Bill Edwards was born in New Jersey and grew up on a farm in Wyoming.  He started out his career as a championship rodeo rider but, after several broken bones, he moved to New York and pursued a career as a model.  He appeared as an actor in several Westerns during the 1940s before pursuing a second career as a painter and commercial illustrator.  Along with painting scenes inspired by the Old West, Edwards illustrated over 100 paperback covers.  In the 1960s, he started another career as a certified SCUBA diver and instructor.  He died of pneumonia at the age of 81 in Newport Beach, California.