William S. Hart

William S. Hart. Two Gun Bill. , William S. Hart was born in Newburgh, New York on December 6, 1864. His childhood was spent traveling with his father, a miller by trade, looking for sites to build flour mills. Their travels took them west to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakota Territory. The boy grew up among cowmen, ranch hands, and the Sioux tribes, from whom he learned to speak Sioux. These experiences gave him a great appreciation of the West and enabled him during his movie making years to accurately portray the West and the men who inhabited it. , , Bill enjoyed performing on stage, and in his twenties followed his father's suggestion to go to Europe and study acting. In 1891, he began a stage career which ultimately led him to Broadway acting in roles opposite Madame Modjeska, Ada Rhea and Julia Arthur. In 1914, at the age of fifty, Bill began his motion picture career. In movies, he successfully created the western hero icon, the strong-silent-good-badman. Many future cowboy characters (such as Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Gary Cooper in High Noon) were modeled after this icon. , , Bill's eleven-year film career, with over 6o movies made, ended in 1925, with his last picture Tumbleweeds. He retired and moved to the Horseshoe Ranch, which he had purchased in 1921. His dream home, La Loma de los Vientos, which he began building after his retirement, was completed in 1927. Mr. Hart lived here, among his beloved animals and beautiful works of Western art, until his death on June 23, 1946. , , In his will, Bill gave his home and all of Horseshoe Ranch to the people of Los Angeles County. It was his way of thanking the people who had given their nickels and dimes to see his movies even during the tough times of World War I. Today, the William S. Hart Park and Museum is jointly operated by the County Department of Parks and Recreation and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. We hope that you enjoy them as Bill had wished.