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WilliamS. Hart. known to his public
as "Bill" Hart. was horn in New hurgh,
New York in 1874. His childhoodId hood was
spent in the rural East. His father. :..
miller by trade, moved westto Wisconsin
and Minnesota where the boy grew up
among the Sioux Indians, cowmen and
ranch hands. He learned to speak Sioux
from his Indian playmates, and later he
traveled with his father through Dakota
Territory where he saw the color of the
early \X/est chat many years later was to
allow him authority in his pictures.
With an inclination toward the stage,
he followed his father's suggestion and
went to Europe to study. In 1891, at the
age of 17, he began the stage career
which ultimately led him to roles oppo-
site Madame Modjeska, Ada Rhea and
Julia Arthur. He played in numerous
Shakespearean roles. He created the role
of Messala in "Ben Hur,'' starred as Cash
Hawkins in "The Squaw Man ' and
scarred in "The Virginian." In 1914, at
the age of forty, with an estahlishcd stage
record behind him, his motion picture
career began. Here he created the western i
hero that was to bring him added fame
and make him the prototype of all such
characters subsequently.
His last picture "Tumbleweeds" was
released in 1925 after which he retired.
In 1920 he purchased the "Horseshoe
Ranch" where he lived until his death
June 23, 1946, at the _age of 72.