From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William Holden (April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1953 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974. One of the biggest box office draws of the 1950s, he was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (1954–1958, 1961) and appeared on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars list as #25.   Description above from the Wikipedia article William Holden, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.