business and sold cars in Hollywood.
12.
William Hopper combined car sales and acting when opportunities came up during the advent of television.
13.
In 1953, director William Wellman persuaded Hopper to resume his movie career with his 1954 film, The High and the Mighty, opposite Jan Sterling.
14.
William Hopper was cast to star opposite Claire Trevor in the live television drama "No Sad Songs for Me", broadcast April 14,1955, on NBC's Lux Video Theatre.
15.
William Hopper had such stage fright, he initially cancelled: "I swore I'd never act again as long as I lived", Hopper recalled.
16.
At last comfortable on screen, William Hopper played the stern and emotionally distant father of Natalie Wood in the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause, and the absentee father in The Bad Seed.
17.
William Hopper starred in the science-fiction films 20 Million Miles to Earth and The Deadly Mantis, released in 1957.
18.
In 1956 William Hopper guest-starred again on television during the first season of the Western series Gunsmoke, portraying an outlaw initially supported by townsfolk in an episode titled "Robin Hood".
19.
William Hopper is best known for his principal role as the private investigator Paul Drake on CBS's courtroom television series Perry Mason.
20.
William Hopper initially tested for the title role, while Raymond Burr read for the role of Mason's courtroom adversary, district attorney Hamilton Burger.
21.
William Hopper's appearances made fair shows good, and good shows better.
22.
William Hopper continued to work in summer stock and to make movie appearances during his years on Perry Mason; however, after the series was cancelled in 1966, he declined other television offers.
23.
William Hopper did, though, make one final film appearance in Myra Breckinridge, which premiered in New York three months after his death.
24.
In 1959, William Hopper was nominated as Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series at the 11th Primetime Emmy Awards for his performance as Paul Drake.
25.
William Hopper entered Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, California, on February 14,1970, after suffering a stroke.
26.
William Hopper was buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.