---
name: "Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/guinn-big-boy-williams"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "25 April 1899"
died: "6 June 1962"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 68
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-19T23:35:14.444280+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams

Actor. Born 25 April 1899 in Decatur, Texas, USA. Died 6 June 1962.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 25 April 1899, Decatur, Texas, USA
- **Died:** 6 June 1962
- **Active:** 1934–1937
- **Also known as:** Guinn Terrell Williams Jr., Big Boy Williams, Gwinn Williams, Gwynn Williams, Tex Williams
- **Frequently works with:** [Pat O'Brien](https://film.one/person/pat-obrien.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 68, as actor, over 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 2, Romance 2, Music 1, War 1
- **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $2m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinn_%22Big_Boy%22_Williams, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3120634, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0930711/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/95276

## Streaming the US now

- **Pluto TV:** [*A Star Is Born*](https://film.one/film/a-star-is-born-1937.md) (78)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams

> For four decades Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams was the large, amiable man standing just behind the star, usually in a western, often with Alan Hale on the other side of him. Our two encounters with him are small ones, and the better of them earned a laugh.

In *Here Comes the Navy* (1934) he runs a dance hall, and James Cagney walks into it looking for trouble. Williams's job, for a minute or two, is to keep the peace between two men who have plainly come for a fight, and he goes about it with the patience of a man who has broken up this fight before. We laughed out loud, because the fight arrives exactly on schedule and he never for a moment believed it would not. It is a bit part. It is also the whole of what he did, in miniature: the big, reasonable fellow whom nobody listens to.

He came to films in 1919, after the army and a spell playing baseball, and it was Will Rogers who got him through the door; the two of them made fifteen pictures together. He was a lead in silent westerns through the 1920s, though by his own account he began lower down. "I found out that in the old-fashioned, cheap Westerns they had a good-looking guy for the lead, and had somebody who could ride to double for him. I got to be the double." Sound did not trouble him. He led B-westerns for a while, then settled from the early 1930s into supporting work, much of it at Warner Bros.

That is where the parts people remember come from. He is Tex Baird in *Dodge City* (1939) and Windy Brody in *Santa Fe Trail* (1940), both times beside Errol Flynn and Alan Hale, a trio the studio liked enough to reassemble: four films with Flynn, five with Hale. The type hardly varied. He was the good-hearted sidekick who was either slow on the uptake or quick to anger, with a squint that suggested the plot had got ahead of him. The one complaint anyone has ever made of him is that he was rarely asked to be anything else, in *Nevada* (1944) or anywhere. The occasional detour, a posture coach in *A Star Is Born* (1937), only shows how firmly he was fixed in the saddle.

Our own record is thinner. In *Flirtation Walk* (1934), which we scored 57, he is Sleepy, one of the dopes and heavies filling out the barracks while Ross Alexander takes the good lines, and we barely noticed him; nor, on the evidence, did Frank Borzage. The dance hall is the better showing, and it lasts about as long as it takes to read this.

He kept working to the end, as Lieutenant Finn in *The Alamo* (1960) and, uncredited, as a gunrunner in *The Comancheros* (1961), his last film, both with his friend John Wayne. If you want to see what he was for, our two reviews will not tell you. Go to *Dodge City*, where he has a name, a few lines of his own and Flynn to stand beside.

## Biography

Guinn Terrell Williams Jr., known professionally as Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, was an American actor born in Decatur, Texas. He appeared in films from 1919 to 1961, often in Westerns and supporting roles.

