To Old Corral Homepage

(Courtesy of Ed Tabor) The headline "Big Boy Williams Dies Of Poisoning" is really misleading. Big died from uremic poisoning which relates to renal/kidney failure. MGM star Jean Harlow died from the same condition. Note that the obituary incorrectly identifies COMANCHE (with John Wayne) as Big Boy's last movie role - the correct film title is THE COMANCHEROS (20th Century Fox, 1961).

Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams Filmography Sound films only Westerns and Serials only Starring westerns are in blue, serials are in red Special thanks to Les Adams for providing this filmography

You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral.  The California Death Index has a record on Guinn Williams who was born 4/26/1901 and passed away on 6/6/1962.

Les Adams has Williams identified in about 140 sound films - of these, about 60 are westerns and chapterplays, and the titles are in the above filmography. Les adds some trivia about Williams' filmwork:

• He was in only two westerns with Buck Jones and both were the only two westerns Jones made where he wasn't top-billed - WAGONS WESTWARD and RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY.
• Three of Williams' six starring sound westerns were remade - COWBOY HOLIDAY as LAW AND LEAD (Rex Bell), BIG BOY RIDES AGAIN as SADDLE MOUNTAIN ROUNDUP (Range Busters), and GUN PLAY as BOOTS OF DESTINY (Ken Maynard). Some combination of the Alexanders and/or William L. Nolte had a hand in the remakes. Nolte didn't write many westerns, but he sold the few he did write at least twice each.
• Regarding THE LAW OF THE 45's - the title on the film print was LAW OF 45's, but on everything else - posters, cards, pressbook - it was LAW OF THE 45's. Probably the person who did the film title optics just left the "the" out between OF and 45's, and nobody was going to pay to fix it or, more likely, they didn't even notice.
• 14 of the westerns he made were in some form of color (Technicolor, Eastman, Trucolor, DeLuxe, Natural), and two were in Sepiatone which put him at over 25% of his western work in something other than black-and-white, which is a pretty high percentage based on how many and when they were made - most of the color films were prior to 1960.

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above is a LAW OF THE 45's lobby card from the re-release of that film by Sack Amusement Enterprises, and Big Boy still has that neck lock on Martin Garralaga.  Al Sack was the boss of this Dallas-based company which is probably best remembered for the Herb Jeffries oaters.  The round Sack logo is near the hoss.  And note the double "the the" in the title. (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above, a photo of a lobby card showing Williams with a neck lock on Martin Garralaga.  Was a 'Normandy Picture' and this lobby card image is from the original release.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Williams: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0930711/

The Handbook of Texas Online is a project of the Texas State Historical Association, and the website has a bio on 'Big Boy' Williams and his father, Guinn Terrell Williams:
Guinn (Big Boy) Williams, Jr.: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwi23
Guinn Terrell Williams: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwi22

Find A Grave website has a picture of the grave marker for Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams Jr. at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6080139

Find A Grave website also has a picture of the grave marker for Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams' father, Guinn Terrell Williams (1871-1948) at the Oak Lawn Cemetary, Decatur, Texas.  The senior Williams was a member of the Texas Senate and a US Representative to Congress circa 1920s-early 1930s: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9774

 To Old Corral Homepage