Saturday, September 25, 2010

Actress Grace Bradley R.I.P.

Actress Grace Bradley, best known as the wife of William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy himself) passed on September 21, 2010. She was 97 years old.

Grace Bradley was born on September 21, 1913 in Brooklyn. She studied to be a concert pianist. Despite this she took up modelling and started studying dance. She was discovered by a Paramount Pictures director while dancing at the floor show at the Paradise club in Manhattan in 1933. She received a contract from the studio.

Grace Bradley made her film debut in an uncredited role as a salesgirl in Tip Tap Toe (1932). She appeared in such movies as Too Much Harmony (1933) with Bing Crosby, Come On Marines (1934) with Richard Arlen and Ida Lupino, The Cat's Paw (1934) with Harold Lloyd, The Gilded Lily (1935) with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, Anything Goes (1936), The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938), and Taxi Mister (1943).

Miss Bradley met William Boyd in 1937 through a mutual friend. The two remained married until Mr. Boyd's death in 1972. From Mr. Boyd's retirement from the screen in 1953 to her own death, Miss Bradley worked tirelessly to keep the legend of William Boyd and Hopalog Cassidy alive. She also worked as a volunteer for 35 years  at the hospital in Laguna Beach, California where Mr. Boyd spent his last days.

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