William Conrad

Acting

William Conrad

Born 1920-09-27 · Louisville, Kentucky, USA

William Conrad (September 27, 1920 - February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director. He was born William Cann in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a theatre-owner who moved to southern California, where he excelled at drama and literature while at school. Starting work in radio in the late 1930s in California, Conrad went on to serve as a fighter pilot in World War II. He entered the army in 1942, and was commissioned at Luke Field, Arizona in 1943 (now Luke Air Force Base). On the day of his commission he married June Nelson. He returned to the airwaves after the war, going on to accumulate over 7,000 roles in radio by his own estimate. Among Conrad's various film roles, where he was usually cast as threatening figures, perhaps his most notable role was his first credited one, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate Burt Lancaster in the 1946 film The Killers. He also appeared in Body and Soul (1947), Sorry, Wrong Number, Joan of Arc (both 1948), and The Naked Jungle (1954). As a producer for Warner Brothers, he made a string of feature films, including An American Dream (1966, retitled See You in Hell, Darling for British release), A Covenant With Death (1966), First to Fight (1967) and The Cool Ones (1967), and also directed My Blood Runs Cold, Brainstorm and Two on a Guillotine (all 1965).

Acting credits

The Box poster
5.6

Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.

The Box

2009

Hudson Hawk poster
5.7

Eddie Hawkins, called Hudson Hawk has just been released from ten years of prison and is planning to spend the rest of his life honestly. But then the crazy Mayflower couple blackmail him to steal some of the works of Leonardo da Vinci. If he refuses, they threaten to kill his friend Tommy.

Hudson Hawk

1991

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid poster
6.6

Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

1982

Killing Cars poster
3.7

In a complex story of automotive intrigue, oil barons, corporate finance, and international villainy, the inventor of an environmentally friendly car powered by energy cells becomes the target of killers. After Ralph Korda has given his patented worldcar to a German automaker for testing, he is confronted by ominous men, eager to get their hands on his patent. Evil Arab petroleum lords also want to stop this threat to the gasoline market any way they can.

Killing Cars

1986

Battle of the Bulge poster
6.9

In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent it, Hitler orders an all-out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp.

Battle of the Bulge

1965

Battle of the Bulge poster
6.9

In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent it, Hitler orders an all-out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp.

Battle of the Bulge

1965

Chisum poster
6.7

Cattle baron John Chisum joins forces with Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett to fight the Lincoln County Land War in the New Mexico Territory of 1878.

Chisum

1970

The Killers poster
7.4

Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.

The Killers

1946

Lone Star poster
5.7

Cattle baron Devereaux Burke is enlisted by an aging Andrew Jackson to dissuade Sam Houston from establishing Texas as a republic. Burke must fight state senator Thomas Craden, in the process winning the heart of Craden's newspaper-editor girlfriend Martha Ronda.

Lone Star

1952

The Milkman poster
7.0

A dairy owner's son takes a job as milkman with a rival company.

The Milkman

1950

The Return of Frank Cannon poster
6.5

Private detective Frank Cannon comes out of retirement to investigate an old friend and Army Intelligence colleague's death, which has been ruled a suicide, but which smells like murder.

The Return of Frank Cannon

1980

Sorry, Wrong Number poster
6.8

Leona Stevenson is confined to bed and uses her telephone to keep in contact with the outside world. One day she overhears a murder plot on the telephone and is desperate to find out who is the intended victim.

Sorry, Wrong Number

1948

Joan of Arc poster
6.2

In the 15th Century, France is a defeated and ruined nation after the One Hundred Years War against England. The fourteen-year-old farm girl Joan of Arc claims to hear voices from Heaven asking her to lead God's Army against Orleans and crowning the weak Dauphin Charles VII as King of France. Joan gathers the people with her faith, forms an army, and conquers Orleans.

Joan of Arc

1948

The Naked Jungle poster
6.6

The Leiningen South American cocoa plantation is threatened by a 2-mile-wide, 20-mile-long column of army ants.

The Naked Jungle

1954

Moonshine County Express poster
4.9

The three surviving daughters of a murdered moonshiner band together with a racecar driver to run high-test shine behind the corpulent backs of the local crime syndicate.

Moonshine County Express

1977

The Return of the King poster
6.4

Two Hobbits struggle to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom while their friends desperately fight evil Lord Sauron's forces in a final battle.

The Return of the King

1980

Tension poster
6.8

Warren Quimby manages a drugstore while trying to keep his volatile wife, Claire, happy. However, when Claire leaves him for a liquor store salesman, Warren can no longer bear it. He decides to assume a new identity in order to murder his wife's lover without leaving a trace. Along the way, his plans are complicated by an attractive neighbor, as well as a shocking discovery that opens up a new world of doubts and accusations.

Tension

1949

The Conqueror poster
3.6

Mongol chief Temujin battles against Tartar armies and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai. Temujin becomes the emperor Genghis Khan.

The Conqueror

1956

Countdown poster
5.8

Desperate to land a man on the moon before Russia does, NASA hastily preps a would-be spaceman for a mission that would leave him alone in a lunar shelter for a year.

