Norma Hopkins Biography
Norma Hopkins is an American celebrity family member widely known for being the first wife of the late actor, Bo Hopkins, an American actor perhaps best known for playing important supporting roles in a number of major studio films between 1969 and 1979, and appeared in many other television shows and TV movies.
Is Norma Hopkins still alive? Age
Norma should be over 85 years of age as of 2022-if she is alive. Details about her date of birth, exact place of birth and zodiac sign are not yet known to the public.
Norma Hopkins Family
Hopkins was born to both parents (mother and father) in a large-sized family setting in the US. Details about her mother and father’s name and what they did for a living are currently unavailable, however, she was raised alongside her siblings. Nevertheless, as soon as credible information about her father, mother, brothers and sisters is available, we shall update all Norma’s family members immediately.
Norma Hopkins Husband
The late Hopkins began dating Norma, whom he married at about age 18, and they had a daughter named Jane.
Bo Hopkins
William Mauldin “Bo” Hopkins was an American actor who lived from February 2, 1938 to May 28, 2022. He was perhaps best known for his supporting roles in a number of major studio films between 1969 and 1979, as well as his appearances in numerous television shows and TV movies.
Over the course of his 40-year career, Hopkins appeared in over 100 films and television shows, including the major studio films The Wild Bunch (1969), The Bridge at Remagen (1969), The Getaway (1972), American Graffiti (1973), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), The Killer Elite (1975), Posse (1975), A Small Town in Texas (1976), Midnight Express (1978), and More American Graffiti (1979).
After Hopkins’ first roles in major films in the early 1970s he appeared in White Lightning (1973). Hopkins played Roy Boone. Jerry Reed and Hopkins played brothers Joe Hawkins and Tom Hawkins in the 1985 film What Comes Around.
Hopkins starred or co-starred in a number of made-for-television movies of the mid-1970s, including Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley (1975), The Runaway Barge (1975), The Kansas City Massacre (1975), The Invasion of Johnson County (1976), Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976), Woman on the Run (1977), Thaddeus Rose and Eddie (1978), Crisis in Sun Valley (1978), and The Busters (1978).
When Gretchen Corbett left the television series The Rockford Files in 1978, Hopkins took over as Rockford’s attorney John Cooper and appeared in three episodes. In 1981, Hopkins played Matthew Blaisdel in the first season of the prime time drama Dynasty.
His many other appearances on television included in miniseries Aspen (1977) and Beggarman, Thief (1979), and in episodes of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, Nichols, The Rat Patrol (replacing Justin Tarr as the jeep driver for three episodes), The Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, The Rookies, Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, The A-Team, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Fall Guy, Crazy Like a Fox, Murder, She Wrote, and Doc Elliot. Hopkins portrayed a role in the video game Nuclear Strike. He plays Colonel LeMonde, a mercenary who steals a nuclear weapon. The ‘Strike’ team tracks him through Southeast Asia.
Personal Life
William Hopkins was born in the South Carolina town of Greenville. He was adopted at the age of nine months by a couple who were unable to conceive.
He was known as “Billy” as a child. In Taylors, South Carolina, his adoptive father worked in a mill. His father died of a heart attack on the family’s front porch when he was 39 years old.
Billy and his mother were present when he died. Unable to stay in their home, the two of them relocated a month later to nearby Ware Shoals, where his grandfather and uncles worked in another mill. His mother eventually remarried a man with the surname Davis.
Hopkins did not get along with his new stepfather; the two had numerous squabbles, some of which were serious. He was sent to live with his grandparents after running away from home several times, and it was there that he discovered he had been adopted because his adoptive mother was unable to bear children. At the age of 12, he met his birth mother, who lived in Lockhart, South Carolina, with his half-sisters and half-brother.
Billy had a difficult childhood, with numerous instances of truancy, minor crimes, and a stay in a reform school. He dropped out of high school shortly before his 17th birthday and joined the US Army, where he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.
He was stationed at Fort Jackson, Fort Gordon, and Fort Pope before being sent to Korea for nine months. Following his military service, William “Billy” Hopkins began dating Norma, whom he married around the age of 18, and they had a daughter named Jane.
Hopkins became interested in acting, but his wife disapproved, and she soon left him, taking their daughter with her. He received a scholarship to study acting and stage production at the Pioneer Playhouse in Kentucky after appearing in a few local plays. While there, he started dating a girl who had once been Miss Mississippi.
He traveled from Kentucky to New York City to perform in more stage plays. He moved to Hollywood with his cousin’s boyfriend, who wanted to be a stuntman, after leaving New York. He made a living parking cars in Hollywood while studying at the Actors Studio, where one of his classmates was future Oscar winner Martin Landau.
In a 2012 magazine interview, he explained how he got the name “Bo”:
William Hopkins is my real name. Billy when I was growing up. When I went to New York, “Bus Stop” was my first off-Broadway play, and the character that I played was named “Bo.” The producers wanted me to change my name, and since I wanted to keep my last name, we agreed to change the first. That’s how it became “Bo.”
