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Grace Bradley

Grace Bradley

Acting

Biography

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

Rose of the Rancho
7.0

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 California were the descendants of the Dons who had colonized it a hundred years before and whose title deeds bore the signature and seal of a long-dead Spanish king. But, by a loop-hole in the law, the title-deeds of the Dons could not be recognized, and this opened the door of organized gangs of land-grabbers, such as the one led by Joe Kincaid, to operate with a prime excuse for legitimate plunder and robbery. In most cases the law was unable to cope with the situation. Then Rosita Castro, the daughter of Don Pasqual Castro, masked and disguised as a man, organized a band of vigilantes to fight against the tyranny of the outlaws, aided by an undercover federal agent, Jim Kearney.

Rose of the Rancho

1936
Stolen Harmony
8.0

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 up with Jean, a dancer in the show, and the two become a successful dance act. However, when an ex-inmate buddy of Ray's robs the tour bus, Ray is suspected of wrongdoing by Jack and the others in the group. After a gang of thugs hijacks the tour bus, Ray tries to use his street smarts to redeem his reputation.

Stolen Harmony

1935
The Gilded Lily
6.7

Secretary Marilyn David falls in love with British aristocrat Charles Gray, to the dismay of her best friend, reporter Peter Dawes, who secretly loves her. When Peter learns that the already-engaged Charles has hurt Marilyn, he fabricates an article casting her as the "No Girl" who refused to marry a callous aristocrat. But when the publicity brings Marilyn unexpected fame, and Charles returns, she is forced to choose between the two men.

The Gilded Lily

1935
Anything Goes
5.8

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 discovers that she is an English heiress who ran away from home and is now being returned to England. He also discovers that his boss is on the ship. To avoid discovery, he disguises himself as the gangster accomplice of a minister, who is actually a gangster on the run from the law.

Anything Goes

1936
Dangerous Waters
6.0

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.

Dangerous Waters

1936
O.H.M.S.
4.7

American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place. He falls in love with the Canadian's childhood playmate, Sally Briggs, and becomes a hero after saving an isolated English colony in China.

O.H.M.S.

1937
The Invisible Killer
4.4

Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of the police Homicide Squad. When the call comes in that there has been a killing at Lefty Ross' place, a notorious gambling joint, Jerry is peeved when Sue beats him there. He discovers that gambler Jimmy Clark was killed as he answered a telephone call, and his body is riddled with bullets but Jerry can't find any weapon. Sue is amazed to see Gloria Cunningham there. Gloria's father is one of the town's leading reformers and she is engaged to District Attorney Richard Sutton. Ross decides to give Sutton all the information he needs and makes an appointment to go to Sutton's home. Once there, Ross is called to the telephone before he can give any information, and is killed in the same mysterious manner as Jimmy Clark.

The Invisible Killer

1939
The Big Broadcast of 1938
6.4

The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.

The Big Broadcast of 1938

1938
Two-Fisted
8.5

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 now out of the sport and has a drinking problem. They decide to train him for a big match, and in the process find themselves involved in romance, shady characters and a possible kidnapping.

Two-Fisted

1935
Larceny on the Air
7.0

A doctor working with the Bureau of Pure Foods and Drugs, uses radio broadcasts to expose fraudulent patent medicines.

Larceny on the Air

1937
The Way to Love
8.0

Francois, a cheerful Parisian bohemian, wants more than anything to be a tour guide in his beloved city. While working the streets, Francois meets Madeleine, who works at a circus.

The Way to Love

1933
The McGuerins from Brooklyn
6.7

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 affair with his secretary, Ms. Lucy Gibbs. To annoy Tim, Sadie starts taking classes with a fitness instructor, Samson, and later going with him to his out-of-town health club. To sort out all the misunderstandings both Tim and Eddie go to the health club as well.

The McGuerins from Brooklyn

1942
Don't Turn 'em Loose
5.0

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 the approving vote.

Don't Turn 'em Loose

1936
13 Hours by Air
5.3

Womanizer and airline pilot Jack Gordon must fly the world's fastest airliner from New York to California while dealing with dangerous jewel thieves on the run from the law.

13 Hours by Air

1936
Old Man Rhythm
7.0

Romantic rivalries between father and son enrolled at the same college.

Old Man Rhythm

1935
Too Much Harmony
7.0

A singer is involved with two women in his life, one a "good" girl and one a "bad" one."

Too Much Harmony

1933
Girl Without a Room
6.5

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 and is considered trashy. The enterprising artist immediately changes style and begins painting highly-abstract moderns.

Girl Without a Room

1933
Roaring Timber
6.0

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 Andrew MacKinley, who has to deliver the timber within sixty days.

Roaring Timber

1937
Wake Up and Live
6.2

Satire on radio, built around the supposed feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and journalist Walter Winchell.

Wake Up and Live

1937
The Hard-Boiled Canary
9.0

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 must overcome the suspicions of the other students in order to prove herself.

The Hard-Boiled Canary

1941