William Holden

William Holden (1918-1981) was an American actor who had a prolific career from the 1950s till the 1970s. Some of his most famous films include “Sunset Boulevard”, “Sabrina”, and “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. William is perhaps the most successful of all Old French names of Germanic origin that were introduced to England by the Normans. The fact that it was borne by the Conqueror himself does not seem to have inhibited its favour with the ‘conquered’ population; in the first century after the Conquest it was the commonest male name of all, and not only among the Normans.