Bill Elliott
Biography
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
Policeman Following Blonde (uncredited)
Jewel Robbery
Roy Schyler (as Gordon Elliott)
The Arizona Wildcat
Jim Neale
Boots and Saddles
Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Five and Ten
Andy Doyle
Chain of Evidence
Andy Doyle
Calling Homicide
Andy Doyle
Footsteps in the Night
Party Guest (uncredited)
One Hour with You
Party Guest (uncredited)
Midnight Mary
Escort (uncredited)
Night After Night
Andy Doyle
Sudden Danger
Shadrach Jones
The Showdown
Kenneth Martin
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan
Little Lord Fauntleroy (uncredited)
Michael O'Halloran
Backgammon Man (uncredited)
Letter of Introduction
Norman (uncredited)
Wonder Bar
Wild Bill Boone
The Return of Daniel Boone
Teddy
The Goose and the Gander
Carl Griffin
The Case of the Velvet Claws
Ringo
The Savage Horde
Red Ryder
Marshal of Reno
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Sheriff of Redwood Valley
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
San Antonio Kid
Red Ryder
Tucson Raiders
James, Clerk at College Club
The Girl from 10th Avenue
George Halloway
Broadway Scandals
Josie Allen
The Fabulous Texan
Gary Conway
The Gallant Legion
Walter Wilson
Melody for Two
Wild Bill Elliott
The Marshall of Trail City
'Wild' Bill Hickok
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Aggressive Student at Dance
The Drop Kick
Polo Match Spectator (uncredited)
A Lost Lady
Tom Collins - Greer's Associate
Dr. Socrates
(archive footage)
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Sam Colton
The Plainsman and the Lady
Randall
Swing It Professor
Odie Fenton
Roll Along, Cowboy
Dr. Allan
Boy of the Streets
Bill Parker
Love Takes Flight
Don Trumbeau
Polo Joe
Kit Carson
Overland with Kit Carson
Wild Bill Saunders
The Man from Tumbleweeds
Telemachus
The Private Life of Helen of Troy
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Phantom of the Plains
Wild Bill Tolliver
The Valley of Vanishing Men
Andy Flynn / Andy Doyle
Dial Red O
Wedding Guest (uncredited)
The Greeks Had a Word for Them
Ship's Passenger / Dance Extra (uncredited)
Bachelor's Affairs
Chauncey Courtland
The Lady in the Morgue
Well-Wishing Villager
The Shamrock Handicap
Wedding Guest
The Girl Said No
Mace Corbin
The Homesteaders
Sam Nelson
The Forty-Niners
Dave Thatcher (as Gordon Elliott)
Murder by an Aristocrat
Red Ryder
Lone Texas Ranger
Party-Goer
Lord Byron of Broadway
Gordon Elliot
The Boy Friend
George Baxter
Restless Youth
Wild Bill Saunders
The Return of Wild Bill
Bill Martin
Fargo
Golfer (uncredited)
Part Time Wife
Zeb Smith
Hellfire
Minor Role (uncredited)
God's Gift to Women
Music Store Customer (uncredited)
Let's Do Things
Male Nurse
Registered Nurse
Hotel Guest on Veranda
Broadminded
Lulu's Bathing Companion (uncredited)
You Can't Have Everything
Hotel Dining Room Guest
Traveling Husbands
Reporter
Broadway Gondolier
Marshal Wild Bill Elliott (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Death Valley Manhunt
'Wild' Bill Hickok
Hands Across the Rockies
Wild Bill Elliott
Bordertown Gun Fighters
Wedding Guest
The Right to Live
Playboy in 'Playboy of Paree' Number (uncredited)
Broadway Hostess
Night Club Patron
Sweepstakes
Ruth's Friend (uncredited)
The Great Divide
Ramon Duval
Fugitive in the Sky
Party Guest
Desirable
One of Tom's War Buddies
Sunny
Physical Exam Onlooker
Going Wild
Sam Laxter
The Case of the Black Cat
Dangerous
Warren Sherrill
Personal Maid's Secret
Bill Elliott
Hidden Valley Outlaws
Audience Member / Dexter's Party Guest (uncredited)
Stage Mother
Minor Role
Stars Over Broadway
Sharp, Board of Directors Member (uncredited)
The Big Noise
Wellman, a Dude
Guns of the Pecos
Country Club Guest
The Public Defender
Party Guest
Night Parade
Hotel Dancer (uncredited)
Born to Love
Red Ryder
Vigilantes of Dodge City
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
2nd Radio Announcer
King of Hockey
Dave Crockett
The Son of Davy Crockett
Bootlegger (uncredited)
The Roaring Twenties
'Wild' Bill Hickok
Across the Sierras
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Sheriff of Las Vegas
Bank Teller (uncredited)
While the Patient Slept
Alex Brown (Uncredited)
Lady with a Past
'Wild' Bill Hickok
Prairie Gunsmoke
John Freeman
Frontiers of '49
City Attorney Seabrook
Midnight Court
'Wild' Bill Hickok
