Bill Edwards (actor)


Bill Edwards was an American film and television actor, championship rodeo rider, and artist.

Early years

Born in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, Edwards began drawing horses as a child and continued drawing as he grew up on a Wyoming ranch. From this lifestyle, Bill was to become a championship rodeo rider.
Broken bones brought his riding career to a halt, and the 6-foot-5 Bill Edwards became a model in New York City. An agent brought him to Hollywood in the early 1940s. He was under contract to Paramount Pictures for nearly a decade, after which he turned to art.

Career

In addition to Western films, the blonde, blue-eyed Edwards had featured roles in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay and Hail the Conquering Hero, both released in 1944.
In the 1950s, Edwards became a painter. He created illustrations for Hanna-Barbera and Disney as well as creating the artwork for numerous book and novel covers. Edwards was commissioned by the United States Air Force Art Program to paint recruiting posters and paintings of Air Force planes and combat scenes. Several, such as one entitled "Generation Gap," were exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, the Pentagon and a traveling Air Force exhibit.
He had an illustrious career as an artist, and he became best known for his paintings of the Old West. His works were sold at numerous galleries throughout California and the Southwest, and many of his paintings of the Old West hang in private collections.

Personal life/death

In January 1946, Bill married Hazel Allen, to whom he was married until the mid-1970s. He then married a second time to Beryl Margret Hunter, who was born in Middlesex, England; they married in the late 1980s and were happily married until her death on 12 December 1995.
Upon her death, he remarried his first wife Hazel Allen. Bill died on December 21, 1999, at the age of 81 in Newport Beach, California of pneumonia caused by an illness that affected his muscular system. He was survived by his wife and his daughter, Linda Edwards.

Selected filmography