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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
October 16, 1904
Died
November 26, 1965
Place of Birth
Pattonsburg, Missouri, USA
Also Known As
- Wild Bill Elliott
- Gordon Nance
- Gordon Eliott
- 'Wild' Bill Elliot
- Gordon Elliott
- William 'Wild Bill' Elliott
- William Elliott
Bill Elliott
0.5 Popularity
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
9.0
(archive footage)
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
1976
7.0
Self (archive footage)
It's Showtime
1976
6.1
Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
7.0
Officer Grant
Adam-12
1968
5.5
Andy Doyle
Footsteps in the Night
1957
4.6
Andy Doyle
Chain of Evidence
1957
5.9
Andy Doyle
Calling Homicide
1956
5.4
Andy Doyle
Sudden Danger
1955
5.3
Andy Flynn / Andy Doyle
Dial Red O
1955
5.7
Sam Nelson
The Forty-Niners
1954
Credits
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
as (archive footage)
1976
9.0
It's Showtime
as Self (archive footage)
1976
7.0
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
1975
6.1
Adam-12
as Officer Grant
1968
7.0
Footsteps in the Night
as Andy Doyle
1957
5.5
Chain of Evidence
as Andy Doyle
1957
4.6
Calling Homicide
as Andy Doyle
1956
5.9
Sudden Danger
as Andy Doyle
1955
5.4
Dial Red O
as Andy Flynn / Andy Doyle
1955
5.3
The Forty-Niners
as Sam Nelson
1954
5.7
Bitter Creek
as Clay Tyndall
1954
6.3
Vigilante Terror
as Tack Hamlin
1953
5.0
Topeka
as Jim Levering
1953
5.0
Rebel City
as Frank Graham
1953
5.0
The Homesteaders
as Mace Corbin
1953
7.0
The Maverick
as Pete Devlin
1952
0.0
Fargo
as Bill Martin
1952
6.5
Kansas Territory
as Joe Daniels
1952
0.0
Waco
as Matt Boone
1952
0.0
The Longhorn
as Jim Kirk
1951
5.7
The Showdown
as Shadrach Jones
1950
5.2
The Savage Horde
as Ringo
1950
5.8
🎬
The Marshall of Trail City
as Wild Bill Elliott
1950
5.0
Hellfire
as Zeb Smith
1949
6.1
The Last Bandit
as Frank Norris / Frank Plummer
1949
6.0
The Gallant Legion
as Gary Conway
1948
7.0
Old Los Angeles
as Bill Stockton
1948
5.5
The Fabulous Texan
as Josie Allen
1947
4.0
Wyoming
as Charles Alderson
1947
6.0
The Plainsman and the Lady
as Sam Colton
1946
3.0
Conquest of Cheyenne
as Red Ryder
1946
0.0
In Old Sacramento
as Johnny Barrett / Spanish Jack
1946
6.0
Sun Valley Cyclone
as Red Ryder
1946
5.0
Sheriff of Redwood Valley
as Red Ryder
1946
4.0
California Gold Rush
as Red Ryder
1946
6.0
Wagon Wheels Westward
as Red Ryder
1945
6.0
Colorado Pioneers
as Red Ryder
1945
0.0
Marshal of Laredo
as Red Ryder
1945
0.0
Phantom of the Plains
as Red Ryder
1945
0.0
Bells of Rosarita
as Wild Bill Elliott
1945
5.4
Lone Texas Ranger
as Red Ryder
1945
6.0
Great Stagecoach Robbery
as Red Ryder
1945
0.0
Sheriff of Las Vegas
as Red Ryder
1944
4.0
Vigilantes of Dodge City
as Red Ryder
1944
0.0
Cheyenne Wildcat
as Red Ryder
1944
4.0
San Antonio Kid
as Red Ryder
1944
0.0
Marshal of Reno
as Red Ryder
1944
7.0
Tucson Raiders
as Red Ryder
1944
0.0
Hidden Valley Outlaws
as Bill Elliott
1944
0.0
Mojave Firebrand
as Wild Bill Elliott
1944
3.0
Death Valley Manhunt
as Wild Bill Elliott
1943
5.0
Overland Mail Robbery
as Wild Bill Elliott
1943
0.0
Wagon Tracks West
as Wild Bill Elliott
1943
0.0
Bordertown Gun Fighters
as Wild Bill Elliott
1943
0.0
The Man from Thunder River
as Wild Bill Elliott
1943
5.0
Calling Wild Bill Elliott
as Wild Bill Elliott
1943
6.0
The Valley of Vanishing Men
as Wild Bill Tolliver
1942
0.0
Vengeance of the West
as Joaquin Murietta aka The Black Shadow
1942
0.0
Prairie Gunsmoke
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1942
0.0
The Devil's Trail
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1942
5.0
North of the Rockies
as Sergeant Bill Cameron
1942
0.0
Bullets for Bandits
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok / Prince Katey
1942
0.0
The Lone Star Vigilantes
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1942
0.0
Roaring Frontiers