Williams made his screen debut in the 1919 comedy *Almost a Husband*. He played Sleepy in *Flirtation Walk* (1934) and the Dance-Floor Manager in *Here Comes the Navy* (1934). He appeared in *Dodge City* (1939), *Santa Fe Trail* (1940), *You Only Live Once* (1937), *A Star Is Born* (1937), *The Alamo* (1960) and *The Comancheros* (1961). He was frequently cast as a sidekick, including alongside Alan Hale in several Errol Flynn films.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (3)

- *A Star Is Born* (1937), Fi1m 78, as Posture Coach — [page](https://film.one/film/a-star-is-born-1937.md)
- *Flirtation Walk* (1934), Fi1m 57, as Sleepy — [page](https://film.one/film/flirtation-walk.md)
- *Here Comes the Navy* (1934), Fi1m 70, as Dance-Floor Manager — [page](https://film.one/film/here-comes-the-navy.md)

## Complete filmography (220)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Buttons and Her Beaus* (1962), Actor
- *The Comancheros* (1961), as Ed McBain - Gunrunner (uncredited)
- *The Alamo* (1960), as Lt. 'Irish' Finn
- *Five Bold Women* (1960), as 'Big Foot' - the wagon driver
- *Home from the Hill* (1960), as Hugh Macauley (uncredited)
- *U.S. Marshall* (1958), series, as Jones
- *The Restless Gun* (1957), series, as Jeff Bonsell
- *The Hired Gun* (1957), as Elby Kirby
- *Wagon Train* (1957), series, as Calvin Bryngelson
- *Sugarfoot* (1957), series, as Moose McKlintock
- *Tales of Wells Fargo* (1957), series, as Mike Forbes
- *Man from Del Rio* (1956), as Fred Jasper
- *Circus Boy* (1956), series, Actor
- *Hidden Guns* (1956), as Kingford
- *Fremont: The Trailblazer* (1956), as Cassidy
- *My Friend Flicka* (1955), series, as Jeb Taylor
- *Cheyenne* (1955), series, as Prairie Dog
- *Gunsmoke* (1955), series, as Groat
- *The Outlaw's Daughter* (1954), as Moose, Deputy
- *The Wonderful World of Disney* (1954), series, as Buffalo
- *The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin* (1954), series, as Sgt. Muldoon
- *Massacre Canyon* (1954), as Pvt. Archibald Allen
- *Southwest Passage* (1954), as Tall Tale
- *The Life Of Riley* (1953), series, as Finnegan
- *Hangman's Knot* (1952), as Smitty
- *Springfield Rifle* (1952), as Sgt. Snow
- *Man in the Saddle* (1951), as Bourke Prine
- *The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok* (1951), series, as Tulsa Jack
- *Al Jennings of Oklahoma* (1951), as Lon Tuttle
- *Rocky Mountain* (1950), as Pap Dennison (CSA)
- *Hoedown* (1950), as Small Potatoes
- *Brimstone* (1949), as Art Benson
- *Bad Men of Tombstone* (1949), as Red Fisk
- *Smoky Mountain Melody* (1948), as Saddle Grease Williams
- *Station West* (1948), as Mick Marion
- *Road to the Big House* (1947), as Butch McQuinn
- *Smoky River Serenade* (1947), as Wagon Wheel (as Big Boy Williams)
- *King of the Wild Horses* (1947), as Jed Acker (as Big Boy Williams)
- *Over the Santa Fe Trail* (1947), as Big Boy Jackson
- *Singin' in the Corn* (1946), as Hank
- *Singing on the Trail* (1946), as Big Boy Webster
- *Cowboy Blues* (1946), as Big Boy Stover
- *That Texas Jamboree* (1946), as Big Boy Frazer
- *Throw a Saddle on a Star* (1946), as Big Boy
- *Song of the Prairie* (1945), as Big Boy Jackson
- *Rhythm Round-Up* (1945), as Zeke Winslow
- *The Man Who Walked Alone* (1945), as Champ
- *Sing Me a Song of Texas* (1945), as Big Boy
- *Belle of the Yukon* (1944), as Sheriff Mervin Maitland
- *Nevada* (1944), as Dusty
- *Swing in the Saddle* (1944), as 'Tiny' Baldwin
- *Cowboy and the Senorita* (1944), as 'Teddy' Bear
- *Cowboy Canteen* (1944), as Spud Harrigan
- *Hands Across the Border* (1944), as Teddy Bear
- *Minesweeper* (1943), as CPO Ichabod Ferdinand 'Fixit' Smith
- *The Desperadoes* (1943), as Nitro Rankin
- *Stars on Horseback* (1943), Actor
- *American Empire* (1942), as Sailaway