The Devil's Trail
Party Guest (uncredited)
The Mummy
Wild Bill Saunders
Pioneers of the Frontier
Freddie
Traveling Saleslady
Charlie Fagan
Man of Iron
'Wild' Bill Hickok
The Wildcat of Tucson
Wild Bill Elliott
Wagon Tracks West
'Wild' Bill Hickok
Prairie Schooners
Jefferson Duane
Trailin' West
Governor's Secretary (uncredited)
The Secret Bride
Stuart Wyatt
The Woman in Red
Bicyclist (uncredited)
Handlebars
Wild Bill Elliott
Calling Wild Bill Elliott
Jeff Holt
Moonlight on the Prairie
Maxine's Casino Escort (uncredited)
The Payoff
Robert Bates
Down the Stretch
Johnny Barrett / Spanish Jack
In Old Sacramento
Guest at Polly's Party (uncredited)
The Little Giant
Night Club Patron (uncredited)
Gold Diggers of 1933
Matt Boone (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Waco
Joe Daniels (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Kansas Territory
Pete Devlin
The Maverick
Bruce Thomas
Wife, Doctor and Nurse
Larry's Friend
Delicious
Vincent's Assistant (uncredited)
A Night at the Ritz
'Wild' Bill Hickok
Beyond the Sacramento
Backstage Actor
Bright Lights
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
The Truth About Youth
Party Guest (uncredited)
Children of Divorce
Joaquin Murietta aka The Black Shadow
Vengeance of the West
Jim Kirk
The Longhorn
Red Ryder
Marshal of Laredo
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Cheyenne Wildcat
Red Ryder
Great Stagecoach Robbery
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Colorado Pioneers
Red Ryder (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Wagon Wheels Westward
Red Ryder
California Gold Rush
Red Ryder
Sun Valley Cyclone
Red Ryder
Conquest of Cheyenne
Wild Bill Elliott
The Man from Thunder River
Sergeant Bill Cameron
North of the Rockies
'Wild' Bill Hickok
North from the Lone Star
'Wild' Bill Hickok
Roaring Frontiers
'Wild' Bill Hickok
The Lone Star Vigilantes
Poker Player
She Who Gets Slapped
'Wild' Bill Hickok / Prince Katey
Bullets for Bandits
Wild Bill Elliott
Overland Mail Robbery
'Wild' Bill Hickok
King of Dodge City
Wild Bill Elliott (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Mojave Firebrand
Wild Bill Elliott
Bells of Rosarita
Party Boy
The Road to Reno
Charles Alderson
Wyoming
Bill Stockton (as William Elliott)
Old Los Angeles
Frank Norris / Frank Plummer (as William Elliott)
The Last Bandit
Frank Graham
Rebel City
Jim Levering
Topeka
Tack Hamlin
Vigilante Terror
Clay Tyndall (as Wild Bill Elliott)
Bitter Creek
Bluey
Tank Patrol
Bit Role
Vanity Fair
Escort (uncredited)
Left Over Ladies
Dance Extra / Lobby Extra (uncredited)
Working Girls
Wedding Party Guest
Party Husband
Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Party Boy
What Men Want
Lt. Saunders
Murder in the Clouds
Athlete (uncredited)
The Plastic Age
New Year's Eve Reveler (Uncredited)
Only Yesterday
Self (archive footage)
It's Showtime
Reporter in Courtroom (uncredited)
The Case of the Howling Dog
Bootlegger Who Gives Eddie the Bottle Outside the Club (uncredited)
'G' Men
Reporter (uncredited)
Page Miss Glory
Gambler (uncredited)
The Rich Are Always with Us
Partygoer (uncredited)
The Keyhole
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Blonde Crazy
Man Outside Theatre (uncredited)
Scarface
Hunter - Bank Worker (uncredited)
Bullets or Ballots
News Commentator (uncredited)
Two Against the World
Pilot (uncredited)
China Clipper
Dancer (uncredited)
The Merry Frinks
Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Jackson's Secretary / Dorothy's Dance Partner
Go Into Your Dance
Party Guest (uncredited)
Merrily We Go to Hell
Polo Player (uncredited)
A Successful Calamity
Wild Bill Saunders
The Taming of the West
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Smarty
Man at Roulette Table (Uncredited)
Private Detective 62
Flora's Father
Napoleon, Jr.
Gangster
She Couldn't Say No
Ann's Beau (uncredited)
Platinum Blonde
Party Guest (uncredited)
Cocktail Hour
Night Club Patron
Made on Broadway
Whit Gordon
In Early Arizona
John Haynes
The Law Comes to Texas
Customer at Beretti's
Born Reckless
Party Guest
Double Cross Roads
Announcer
Romance in the Air
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
West of Broadway
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
202
Gender
Male
Birthday
1904-10-16
Place of Birth
Pattonsburg, Missouri, USA
Also Known As
Wild Bill Elliott