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Grace Bradley‌

Gender

Female

Birthday

calendar1913-09-21

Popularity

star2.4

Grace Bradley

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Grace Bradley

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Gender

Female

Birthday

calendar1913-09-21

Popularity

star2.4

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.

Movie Credits

The Cat's-Paw

The Cat's-Paw‌
star6.2
calendar 1934

Brooklyn Orchid

Brooklyn Orchid‌
star0.0
calendar 1942

Six of a Kind

Six of a Kind‌
star5.8
calendar 1934

The Invisible Killer

The Invisible Killer‌
star4.0
calendar 1939

Sitting on the Moon

Sitting on the Moon‌
star6.0
calendar 1936

The McGuerins from Brooklyn

The McGuerins from Brooklyn‌
star5.0
calendar 1942

Taxi, Mister

Taxi, Mister‌
star3.0
calendar 1943

Larceny on the Air

Larceny on the Air‌
star5.0
calendar 1937

O.H.M.S.

O.H.M.S.‌
star5.0
calendar 1937

Sign of the Wolf

Sign of the Wolf‌
star6.0
calendar 1941

Anything Goes

Anything Goes‌
star5.4
calendar 1936

Two-Fisted

Two-Fisted‌
star7.0
calendar 1935

Wake Up and Live

Wake Up and Live‌
star5.3
calendar 1937

13 Hours by Air

13 Hours by Air‌
star4.6
calendar 1936

It's All Yours

It's All Yours‌
star5.0
calendar 1937

The Gilded Lily

The Gilded Lily‌
star6.4
calendar 1935

Stolen Harmony

Stolen Harmony‌
star6.0
calendar 1935

Too Much Harmony

Too Much Harmony‌
star5.0
calendar 1933

The Big Broadcast of 1938

The Big Broadcast of 1938‌
star5.9
calendar 1938

Romance on the Run

Romance on the Run‌
star0.0
calendar 1938

Old Man Rhythm

Old Man Rhythm‌
star6.3
calendar 1935

F-Man

F-Man‌
star0.0
calendar 1936

Girl Without a Room

Girl Without a Room‌
star5.3
calendar 1933

Rose of the Rancho

Rose of the Rancho‌
star0.0
calendar 1936

Redhead

Redhead‌
star6.0
calendar 1934

Tip Tap Toe

Tip Tap Toe‌
star0.0
calendar 1932

She Made Her Bed

She Made Her Bed‌
star3.5
calendar 1934

Don't Turn 'em Loose

Don't Turn 'em Loose‌
star4.8
calendar 1936

Come On, Marines!

Come On, Marines!‌
star5.0
calendar 1934

Roaring Timber

Roaring Timber‌
star5.0
calendar 1937

The Hard-Boiled Canary

The Hard-Boiled Canary‌
star0.0
calendar 1941

Dangerous Waters

Dangerous Waters‌
star3.0
calendar 1936

The Way to Love

The Way to Love‌
star0.0
calendar 1933

Tv Credits