- *Silver Queen* (1942), as Blackie
- *Between Us Girls* (1942), as Father of the Boys
- *Lure of the Islands* (1942), as Jinx
- *Mr. Wise Guy* (1942), as Luke Manning
- *The Bugle Sounds* (1942), as Sgt. Krims
- *Mr. Bug Goes to Town* (1941), as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- *Swamp Water* (1941), as Bud Dorson
- *You'll Never Get Rich* (1941), as Kewpie Blain
- *Riders of Death Valley* (1941), as Borax Bill
- *Billy the Kid* (1941), as Ed Bronson (blacksmith)
- *Country Fair* (1941), as Gunther Potts
- *Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga* (1941), as Alvin
- *Santa Fe Trail* (1940), as Windy Brody
- *Dulcy* (1940), as Henry
- *Pleased to Mitt You* (1940), as Chuck Brenner
- *Money and the Woman* (1940), as Mr. Adle
- *Wagons Westward* (1940), as Jake Hardman
- *Alias the Deacon* (1940), as Bull Gumbatz
- *Virginia City* (1940), as Marblehead
- *Castle on the Hudson* (1940), as Mike Cagle
- *The Fighting 69th* (1940), as Paddy Dolan
- *Fugitive at Large* (1939), as Conway (as Guinn Williams)
- *Legion of Lost Flyers* (1939), as Jake Halley
- *Blackmail* (1939), as Moose McCarthy
- *Bad Lands* (1939), as Billy Sweet
- *Mutiny on the Blackhawk* (1939), as Blake - the First Mate
- *6,000 Enemies* (1939), as Maxie
- *Street of Missing Men* (1939), as T-Bone
- *Dodge City* (1939), as Tex Baird
- *Pardon Our Nerve* (1939), as Samson Smith
- *I Demand Payment* (1938), as Happy Crofton
- *Down in 'Arkansaw'* (1938), as Juble Butler
- *Hold That Co-ed* (1938), as Mike Wurgerski
- *Crashing Through Danger* (1938), as Slim
- *Army Girl* (1938), as Ross
- *Professor Beware* (1938), as Motorcycle Cop
- *The Marines Are Here* (1938), as Sgt. Gibbons
- *You and Me* (1938), as Taxi
- *Everybody's Doing It* (1938), as 'Softy' Blane
- *Wise Girl* (1937), as Mike
- *The Bad Man of Brimstone* (1937), as Vulch McCreedy
- *My Dear Miss Aldrich* (1937), as An Attendant
- *Big City* (1937), as Danny Devlin
- *She's No Lady* (1937), as Jeff
- *The Singing Marine* (1937), as Dopey
- *Flying Fists* (1937), as Slug Cassidy
- *Girls Can Play* (1937), as Det. Lt. Ed Flannagan
- *Dangerous Holiday* (1937), as Duke Edwards
- *A Star Is Born* (1937), as Posture Coach — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/a-star-is-born-1937.md)
- *Don't Tell the Wife* (1937), as Lazarus "Cupid" Dougal
- *You Only Live Once* (1937), as Rogers
- *Career Woman* (1936), as Bede Sanders
- *North of Nome* (1936), as Haage
- *End of the Trail* (1936), as Bob Hildreth
- *The Big Game* (1936), as Pete Jenkins
- *Kelly the Second* (1936), as Cecil Joseph Callahan
- *The Vigilantes Are Coming* (1936), as Salvation
- *Grand Jury* (1936), as Joseph Britt
- *The Champ's a Chump* (1936), as Spike
- *Love on a Bet* (1936), as Undetermined Secondary Role (scenes deleted)
- *Muss 'em Up* (1936), as 'Red' Cable
- *The Littlest Rebel* (1935), as Sergeant Dudley
- *Miss Pacific Fleet* (1935), as Nicholas 'Nick', Annie's Boyfriend
- *Gun Play* (1935), as Bill Williams
- *The Law of 45's* (1935), as Tucson Two-Gun Smith
- *Powdersmoke Range* (1935), as Lullaby Joslin
- *Danger Trails* (1935), as Bob Wilson · Story
- *Society Fever* (1935), as Edgar Prouty
- *The Glass Key* (1935), as Jeff
- *Village Tale* (1935), as Ben Roberts
- *Private Worlds* (1935), as Jerry Stone
- *One in a Million* (1935), as Spike McGafferty
- *Big Boy Rides Again* (1935), as Tom Duncan
- *The Silver Streak* (1934), as Higgins
- *Cowboy Holiday* (1934), as Buck Sawyer
- *Flirtation Walk* (1934), as Sleepy — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/flirtation-walk.md)
- *Thunder Over Texas* (1934), as Ted Wright
- *Romance in the Rain* (1934), as Panya Mankiewicz
