Ward Bond(1903-1960)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gruff, burly American character actor. Born in 1903 in Benkelman,
Nebraska (confirmed by Social Security records; sources stating 1905 or
Denver, Colorado are in error.) Bond grew up in Denver, the son of a
lumberyard worker. He attended the University of Southern California,
where he got work as an extra through a football teammate who would
become both his best friend and one of cinema's biggest stars: John Wayne.
Director John Ford promoted Bond from extra to supporting player in the
film Salute (1929), and became another fast friend. An arrogant man of little
tact, yet fun-loving in the extreme, Bond was either loved or hated by
all who knew him. His face and personality fit perfectly into almost
any type of film, and he appeared in hundreds of pictures in his more
than 30-year career, in both bit parts and major supporting roles. In
the films of Wayne and Ford, particularly, he was nearly always
present. Among his most memorable roles are John L. Sullivan in
Gentleman Jim (1942), Det. Tom Polhaus in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and the Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnson
Clayton The Searchers (1956). An ardent but anti-intellectual patriot, he was
perhaps the most vehement proponent, among the Hollywood community, of
blacklisting in the witch hunts of the 1950s, and he served as a most
unforgiving president of the ultra-right-wing Motion Picture Alliance
for the Preservation of American Ideals. In the mid-'50s he gained his
greatest fame as the star of TV's Wagon Train (1957). During its production, Bond
traveled to Dallas, Texas, to attend a football game and died there in
his hotel room of a massive heart attack.