Countdown

1967

Body and Soul poster
6.7

Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.

Body and Soul

1947

Shock-Trauma poster
10.0

Dr. R. Adams Cowley, the Baltimore physician who pioneered medicine's first shocktrauma unit, fights hospital bureaucracy to gain recognition for his center.

Shock-Trauma

1982

The Racket poster
6.3

The big national crime syndicate has moved into town, partnering up with local crime boss Nick Scanlon. McQuigg, the only honest police captain on the force, and his loyal patrolman, Johnson, take on the violent Nick.

The Racket

1951

The Desert Song poster
6.8

Shiek Yousseff, poses as a friend of the French while secretly plotting to overthrow them. Apposing Yousseff are the Riffs, whose secret leader, The Red Shadow, is Paul Bonnard, a professor who is studying the desert, and whose attacks on the supply trains intended for Yousseff keep the Riff villages in food. Foreign Legion General Birabeau arrives to conduct an investigation, accompanied by his daughter, Margot. Birabeau hires Bonnard to tutor her, and she is attracted to a Legionaire captain, Claud Fontaine. While the general, Bonnard and Fontaine pay a visit to Yousseff, an American newspaper man, Benji Kidd, discovers a secret way in and out of Yousseff's palace, with the aid of Azuri, a dancing girl in love with Bonnard. The latter is forced to resume his role as the Riffs leader, and kidnap Margot until he can convince her of Yousseff's treachery. But Yousseff's men attack the Riff camp and take Margot prisoner.

The Desert Song

1953

Arch of Triumph poster
6.0

In the winter of 1938, Paris is crowded with refugees from the Nazis, who live in the black shadows of night, trying to evade deportation. One such is Dr. Ravic, who practices medicine illegally and stalks his old Nazi enemy Haake with murder in mind. One rainy night, Ravic meets Joan Madou, a kept woman cast adrift by her lover's sudden death. Against Ravic's better judgment, they become involved in a doomed affair.

Arch of Triumph

1948

Behind the camera

The Ride Back poster
6.4

A troubled sheriff, a failure at everything in his life, tries to redeem himself by extraditing a popular gunfighter from Mexico to stand trial for murder.

The Ride Back

1957

An American Dream poster
5.0

Stephen Rojack is a decorated war vet who has now found success as an outspoken television personality. During a vicious argument with his wife, Deborah, Stephen snaps and pushes her from his high-rise apartment to her death. He manages to convince the authorities that she killed herself, then reignites an old affair with singer Cherry McMahon -- which doesn't sit well with her jealous mobster boyfriend, Nicky.

An American Dream

1966

Two on a Guillotine poster
6.1

The daughter of a dead magician who accidentally killed his wife, her mother, while performing a guillotine trick must spend the night in his house in order to collect her inheritance. Is the house haunted or is it all magic?

Two on a Guillotine

1965

Two on a Guillotine poster
6.1

The daughter of a dead magician who accidentally killed his wife, her mother, while performing a guillotine trick must spend the night in his house in order to collect her inheritance. Is the house haunted or is it all magic?

Two on a Guillotine

1965

The Man from Galveston poster
5.6

Circuit-riding Texas lawyer Timothy Higgins defends a former girlfriend against a murder charge stemming from an extortionist's threat to reveal her shady past. Through adroit courtroom work, Higgins is able to acquit her and reveal who actually shot the fatal bullet.

The Man from Galveston

1963

Brainstorm poster
6.1

Scientist Jim Grayam saves his boss' wife from suicide but then falls in love with her.

Brainstorm

1965

Brainstorm poster
6.1

Scientist Jim Grayam saves his boss' wife from suicide but then falls in love with her.

Brainstorm

1965

Chubasco poster
4.5

A wild beach boy takes a job on a tuna fishing boat.

Chubasco

1968

Side Show poster
8.5

A teenage boy who runs off to join the circus as a side show puppeteer stumbles onto the dark secrets of the fellow performers.

Side Show

1981

My Blood Runs Cold poster
5.2

Wealthy, reckless Californian Julie Merriday, accompanied by her boyfriend Harry Lindsay, an attorney, narrowly avoids crashing into a motorcycle driven by young Ben Gunther. Ben temporarily abandons his damaged cycle and accepts a ride from Julie but insists upon calling her Barbara. Later, at the Merriday beach house, Julie's Aunt Sarah tells Julie that her great great grandmother was named Barbara, and furthermore, that ancestress had an illegitimate child fathered by one Benjamin Gunther.

My Blood Runs Cold

1965

My Blood Runs Cold poster
5.2

Wealthy, reckless Californian Julie Merriday, accompanied by her boyfriend Harry Lindsay, an attorney, narrowly avoids crashing into a motorcycle driven by young Ben Gunther. Ben temporarily abandons his damaged cycle and accepts a ride from Julie but insists upon calling her Barbara. Later, at the Merriday beach house, Julie's Aunt Sarah tells Julie that her great great grandmother was named Barbara, and furthermore, that ancestress had an illegitimate child fathered by one Benjamin Gunther.

My Blood Runs Cold

1965