- *Here Comes the Navy* (1934), as Dance-Floor Manager — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/here-comes-the-navy.md)
- *Half a Sinner* (1934), as 'Bull' Moran
- *Cheaters* (1934), as Detective Sweeney
- *The Undie-World* (1934), as Bugsy McHugh
- *Palooka* (1934), as Slats (uncredited)
- *The Mystery Squadron* (1933), as Bill 'Jellybean' Cook
- *College Coach* (1933), as Matthews
- *Rafter Romance* (1933), as Fritzie
- *Man of the Forest* (1933), as Big Boy
- *Laughing at Life* (1933), as Jones
- *The Phantom Broadcast* (1933), as Sandy Higgins
- *The Devil Is Driving* (1932), as Mac
- *You Said a Mouthful* (1932), as Swimmer Joe Holt (uncredited)
- *Boys Will Be Boys* (1932), as Butch
- *Heritage of the Desert* (1932), as Lefty
- *70,000 Witnesses* (1932), as Connors
- *Drifting Souls* (1932), as Bing
- *Polly of the Circus* (1932), as Eric
- *Ladies of the Jury* (1932), as Steve Bromm (uncredited)
- *Running Hollywood* (1932), as Scratchface Henchman
- *War Mamas* (1931), as Doughboy
- *The Phantom* (1931), as Dick Mallory
- *Catch-As Catch-Can* (1931), as Strangler Sullivan
- *The Great Meadow* (1931), as Rubin Hall
- *The Bachelor Father* (1931), as Dick Berney
- *College Lovers* (1930), as Tiny Courtley
- *Liliom* (1930), as Hollinger
- *The Bad Man* (1930), as Red Giddings
- *The Big Fight* (1930), as Tiger
- *City Girl* (1930), as Reaper
- *The Forward Pass* (1929), as Honey Smith
- *Lucky Star* (1929), as Martin Wrenn
- *From Headquarters* (1929), as Gunnery Sergeant Wilmer
- *My Man* (1928), as Joe Halsey
- *Noah's Ark* (1928), as Al Wilson / Ham
- *Beggars of Life* (1928), as Baker's Cart Driver (uncredited)
- *Vamping Venus* (1928), as Mars
- *Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath* (1928), as Sweeney
- *Burning Daylight* (1928), as English Harry (as Big Boy Williams)
- *The College Widow* (1927), as Don White (as Big Boy Williams)
- *The Down Grade* (1927), as Ed Holden
- *Lightning* (1927), as Cuth Stewart
- *The Woman Who Did Not Care* (1927), as Lars
- *Babe Comes Home* (1927), as Baseball Player (as Big Boy Williams)
- *Snowbound* (1927), as Bull Morgan
- *Arizona Bound* (1927), as Cowboy
- *Backstage* (1927), as Mike Donovan
- *Slide, Kelly, Slide* (1927), as McLean
- *Quarantined Rivals* (1927), as Joe, the plumber
- *The Desert's Toll* (1926), as Henchman
- *Brown of Harvard* (1926), as Hal Walter
- *The Big Stunt* (1925), Actor
- *The Black Cyclone* (1925), as Jim Lawson
- *Courage of Wolfheart* (1925), Actor
- *Riders of the Sand Storm* (1925), as The Cowboy
- *Rose of the Desert* (1925), as Cowboy (as Big Boy Williams)
- *Whistling Jim* (1925), as Whistling Jim
- *Sporting West* (1925), Actor
- *Bad Man from Bodie* (1925), Actor
- *Wolfheart's Revenge* (1925), as Jack Stanley
- *Red Blood and Blue* (1925), as Tom Butler · Story
- *Fangs of Wolfheart* (1925), Actor
- *The Eagle's Claw* (1924), as Dan Carson
- *The Avenger* (1924), as Nat Sherwood
- *Uncensored Movies* (1923), Actor
- *$1,000 Reward* (1923), Actor
- *Riders at Night* (1923), Actor
- *End of the Rope* (1923), Actor
- *Cyclone Jones* (1923), as Cyclone Jones
- *The Freshie* (1922), as Charles Taylor
- *The Ropin' Fool* (1922), as The Foreman
- *Remembrance* (1922), Actor
- *Blaze Away* (1922), as Big Boy
- *The Trail of Hate* (1922), as Silent Kerry
- *The Cowboy King* (1922), as Dud Smiley
- *Rounding Up the Law* (1922), as Larry Connell
- *Across the Border* (1922), as Andy Fowler
- *Western Firebrands* (1921), as Billy Fargo
- *The Vengeance Trail* (1921), as Big Boy Bronson · Story
- *The Jack Rider* (1921), as Frank Stevens · Writer
- *Godless Men* (1920), as Seaman
- *Cupid the Cowpuncher* (1920), as Hairoil Johnson
- *Jubilo* (1919), as Man Shooting Pool with Bert (uncredited)
- *Almost a Husband* (1919), Actor

