William Holden was so grateful to Barbara Stanwyck for her insistence on casting him in Passione (1939), his first big role, that he reportedly sent her flowers every year on the anniversary of the first day of filming.
William Holden was considered not to be up to the role in the film by the studio; however, Barbara Stanwyck urged producers to keep him in the picture, and succeeded. In 1978, at the The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978), before starting the presentation of the sound award, Holden publicly thanked Stanwyck, who was his co-presenter, for what she did."Oh Bill!" she sighed, choking up with tears.
After Barbara Stanwyck won her Honorary Academy Award in 1982, she acknowledged the passing of William Holden just four months earlier saying, "He always wished that I would get an Oscar and so, tonight, my Golden Boy, you got your wish!"
To convincingly portray a boxer who was also a violinist, William Holden took boxing and violin lessons all day every day for a week before production began. He continued to prepare during the 11 weeks of filming by boxing two hours daily and practicing the violin for 1-1/2 hours each night so that his fingering of the instrument would be convincing.
Clifford Odets was inspired to write the play by a story told to him by Paul Muni about how he gave up boxing because it endangered his secondary career as a violinist.