William Holden's 1969 Mercedes-Benz 600. Holden took the delivery of the 600 new at his home in Switzerland. Six months later, after spending much of the 1960s living in Switzerland, Holden returned to the States to film "The Wild Bunch." He had his Mercedes shipped to his house in Palm Springs.
In 1972, Jack Nicholson, who was a young rising star--and who still owned his 1967 Volkswagen Bug convertible-- was visiting a friend at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. In the parking lot, he spotted a parked silver Mercedes 600. Nicholson was contemplating buying a 600 at the time. As he approached the car to check it out, he noticed a man scrounging in the back seat. As Nicholson approached and knocked on the window, the man jumped out startled. It was William Holden. Both men had never met, but both instantly recognized each other. When Nicholson asked him about the 600, Holden told him that that he had had them all--"Rolls-Royces, Jaguars, Bentleys---but this one is the best." Nicholson asked what Holden was doing in the back seat, Holden replied that he was there for a "two-day drying out period" and that he had just located his "last 6-pack of beer in the back seat". After Nicholson visited his friend, he went to Holden's room and visited with him some more. The two were "old friends" since that encounter. Nicholson did end up buying a 600 that year. He has since donated it to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, where it is located in The Vault.
At the time Holden took delivery of his 600, he also had a 1967 Ferrari 365 GT. Other cars that we know of Holden having over the years include a 1954 Ferrari 375MM, a 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, and a 1956 Imperial (there are many more that we don't know of).
Holden died in 1981 at the age of 63 after falling in his apartment in Santa Monica. At the time, he still had his 1969 Mercedes 600. He also maintained homes in Palm Springs, Switzerland, and Kenya. After his death, his long-time girlfriend, Stephane Powers, created the William Holden Wildlife Foundation. The foundation, like Holden, is committed to the conservation (as opposed to hunting) of wild animals in Kenya. It has been in continuous operation since 1983.

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