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1941
0.0
King of Dodge City
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1941
0.0
The Son of Davy Crockett
as Dave Crockett
1941
0.0
Hands Across the Rockies
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1941
7.2
🎬
Tank Patrol
as Bluey
1941
0.0
The Return of Daniel Boone
as Wild Bill Boone
1941
4.5
North from the Lone Star
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1941
0.0
Across the Sierras
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1941
2.2
The Wildcat of Tucson
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1940
0.0
Beyond the Sacramento
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1940
0.0
Prairie Schooners
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1940
6.0
The Return of Wild Bill
as Wild Bill Saunders
1940
0.0
The Man from Tumbleweeds
as Wild Bill Saunders
1940
3.0
Pioneers of the Frontier
as Wild Bill Saunders
1940
0.0
Taming of the West
as Wild Bill Saunders
1939
0.0
The Roaring Twenties
as Bootlegger (uncredited)
1939
7.5
Overland with Kit Carson
as Kit Carson
1939
0.5
🎬
The Law Comes to Texas
as John Haynes
1939
0.0
Frontiers of '49
as John Freeman
1939
0.0
🎬
In Early Arizona
as Whit Gordon
1938
0.0
Letter of Introduction
as Backgammon Man (uncredited)
1938
5.7
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
as 'Wild' Bill Hickok
1938
0.0
The Lady in the Morgue
as Chauncey Courtland
1938
6.2
Boy of the Streets
as Dr. Allan
1938
5.0
Love Takes Flight
as Bill Parker
1937
3.0
Roll Along, Cowboy
as Odie Fenton
1937
5.0
Boots and Saddles
as Jim Neale
1937
4.0
Wife, Doctor and Nurse
as Bruce Thomas
1937
6.0
You Can't Have Everything
as Lulu's Bathing Companion (uncredited)
1937
5.7
Michael O'Halloran
as Little Lord Fauntleroy (uncredited)
1937
0.0
Melody for Two
as Walter Wilson
1937
0.0
🎬
Swing It Professor
as Randall
1937
0.0
Midnight Court
as City Attorney Seabrook
1937
4.4
Guns of the Pecos
as Wellman, a Dude
1936
6.2
King of Hockey
as 2nd Radio Announcer
1936
5.0
Fugitive in the Sky
as Ramon Duval
1936
6.0
Polo Joe
as Don Trumbeau
1936
0.0
The Case of the Black Cat
as Sam Laxter
1936
6.6
Down the Stretch
as Robert Bates
1936
5.5
Trailin' West
as Jefferson Duane
1936
0.0
China Clipper
as Pilot (uncredited)
1936
5.6
Two Against the World
as News Commentator (uncredited)
1936
5.8
The Case of the Velvet Claws
as Carl Griffin
1936
6.8
The Big Noise
as Sharp, Board of Directors Member (uncredited)
1936
5.0
Murder by an Aristocrat
as Dave Thatcher
1936
3.0
Bullets or Ballots
as Hunter - Bank Worker (uncredited)
1936
6.6
Romance in the Air
as Announcer
1936
0.0
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan
as Kenneth Martin
1936
5.6
Dangerous
1935
6.6
Man of Iron
as Charlie Fagan
1935
6.0
Broadway Hostess
as Playboy in 'Playboy of Paree' Number (uncredited)
1935
5.3
Stars Over Broadway
as Minor Role
1935
5.2
Moonlight on the Prairie
as Jeff Holt
1935
5.5
Personal Maid's Secret
as Warren Sherrill
1935
5.5
Dr. Socrates
as Tom Collins - Greer's Associate
1935
6.4
The Goose and the Gander
as Teddy
1935
4.1
Page Miss Glory
as Reporter (uncredited)
1935
6.3
Bright Lights
as Backstage Actor
1935
4.2
Broadway Gondolier
as Reporter
1935
5.4
The Girl from 10th Avenue
as James, Clerk at College Club
1935
6.5
'G' Men
as Bootlegger Who Gives Eddie the Bottle Outside the Club (uncredited)
1935
6.6
Go Into Your Dance
as Jackson's Secretary / Dorothy's Dance Partner
1935
6.8
Traveling Saleslady
as Freddie
1935
5.5
A Night at the Ritz
as Vincent's Assistant (uncredited)
1935
3.0
While the Patient Slept
as Bank Teller (uncredited)
1935
6.4
The Woman in Red
as Stuart Wyatt
1935
6.0
The Right to Live
as Wedding Guest
1935
4.4
The Payoff
as Maxine's Casino Escort (uncredited)
1935
4.9
The Secret Bride
as Governor's Secretary (uncredited)
1934
5.9
Murder in the Clouds
as Lt. Saunders
1934
4.7
A Lost Lady
as Polo Match Spectator (uncredited)
1934
5.6
