Film Snail

Bill Elliott

Born · October 16, 1904

Died · November 26, 1965 (61 years old)

Known For: Acting

Place of Birth: Pattonsburg, Missouri, USA

Bio

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

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

(archive footage)

9.0

1976

It's Showtime

Self (archive footage)

7.0

1976

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Self (archive footage)

5.7

1975

Adam-12

Officer Grant · (4 episodes)

7.0

1968

Footsteps in the Night

Andy Doyle

5.3

1957

Chain of Evidence

Andy Doyle

4.8

1957

Calling Homicide

Andy Doyle

5.7

1956

Sudden Danger

Andy Doyle

5.3

1955

Dial Red O

Andy Flynn / Andy Doyle

5.2

1955

The Forty-Niners

Sam Nelson

5.2

1954

Bitter Creek

Clay Tyndall (as Wild Bill Elliott)

6.3

1954

Vigilante Terror

Tack Hamlin

5.0

1953

Topeka

Jim Levering

5.0

1953

Rebel City

Frank Graham

5.0

1953

The Homesteaders

Mace Corbin

7.0

1953

The Maverick

Pete Devlin

0.0

1952

Fargo

Bill Martin

6.5

1952

Kansas Territory

Joe Daniels (as Wild Bill Elliott)

0.0

1952

Waco

Matt Boone (as Wild Bill Elliott)

0.0

1952

The Longhorn

Jim Kirk

5.7

1951

The Showdown

Shadrach Jones

5.2

1950

The Savage Horde

Ringo

5.8

1950

The Marshall of Trail City

Wild Bill Elliott

5.0

1950

Hellfire

Zeb Smith

5.8

1949

The Last Bandit

Frank Norris / Frank Plummer (as William Elliott)

6.0

1949

The Gallant Legion

Gary Conway

7.0

1948

Old Los Angeles

Bill Stockton (as William Elliott)

5.5

1948

The Fabulous Texan

Josie Allen

4.0

1947

Wyoming

Charles Alderson

6.0

1947

The Plainsman and the Lady

Sam Colton

3.0

1946

Conquest of Cheyenne

Red Ryder

0.0

1946

In Old Sacramento

Johnny Barrett / Spanish Jack

6.0

1946

Sun Valley Cyclone

Red Ryder

5.0

1946

Sheriff of Redwood Valley

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

4.0

1946

California Gold Rush

Red Ryder

6.0

1946

Wagon Wheels Westward

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

6.0

1945

Colorado Pioneers

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

0.0

1945

Marshal of Laredo

Red Ryder

0.0

1945

Phantom of the Plains

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

0.0

1945

Bells of Rosarita

Wild Bill Elliott

5.5

1945

Lone Texas Ranger

Red Ryder

6.0

1945

Great Stagecoach Robbery

Red Ryder

0.0

1945

Sheriff of Las Vegas

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

4.5

1944

Vigilantes of Dodge City

Red Ryder

0.0

1944

Cheyenne Wildcat

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

4.0

1944

San Antonio Kid

Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)

0.0

1944

Marshal of Reno

Red Ryder

7.0

1944

Tucson Raiders

Red Ryder

0.0

1944

Hidden Valley Outlaws

Bill Elliott

0.0

1944

Mojave Firebrand

Wild Bill Elliott (as Wild Bill Elliott)

3.0

1944

Death Valley Manhunt

Marshal Wild Bill Elliott (as Wild Bill Elliott)

5.0

1943

Overland Mail Robbery

Wild Bill Elliott

0.0

1943

Wagon Tracks West

Wild Bill Elliott

0.0

1943

Bordertown Gun Fighters

Wild Bill Elliott

0.0

1943

The Man from Thunder River

Wild Bill Elliott

5.0

1943

Calling Wild Bill Elliott

Wild Bill Elliott

6.0

1943

The Valley of Vanishing Men

Wild Bill Tolliver

0.0

1942

Vengeance of the West

Joaquin Murietta aka The Black Shadow

0.0

1942

Prairie Gunsmoke

'Wild' Bill Hickok

0.0

1942

The Devil's Trail

'Wild' Bill Hickok

5.0

1942

North of the Rockies

Sergeant Bill Cameron

0.0

1942

Bullets for Bandits

'Wild' Bill Hickok / Prince Katey

0.0

1942

The Lone Star Vigilantes

'Wild' Bill Hickok

0.0

1942

Roaring Frontiers

'Wild' Bill Hickok

0.0

1941

King of Dodge City

'Wild' Bill Hickok

0.0

1941

The Son of Davy Crockett

Dave Crockett

0.0

1941

Hands Across the Rockies

1936

Audience Member / Dexter's Party Guest (uncredited)

5.0

1933

Handlebars

Bicyclist (uncredited)

5.5

1933

Midnight Mary

Party Guest (uncredited)

6.9

1933

Private Detective 62

Man at Roulette Table (Uncredited)

6.0

1933

Cocktail Hour

Party Guest (uncredited)

5.3

1933

Gold Diggers of 1933

Night Club Patron (uncredited)

7.2

1933

The Little Giant

Guest at Polly's Party (uncredited)

6.8

1933

Made on Broadway

Night Club Patron

6.5

1933

The Keyhole

6.4

1932

The Rich Are Always with Us

8.0

1930

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu

5.0

1930

The Girl Said No

Wedding Guest

5.5

1930

Lord Byron of Broadway

Party-Goer

4.7

1930

She Couldn't Say No

Gangster

0.0

1930

Broadway Scandals

George Halloway

6.0

1929

Night Parade

Party Guest

3.5

1929

The Great Divide

Ruth's Friend (uncredited)

4.8

1929

Restless Youth

George Baxter

0.0

1928

The Boy Friend

Gordon Elliot

5.3

1928

The Private Life of Helen of Troy

Telemachus

3.5

1927

The Arizona Wildcat

Roy Schyler (as Gordon Elliott)

0.0

1927

The Drop Kick

Aggressive Student at Dance

5.0

1927

Children of Divorce

Party Guest (uncredited)

5.9

1927

Napoleon, Jr.

Flora's Father

0.0

1926

The Shamrock Handicap

Well-Wishing Villager

5.1

1926

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)

7.3

1925

The Plastic Age

Athlete (uncredited)

5.9

1925