GUINN "BIG BOY" WILLIAMS
April 26th, 1899 -- June 6th, 1962

Above: Guinn Williams, known to his friends and fans as "Big Boy."

Six feet two inches tall, and with corresponding weight and strength, Guinn Williams well merited his nickname of "Big Boy", given to him by none other than Will Rogers. With a cheery, infectious smile and a humorous, sometimes puzzled squint to accompany his prodigious size, Williams was perfect for the rough-and-tumble, larger-than-life characters he usually played. Always cheeriest when knocking heads together or slugging it out with multiple foes, Big Boy was an ideal and valuable sidekick for the serial heroes he supported; though he wasn't always the brightest guy on earth, there was no better man to have by your side in a fight.

Williams was born in Decatur, Texas, the son of a Congressman. Williams senior wanted Guinn to study law, but happy-go-lucky Big Boy wasn't cut out to be a lawyer and took up more athletic pastimes, aspiring to be a professional baseball player for a while. He came to Hollywood around 1919 and made his screen debut in either ALMOST A HUSBAND or JUBILO (no one knows for sure), both of which starred Will Rogers. It was on the set of the former film that Rogers dubbed Williams with his lifelong moniker. Big Boy quickly became a star in silent Westerns, combining heroism and humor in a screen persona that gained instant popularity. Williams' career began to slide when he started appearing in lower-budget, poverty row films, but he still maintained a lot of loyal fans. He switched to supporting roles shortly before the advent of sound, and played mostly sidekicks or an occasional heavy into the early thirties. His first serial, MYSTERY SQUADRON, made for low-budget Mascot Pictures in 1933, gave him one of his most notable early sidekick parts. Oddly, despite Big Boy's already-legendary status in Westerns, he was cast as a pilot in this exciting modern-day aviation thriller. Williams was Bill "Jellybean" Cook, who teamed with fellow flyer Fred Cromwell (Bob Steele, another Western great) to combat the Mystery Squadron, a flying group of saboteurs attempting to keep the heroine (Lucile Browne) and her father (Lafe McKee) from completing a dam construction project. The gigantic Big Boy and the scrappy but diminutive Steele made an unusual pair, but they both brightened up the serial with expert performances as they tracked down the Mystery Squadron's leader, the mysterious Black Ace.

Above: Big Boy Williams (left) and Bob Steele in a very shadowy publicity still from MYSTERY SQUADRON (Mascot, 1933).

Williams made a brief starring comeback in a series of well-done B-westerns for Beacon Pictures in the mid-thirties. These films, together with Guinn's critically acclaimed turn as a vicious gangster in the big budget film noir THE GLASS KEY (1935) put him enough in the public eye to make Republic Pictures, just beginning their serial producing career, decided to hire him to give a boost to THE VIGILANTES ARE COMING (Republic, 1936), their third serial. Williams teamed with an equally talented sidekick, Raymond Hatton, to provide comic relief and solid backup for Bob Livingston in this offbeat but entertaining Western adventure. Livingston, a Californian landowner, was forced to assume the identity of the masked avenger "The Eagle" to avenge the deaths of his father and brother and keep the turncoat American General Burr (Fred Kohler Sr.) from selling California to the Russians. Williams and Hatton were Salvation and Whipsaw, American mountain men who became friendly with Livingston's character while he was scouting for Captain Fremont (Ray Corrigan) and subsequently aided the hero in his struggle against the despot Burr and his Russian cohorts.

Above: Guinn "Big Boy" Williams watches as Bob Livingston prepares to crack his whip in this scene from THE VIGILANTES ARE COMING (Republic, 1936).

Big Boy's proficiency as a sidekick was so evident that it was easy for him to land some sizable saddlepal roles in A-films, including DODGE CITY with Errol Flynn, in which Guinn and Alan Hale provided rollicking comedy relief and participated in one of the wildest screen saloon brawls of all time. Yet Williams wasn't too snobby or selfish to return to the cliffhanger world, and he gave serial fans a great last performance as Borax Bill in RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1941). Along with stars Dick Foran and Buck Jones, fellow sidekicks Noah Beery Jr. and Leo Carrillo, and all-purpose stalwart Glenn Strange, Big Boy was one of the Riders, a group of hard-riding, fast-shooting heroes who protected the gold mine of Mary Morgan (Jeanne Brooks) from outlaw Wolf Reade (Charles Bickford, one of the greatest actors ever to do a serial). With that cast, and with a clever script, RIDERS was one of Universal's serial masterpieces. It also offered a terrific performance from Big Boy, who provided constant laughs by his witty bickering with his pal Leo Carrillo and got in on a lot of the wild action with obvious enjoyment.

Above: A great publicity photo for a great serial: Buck Jones, Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo (top row), Noah Beery Jr., and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, as the RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1941). Glenn Strange, the sixth Rider, is not pictured.

Guinn went on to do many more notable character parts throughout the forties, co-starring with Roy Rogers in a couple of his B-westerns in the mid-fifties, appearing with the soon-to-be-star Robert Mitchum in the B-plus Western NEVADA, and playing (very well, too) a heavy role in the hard-boiled STATION WEST with Dick Powell. He played Randolph Scott's sidekick in MAN IN THE SADDLE (and engaged in some snappy banter with Alfonso Bedoya reminiscent of his sparring with Leo Carrillo in RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY) in the early fifties, and worked with Scott again (this time as a bad guy) in HANGMAN'S KNOT. He appeared on most of the big Western TV shows, and had a regular role (as "Buffalo") on Walt Disney's NINE LIVES OF ELFEGO BACA TV series in the late fifties. He was also a regular on the show CIRCUS BOY in the mid-fifties; the show starred a young Mickey Dolenz and featured Williams' fellow serial actors Robert Lowery and Noah Beery Jr. in costarring roles. Big Boy's last two screen roles were with John Wayne, in the epic THE ALAMO and in THE COMANCHEROS, both in the early sixties. In ALAMO, while playing the part of Lieutenant Finn, Williams suffered an accidental fall from his horse during filming, and it proved so effective that it was left in the picture. Big Boy, though by now in his sixties, received no ill effects from the incident. Finally, in COMANCHEROS he was a gunrunner who “repented” after being captured by the Texas Rangers, put only after, as Ranger commander Bruce Cabot put it, “breaking one Ranger’s jaw and slicing up two others with a Bowie knife.” Interviewed by Wayne and Cabot, Big Boy tried his best to convince them of his sincere repentance and gave them all the information they needed, but they didn’t quite buy his sudden reformation. Williams was only on stage for a single scene, but it was an extremely funny bit and a fine capper to his career. A year later, he passed away in Burbank, California, from uremic poisoning, a sad and far too early end for the big--and big-hearted--Texan.

One of the most extroverted and at the same time one of the most subtle of cliffhanger comedians, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams combined humorous flair with athleticism in a manner perfectly suited to the serial mode. He never held the action back, but assisted it with all his considerable energy, while further livening up the proceedings with his homely wit. Williams proved himself one of the movies' greatest character actors both prior to and after his serial career, and the cliffhanger world would be all the poorer if Big Boy hadn't stepped into it on three very memorable occasions.