## Gallery

- ![Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in A Star Is Born - cropped screenshot (1937)](https://film.one/media/person/1227070/gallery-a0b0cef49fc3.jpg) Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in A Star Is Born - cropped screenshot (1937) — film screenshot (Selznick International Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Guinn_%22Big_Boy%22_Williams_in_A_Star_is_Born_%281937%29.jpg/1280px-Guinn_%22Big_Boy%22_Williams_in_A_Star_is_Born_%281937%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Guinn Williams (right) and Christian J. Frank in the film Black Cyclone (1925)](https://film.one/media/person/1227070/gallery-acc8060c6a58.jpg) Guinn Williams (right) and Christian J. Frank in the film Black Cyclone (1925) — Hal Roach Studios / Pathé Exchange, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Guinn_Williams_and_Christian_Frank_in_Black_Cyclone_%281925%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Still from the American comedy film The Freshie (1922) with Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, on page 30 of the June 3, 1922 Exhibitors Herald.](https://film.one/media/person/1227070/gallery-ffdf8a359d49.jpg) Still from the American comedy film The Freshie (1922) with Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, on page 30 of the June 3, 1922 Exhibitors Herald. — Frederick Herbst Productions / Di Lorenzo Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/The_Freshie_%281922%29_-_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams](https://film.one/media/person/1227070/gallery-1a1cbd94ae82.jpg) Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams — unknown (film screenshot), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Santa_Fe_Trail_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams](https://film.one/media/person/1227070/gallery-feb16706255e.jpg) Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams — Image via TMDB
- ![Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams](https://film.one/media/person/1227070/gallery-084969651786.jpg) Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/guinn-big-boy-williams