William Hopper

Biography: William was born De Wolf Hopper, Jr., his billing in early roles. The son of actor De Wolf Hopper and actress-columnist Hedda Hopper, he was onscreen at age one in his father's film Sunshine Dad (1917). In the late '30s he costarred in many B-movies, then dropped out of films for a decade, during which he was an auto salesman. He returned as a character actor in the early '50s. He was best known as stalwart, imperturbable detective Paul Drake in the '50s TV series Perry Mason.