Trivia

Prior to being a Navy frogman doing underwater demolition in the Pacific during WW II his hair was dark blonde. The stress of the danger turned it permanently white.

Suffered a stroke on 14 February 1970.

Pushed into acting by his mother, Hopper began in summer stock and on the New York stage. He was signed as a small-part contract player at Paramount, 1935-37. Subsequently received leads at Warner Brothers in second features. Career faltered due to his lack of ambition and ambiguity towards the acting profession in general, and he returned again to bit parts. Stressful wartime military service in the Navy led to a drinking problem. After being demobilized, worked for nine years as a car salesman. Resumed acting in 1954, eventually finding his niche as investigator Paul Drake, right hand man to Raymond Burr's 'Perry Mason', the role for which he is chiefly remembered.

Son of the actress-turned-gossip-columnist Hedda Hopper and DeWolf Hopper Sr.

Had a continuously difficult relationship with his famous mother, Hedda.

If you include the short Breakdowns of 1937 (1937), William Hopper was surprisingly in nine films with Humphrey Bogart albeit in bit and/or uncredited parts. The eight features are Invisible Stripes (1939), The Return of Doctor X (1939), Brother Orchid (1940), Virginia City (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941), All Through the Night (1942), Across the Pacific (1942), and Action in the North Atlantic (1943),.

William Hopper died only 4 years after the death of his mother, Hedda Hopper.

Brother-in-law of actress Margaret Lindsay.