FINE SUPPORT!!!

Bond

11/5/1960 - Growing up in Southern California watching classic movies on the Million Dollar Movie and Shock Theater (the Universal classic monster movies), it didn't take long to identify certain faces and names as being a promise that I wouldn't be watching a turkey ... both with the stars and the supporting cast.  And one of the faces and names that kept coming up became a favorite ... Mr. Wardell Edwin "Ward" Bond from Benkleman, Nebraska ... and it nothing to do with him being a starting lineman on USC's very first National Championship football team in 1928 ... it had to do with Bond appearing in more films on the AFI's original and 10th anniversary list of the best 100 films in the first 100 years of the movie industry than any other actor (Seven ... 1934's It Happened One Night, 1938's Bringing Up Baby, 1939's Gone With The Wind, 1940's The Grapes Of Wrath, 1941's The Maltese Falcon, 1946's It's A Wonderful Life, and 1956's The Searchers), and in more movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar than any other actor (THIRTEEN!).  And it all started when the entire USC football team (including Marion Robert Morrison, a young lad that will soon become John Wayne ... later, the pair will appear in 23 movies together) is hired to appear in a 1929 football movie called Salute directed by John Ford.

1928 USC Football Program

Movie Poster

With Wayne In Conflict (And Actress Jean Rogers - 1936

 

Sadly, a career of being in over 200 films dies on this day in 1960 when Bond suffers a massive heart attack and passes away at the age of 57 in Dallas, Texas (he is in town to take in the annual SMU versus Texas Tech football game at the Cotton Bowl which ended in a scoreless tie).  Here are some of the movies Bond appeared in that are still around to delight generations of movie goers:

*The Big Trail ... with John Wayne

*It Happened One Night ... with Clark Gable

*G-Men ... with James Cagney

*The Last Days of Pompeii ... with Preston Foster

*After the Thin Man ... with William Powell and Myrna Loy

*Topper ... with Cary Grant

*The Adventures of Marco Polo ... with Gary Cooper

*Bringing Up Baby ... with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn

*The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse ... with Edward G. Robinson

*Mr. Moto's Gamble ... with Peter Lorre

*You Can't Take It With You ... with Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart

*Union Pacific ... with Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea

*The Oklahoma Kid ... with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart

As Wes Handley in The Oklahoma Kid

*Dodge City ... with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland

*The Return of the Cisco Kid ... with Warner Baxter

*Confessions of a Nazi Spy ... with Edward G. Robinson

*Young Mr. Lincoln ... with Henry Fonda

*Drums Along the Mohawk ... with Henry Fonda

*Gone with the Wind ... with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh

As the Yankee Captain Tom in Gone with the Wind

*The Son of Frankenstein ... with Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff

*The Grapes of Wrath ... with Henry Fonda

*Santa Fe Trail ... with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland

*Virginia City ... with Errol Flynn and Randolph Scott

*Sergeant York ... with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan

*The Maltese Falcon ... with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre

*Gentleman Jim ... with Errol Flynn

*A Guy Named Joe ... with Spencer Tracy

*They Were Expendable ... with Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed

*My Darling Clementine ... with Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, and Walter Brennan

As Morgan Earp in My Darling Clementine

*It's a Wonderful Life ... with James Stewart and Donna Reed

*Unconquered ... with Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard

*Fort Apache ... with Henry Fonda, John Wayne, and Shirley Temple

*Joan of Arc ... with Ingrid Bergman 

*3 Godfathers ... with John Wayne

*Wagon Master ... with Ben Johnson

*Operation Pacific ... with John Wayne

*The Quiet Man ... with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara

As Father Peter Lonergan in The Quiet Man

*Hondo ... with John Wayne

*Johnny Guitar ... with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden

*The Long Grey Line ... with Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara

*Mister Roberts ... with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon

*Pillars of the Sky ... with Jeff Chandler and Dorothy Malone

*The Searchers ... with John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, and Natalie Wood

As Reverend Captain Clayton in The Searchers

*Rio Bravo ... with John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Angie Dickinson, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson

Rest in peace Big Guy!

Bond In Mister Roberts