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Grace Bradley Boyd, an actress who came to Hollywood as a Paramount contract player in the early 1930s but abandoned her career after marrying the love of her life, has died. She was 97.Boyd, the keeper of the “Hoppy” flame after the death of her western movie-hero husband of 35 years in 1972, died of age-related causes on her birthday Tuesday at her home in Dana Point, said Jane Mak, a longtime close friend.As Grace Bradley, Boyd appeared in 35 films, including “Too Much Harmony,” starring Bing Crosby; “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” with W.C. Fields and Bob Hope; and “Come on Marines” with Richard Arlen and Ida Lupino.The petite, Brooklyn-born actress, who launched her show business career as a dancer, was often cast as a femme fatale or “the wrong girl,” but she played a variety of characters. Her most enduring role, however, was off-screen — as the wife of William Boyd.Born Grace Bradley on Sept. 21, 1913, she studied to be a concert pianist and at 15 represented the state of New York in an annual competition for young pianists at Carnegie Hall. Although she won the contest, she began modeling full time and attending dance school at night.She was dancing in the floor show at the Paradise nightclub in Manhattan in 1933 when she was spotted by a Paramount Pictures director and placed under contract.Grace Bradley had a string of movies behind her when she received the phone call that changed her life.
William Boyd was standing at the foot of the stairs when Grace walked down to meet him. He instinctively held out his arms for her, she recalled, “and I walked right into them.”Three days later, Boyd asked her to marry him. “He said, ‘I would have proposed the first night except I was afraid I’d scare you to death,’ ” she recalled.They were married three weeks after they met, Grace Bradley becoming the fifth — and last —As Republic Studios director William Witney once put it: “She met a Prince Charming on a big white horse.”. As America’s first real television hero, the wise and tough cowboy with the friendly grin became a show business phenomenon.More than 2,000 products were manufactured and Boyd, as Hoppy, appeared on the covers of Life, Time and Look magazines.
During a 26-city tour, a million fans turned out to see him.“I made a point of being in the background,” she said in the 1976 interview. “As far as the kids were concerned, Hoppy was Hoppy. He didn’t have a wife or family.
When the young ones would ask, ‘Who are you?,’ I’d say, ‘I’m Hoppy’s mommy.’ ”William Boyd retired from the screen in 1953 and died in 1972 at 77. At a loss after his death, Grace Boyd began her more than 35 years of volunteer work at the hospital in Laguna Beach where her husband had spent his final days.But Hopalong Cassidy always remained part of her life, including winning a two-decade legal battle stemming from a copyright infringement suit, and appearing at Hoppy tributes.“Everybody I talk to is looking for a hero,” she said at the “They say, ‘If only we had Hoppy again,’ or somebody like that.
The dark-garbed Hopalong Cassidy was a wildly popular matinee idol of the `30s and `40s and one of the most iconic cowboy heroes of all time. Hopalong Cassidy: This was the book that Gatsby had written in when he was younger. It contains a time schedule that Gatsby made to improve himself. The schedule leaves no time to waste, every time slot of the day, starting at 6 am, is filled. The schedule has ways to improve both his mind and body, keeping him healthy.
The children don’t have role models. Who do we have?”Boyd had no survivors.