Bill Elliott
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wild Bill Elliott (October 16, 1904 – 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.
Known For
Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.
Adam-12
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.
Scarface
An ancient Egyptian priest named Imhotep is revived when a British archaeological expedition finds his mummy and one of the researchers accidentally reads an ancient life-giving spell. Imhotep escapes from the field site and searches for the reincarnation of the soul of his lover.
The Mummy
James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to abandon the exercise of the law and join the Department of Justice to capture the murderer.
'G' Men
Wild Bill Elliot plays gambler Frank Graham, who heads to Kansas in search of his father's murderer. This being 1864, the local military presence is more preoccupied with keeping Southern sympathizers out of the state to worry about Graham's problems. Thus, our hero undertakes the task of exposing the killer himself.
Rebel City
Before Ruth Vincent, daughter of a state governor, and state attorney general Robert Sheldon can announce their marriage, the governor is accused of bribe-taking. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, they decide to keep their marriage secret. The political intrigue becomes more involved, and no one is quite what they seem. Soon Sheldon and Ruth must decide between saving the governor's career and an innocent person's life.
The Secret Bride
After World War I, Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.
The Roaring Twenties
After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner, former detective Johnny Blake publicly punches him, convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Bugs" Fenner, meanwhile, is certain that Blake is a police agent.
Bullets or Ballots
In order to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.
Born Reckless
Vicki Wallace takes great pleasure in teasing her husband Tony who takes no pleasure at all in being teased and it isn't long before he ups and clips her on the chin. Vicki's friend and attorney Vernon Thorpe secures a divorce for her, and Vicki and Vernon are soon married. Vicki's yen for wearing revealing clothes and a penchant for inviting ex-husband to dinner soon provokes the easily-provoked Vernon into belting one on her himself. She goes to Tony's apartment, where Tony is entertaining Bonnie, who is not all that entertained by the presence of Vicki, especially after Vicki shows every intent of moving in and staying.
Smarty
A bitter woman who thinks she'll never love again marries, only to fall for a brash young man.
A Lost Lady
The brother (House Peters Jr.) of rancher Bill Martin (Bill Elliott) is killed in a stampede started by cattleman. Bill returns to the Fargo country to take his brother's place and is welcomed by law-abiding cattleman MacKenzie (Jack Ingram)) and his daughter Kathy (Phyllis Coates). The leader of the ruthless cattle interests are townsman Austin (Arthur Space) and his henchmen Red (Myron Healey), Link (Robert J. Wilke) and Albord (Terry Frost). Bill has the idea of putting up barbed wire to keep the herds from been driven over the land cultivated by the farmers. He, aided by Tad Sloan (Fuzzy Knight), produces the wire by make-shift methods, but it proves effective. The cattleman charge in court that the wire is dangerous to their herds but lose the case. Austin orders his men to seize Bill, bale him in strands of the wire, and throw him on the stage of the town hall during a fall festival. Bill doesn't take kindly to this and it precipitates open war.
Fargo
Bill Elliot emulates his idol William S. Hart in the superior western Topeka. Elliot plays the archetypal Good Bad Man, hired to kick the crooked element out of a small town. A hard-drinking, hard-living man, Elliot entertains thoughts of taking over the town himself for the benefit of his own gang. After several reels of soul-searching, Elliot decides to honor his promise to clean up the town for its decent citizens. Evidently director Thomas Carr rented a camera crane for this Allied Artists production, since the camera performs remarkable calisthenics, the kind not normally seen in a medium-budget western.
Topeka
A taxi driver travels to Venice and poses as a gondolier to land a radio singing job.
Broadway Gondolier
Andre and Colette Bertier are happily married. When Colette introduces her husband to her flirtatious best friend, Mitzi, he does his best to resist her advances. But she is persistent, and very cute, and he succumbs. Mitzi's husband wants to divorce her, and has been having her tailed. Andre gets caught, and must confess to his wife. But Colette has had problems resisting the attentions of another man herself, and they forgive each other.
One Hour with You
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
In Elliot's initial appearance as Red Ryder, he finds himself framed for murder. Little Beaver then foils the crooked Sheriff's attempt to have Red killed escaping jail. When Hannah Rogers gives the Sheriff a note, Red sees her give him a signal. Gabby lifts the note and Red decodes it. The Duchess then gets a confession from Hannah enabling Red to set out after the outlaws.
Tucson Raiders
While on trial for her life, a young woman recalls her tough upbringing and her involvement with the men who brought her to this current state of affairs.
Midnight Mary
When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.
Gold Diggers of 1933
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.