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IMDbPro

Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams(1899-1962)

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Official Trailer
Play trailer2:30
Rocky Mountain (1950)
3 Videos
99+ Photos
The son of a rancher-turned-politician, Guinn Williams was given the nickname "Big Boy" (and he was, too - 6' 2" of mostly solid muscle from years of working on ranches and playing semi-pro and pro baseball) by Will Rogers, with whom he made one of his first films, in 1919. Although his father wanted him to attend West Point (he had been an officer in the Army during World War I), Williams had always wanted to act and made his way to Hollywood in 1919. His experience as a cowboy and rodeo rider got him work as a stuntman, and he gradually worked his way up to acting. He became friends with Rogers and together they made around 15 films. Additionally,in a film that has recently received critical acclaim, he appeared alongside Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor in the silent film Lucky Star (1929), playing a brute vying for the affections of Janet Gaynor in competition with a returning war veteran, played by Charles Farrell. He then easily made the transition from silents to talkies. Although he also starred in a series of low-budget westerns in the early and mid-1930s, he really came into his own as a supporting player in the late 1930s and early 1940s, especially at Warner Bros., where he appeared in such resoundingly successful westerns as Dodge City (1939) and Santa Fe Trail (1940) with his friends Errol Flynn and Alan Hale. Williams specialized in the somewhat dim and quick-tempered but basically decent sidekick, a role he would play for the next 20 years or so. He also made sound films other than westerns, and was in, for example, A Star Is Born (1937). Late in his career, he won the hearts of TV viewers in a regular role as Pete, the comedic roadie in Circus Boy (1956). In the early 1960s Williams' health began to deteriorate, which was noticeable in his last film, The Comancheros (1961), in which he had a small part and, sadly, did not look well at all. He died of uremic poisoning shortly afterwards.
BornApril 26, 1899
DiedJune 6, 1962(63)
BornApril 26, 1899
DiedJune 6, 1962(63)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank

Photos243

Charles Farrell, Janet Gaynor, and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Hedwiga Reicher and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Janet Gaynor, Hedwiga Reicher, and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Charles Farrell and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Gloria Grey and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Janet Gaynor and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Charles Farrell and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Charles Farrell and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Janet Gaynor and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Lucky Star (1929)

Known for

Claire Dodd and George Raft in The Glass Key (1935)
The Glass Key
6.9
  • Jeff(as Guinn Williams)
  • 1935
Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Mary Lee, and Trigger in Cowboy and the Senorita (1944)
Cowboy and the Senorita
5.7
  • Teddy Bear
  • 1944
Dolores Costello and George O'Brien in Noah's Ark (1928)
Noah's Ark
6.7
  • Al
  • Ham(as Gwynn Williams)
  • 1928
Danger Trails (1935)
Danger Trails
6.2
  • Bob Wilson(as Big Boy Williams)
  • 1935

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Bob Terry in The Forsaken Westerns (2017)
    The Forsaken Westerns
  • Buttons and Her Beaus
  • John Wayne, Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff, and Stuart Whitman in The Comancheros (1961)
    The Comancheros
    • (uncredited)
  • John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and Laurence Harvey in The Alamo (1960)
    The Alamo
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Five Bold Women (1960)
    Five Bold Women
  • The Magical World of Disney (1954)
    The Magical World of Disney
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Robert Mitchum, George Hamilton, and Eleanor Parker in Home from the Hill (1960)
    Home from the Hill
    • (uncredited)
  • John Payne in The Restless Gun (1957)
    The Restless Gun
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • John McIntire in Wagon Train (1957)
    Wagon Train
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Tales of Wells Fargo (1957)
    Tales of Wells Fargo
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Lee Aaker, James Brown, and Rin Tin Tin II in The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954)
    The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Sugarfoot (1957)
    Sugarfoot
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Circus Boy (1956)
    Circus Boy
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Clint Walker in Cheyenne (1955)
    Cheyenne
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • John Bromfield in The Sheriff of Cochise (1956)
    The Sheriff of Cochise
    • (as Guinn Williams)

Writer

  • Danger Trails (1935)
    Danger Trails
    • (as Gwinn Williams)
  • Red Blood and Blue
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Marion Aye and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in The Vengeance Trail (1921)
    The Vengeance Trail
    • (as Guinn Williams)
  • Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in The Jack Rider (1921)
    The Jack Rider
    • (as Guinn Williams)

Soundtrack

  • Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, and Raymond Massey in Santa Fe Trail (1940)
    Santa Fe Trail
    • (uncredited)
  • Charley Chase, Patsy Kelly, and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Kelly the Second (1936)
    Kelly the Second
    • ("Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1808), uncredited)
  • Art Dillard, Gordon Griffith, Marion Shilling, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, and Frank Yaconelli in Gun Play (1935)
    Gun Play
    • (uncredited)
  • Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in Cowboy Holiday (1934)
    Cowboy Holiday
    • ("Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (The Cowboy's Lament)", uncredited)

Videos3

Rocky Mountain
Trailer 2:30
Rocky Mountain
Santa Fe Trail
Trailer 2:13
Santa Fe Trail
Virginia City
Trailer 2:00
Virginia City

Personal details

Edit
    • April 26, 1899
    • Decatur, Texas, USA
    • June 6, 1962
    • Burbank, California, USA(uremic poisoning)
    • January 1943 - June 6, 1962 (his death)
    • William Tyler
  • Unsold pilot: Co-starred in a pilot for an adventure series about the life of a teenage girl who lives in a mountain ranch, called "Buttons and her Beaus". The pilot starred Linda Evans and co-starred Jim Davis.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Article

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Was a pallbearer at the funeral of his best friend Errol Flynn, along with Raoul Walsh, Mickey Rooney, Jack Oakie and Otto Reichow on 10/19/59 at the Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA.

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