The Case of the Howling Dog
as Reporter in Courtroom (uncredited)
1934
6.2
Desirable
as Party Guest
1934
7.3
The Merry Frinks
as Dancer (uncredited)
1934
3.7
Smarty
as Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
1934
4.3
Upperworld
as Police Photographer (uncredited)
1934
6.3
Registered Nurse
as Male Nurse
1934
4.1
Wonder Bar
as Norman (uncredited)
1934
5.9
Only Yesterday
as New Year's Eve Reveler (Uncredited)
1933
6.8
Stage Mother
as Audience Member / Dexter's Party Guest (uncredited)
1933
5.0
Handlebars
as Bicyclist (uncredited)
1933
5.5
Midnight Mary
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1933
6.8
Private Detective 62
as Man at Roulette Table (Uncredited)
1933
5.9
Cocktail Hour
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1933
4.8
Gold Diggers of 1933
as Night Club Patron (uncredited)
1933
7.2
The Little Giant
as Guest at Polly's Party (uncredited)
1933
6.8
Made on Broadway
as Night Club Patron
1933
6.5
The Keyhole
as Partygoer (uncredited)
1933
4.7
The Mummy
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1932
6.8
Night After Night
as Escort (uncredited)
1932
6.2
A Successful Calamity
as Polo Player (uncredited)
1932
5.2
Jewel Robbery
as Policeman Following Blonde (uncredited)
1932
6.5
Bachelor's Affairs
as Ship's Passenger / Dance Extra (uncredited)
1932
1.0
Merrily We Go to Hell
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1932
6.3
The Rich Are Always with Us
as Gambler (uncredited)
1932
4.6
Scarface
as Man Outside Theatre (uncredited)
1932
7.4
One Hour with You
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1932
6.5
Vanity Fair
as Bit Role
1932
3.5
Lady with a Past
as Alex Brown (Uncredited)
1932
5.8
The Greeks Had a Word for Them
as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
1932
5.2
Delicious
as Larry's Friend
1931
6.2
Working Girls
as Dance Extra / Lobby Extra (uncredited)
1931
6.8
West of Broadway
as Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
1931
6.3
Platinum Blonde
as Ann's Beau (uncredited)
1931
6.6
Left Over Ladies
as Escort (uncredited)
1931
0.0
The Road to Reno
as Party Boy
1931
3.2
Blonde Crazy
as Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
1931
7.0
Traveling Husbands
as Hotel Dining Room Guest
1931
4.0
Broadminded
as Hotel Guest on Veranda
1931
3.7
The Public Defender
as Country Club Guest
1931
6.0
Sweepstakes
as Night Club Patron
1931
4.5
Five and Ten
as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
1931
5.8
Let's Do Things
as Music Store Customer (uncredited)
1931
0.0
Party Husband
as Wedding Party Guest
1931
5.0
Born to Love
as Hotel Dancer (uncredited)
1931
5.0
God's Gift to Women
as Minor Role (uncredited)
1931
4.5
Going Wild
as Physical Exam Onlooker
1930
6.0
Part Time Wife
as Golfer (uncredited)
1930
0.0
Sunny
as One of Tom's War Buddies
1930
6.5
The Truth About Youth
as Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
1930
5.7
What Men Want
as Party Boy
1930
1.0
She Who Gets Slapped
as Poker Player
1930
8.0
Born Reckless
as Customer at Beretti's
1930
5.5
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
1930
5.3
Double Cross Roads
as Party Guest
1930
0.0
The Girl Said No
as Wedding Guest
1930
5.5
Lord Byron of Broadway
as Party-Goer
1930
3.8
She Couldn't Say No
as Gangster
1930
0.0
Broadway Scandals
as George Halloway
1929
6.0
Night Parade
as Party Guest
1929
4.5
The Great Divide
as Ruth's Friend (uncredited)
1929
4.8
Restless Youth
as George Baxter
1928
0.0
The Boy Friend
as Gordon Elliot
1928
5.3
The Private Life of Helen of Troy
as Telemachus
1927
3.5
The Arizona Wildcat
as Roy Schyler
1927
0.0
The Drop Kick
as Aggressive Student at Dance
1927
4.7
Children of Divorce
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1927
5.7
🎬
Napoleon, Jr.
as Flora's Father
1926
0.0
The Shamrock Handicap
as Well-Wishing Villager
1926
5.1
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
1925
7.3
The Plastic Age
as Athlete (uncredited)
1925
6.0