Bo Hopkins

Biography

Sandy-haired US actor Bo Hopkins was born William Hopkins in Greenville, South Carolina, and was raised by his mother and grandmother after his father passed on when Bo was only nine years old. He joined the US Army at the age of 16. After serving his hitch he decided on acting as a career and gained experience in summer stock productions and guest spots in several TV episodes. The energetic Bo broke into feature films as the ill-fated "Crazy Lee" in the Sam Peckinpah landmark western The Wild Bunch (1969), and was subsequently hired by Peckinpah for another none-too-bright role as a bank robber in The Getaway (1972) and then as a hired killer pairing up with CIA agent James Caan in The Killer Elite (1975). Hopkins was very busy during the 1980s and 1990s, guest-starring in such TV shows as The Rockford Files (1974), Charlie's Angels (1976), The A-Team (1983), Hotel (1983) and Matt Houston (1982), and was a regular on the prime-time soap opera Dynasty (1981). In addition, he has starred in dozens of feature films, such as Midnight Express (1978), American Graffiti (1973), The Bounty Hunter (1990), U Turn - Ici commence l'enfer (1997) and Shade (2003). With his "good old boy" persona and Southern drawl, Hopkins is generally at his best playing either lawmen (he's played a sheriff on at least a dozen occasions!), psychos or oily villains. It would be fair to say that Bo Hopkins has developed a cult following among many film fans. He makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife Sian and son, Matthew and is a keen fisherman, fan of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, and enjoys raising Koi fish.