- Born
- Birth nameHenry Earl Holliman
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Ruggedly handsome, slack-jawed actor Earl Holliman was born on September 11, 1928, in northeastern Louisiana amid meager surroundings. His father, a farmer named William Frost, died several months before Earl's birth, forcing his poverty-stricken mother to give up seven of her ten children. He was adopted as a baby by an oil-field worker named Henry Earl Holliman and his waitress wife Velma, growing up in the Louisiana and Arkansas areas. Though Henry died when Earl was 13, the adoptive parents were a source of happiness and inspiration growing up.
Entertaining became an early passion after ushering at a local movie house and Earl at one point was a magician's assistant as a young teen. Hoping to discovered, Earl ran away from home hoping to be discovered in Hollywood. Following that aborted attempt, the teenager returned to Louisiana and immediately enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II by lying about his age (16). Assigned to a Navy communications school in Los Angeles, this re-stimulated his passion for acting, spending much of his free time at the Hollywood Canteen.
Discharged from the Navy a year after enlisting when his true age was discovered, he returned home to work in menial jobs and complete his high school education. Reenlisting in the Navy, he was cast as the lead in several Norfolk (Virginia) Navy Theatre productions. This led to a trek back to Hollywood after his (this time) honorable discharge[ where he attended USC and studied acting at UCLA Drama School and the Pasadena Playhouse, working as a Blue Cross file clerk and airplane builder at North American Aviation.
Earl started off apprenticing in uncredited film bits in several films --Destination Gobi (1953) and Scared Stiff (1953). He soon rose in rank and gained clout playing jaunty young rookies and tenderfeet and young stud types in rugged westerns, war drama and rollicking comedy. His swaggering characters in such films as Tennessee Champ (1954), Broken Lance (1954), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), The Big Combo (1955), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Burning Hills (1956) and Giant (1956) ranged from dim and good-natured to impulsive and threatening.
Holliman won a Golden Globe for his support performance as a girl-crazy brother in The Rainmaker (1956), holding his own against stars Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn. Without progressing to star roles, he continued to provide durable late 50's support to big name stars including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) starring Lancaster and Kirk Douglas; Trooper Hook (1957) starring Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck; Don't Go Near the Water (1957) starring Glenn Ford; Hot Spell (1958) starring Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn and Shirley MacLaine; The Trap (1959) starring Richard Widmark; and Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) again with Douglas and Quinn.
Although film offers began drying up in the 1960s, Earl was enjoyable boorish in his dealing with innocent alien Jerry Lewis in the wacky comedy Visit to a Small Planet (1960); had a touching final scene in a park with Geraldine Page in the somber Tennessee Williams period piece Summer and Smoke (1961); played one of John Wayne's younger punch-drunk brothers in the freewheeling western The Sons of Katie Elder (1965); portrayed a salesman on trial for murdering his wife in A Covenant with Death (1967); and was a platoon sergeant in command in Anzio (1968).
Holliman found a highly accepting medium in TV with a lead series role as reformed gunslinger "Sundance" (not The Sundance Kid) in the short-lived western series Hotel de Paree (1959), plus showed off a virile stance in episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "Bus Stop," "Checkmate," "Bonanza," "Dr. Kildare," "The Fugitive," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "It Takes a Thief," "Alias Smith and Jones," "Gunsmoke," "Medical Center," "Ironside," "The Magical World of Disney" and "The F.B.I." He also appeared in a number of TV movies that became popular in the late 1960's. He played hard-ass, redneck types in the action adventure The Desperate Mission (1969) and in the military drama The Tribe (1970), but did a complete turnaround as a good guy psychologist trying to help get a kid hooker off the streets in Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977). This all culminated in his most popular series program, a four-year stint as the macho partner to sexy Angie Dickinson in Police Woman (1974), a role that helped make him a household name.
On the side, the never-married Holliman found a brief, yet successful, career in the late 1950's as a singer and copped a record deal with Capitol Records at one point, while scoring as Curly in a tour of the musical "Oklahoma" in 1963. Other non-musical roles included "Sunday in New York," "The Country Girl," "The Tender Trap," "Camino Real," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (as Mitch) and "A Chorus Line" (as Zach). He also owned the Fiesta Dinner Playhouse for a decade in the late 1970's and performed there, between film and TV assignments, in such shows as "Mister Roberts," "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "Same Time, Next Year."
An intermittent presence in later years, Earl was seen primarily on TV including the acclaimed miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983), as well as the TV programs "Empty Nest," "In the Heat of the Night," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Caroline in the City." regular roles on three drama series: the urban drama P.S.I. Luv U (1991); the comedy series Delta (1992) (Golden Globe nomination) which starred Delta Burke in a short-lived follow-up to her "Designing Women" exit; and the sci-fi action adventure NightMan (1997).
A conservative political activist and animal rescuer on the side, Earl retired from the screen into the millennium -- shortly after appearing in the movies Bad City Blues (1999) and The Perfect Tenant (2000).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- ParentsWilliam A. FrostMary Frost Smith
- Distinctive soft, high resonant voice
- Portrayed adventurous men, macho types, and often simple souls.
- Cleft in his chin.
- Dark brown eyes.
- For over 25 years, he was president of Actors and Others for Animals.
- During World War II, he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Navy at age 15. He was discharged a year later when his real age was discovered. Following his high school graduation, he rejoined the Navy at age 18 and was stationed in Norfolk, VA, where he became involved in the Norfolk Navy Theater and appeared in leading roles in several productions.
- In 1974, while he was starring as Bill Crowley in Police Woman (1974), he was stopped by a policeman while driving one day and when asked to show his driver's license, the officer paused after examining it and asked, "Do you know a girl named Pepper?" When Holliman answered, "Yes", the officer reportedly handed him back his driver's license, smiled, and said, "You're free to go, I'll let you off with a warning".
- Although his role in Scared Stiff (1953) was uncredited, Holliman stayed up for three nights straight to practice the perfect delivery of his only line which was less than a sentence long.
- While riding on a train to Marfa, Texas, to begin filming Giant (1956), Earl was sitting with the cast and crew in one of the passenger cars when it was announced by one of the conductors that Elizabeth Taylor's club car was up front. After hearing this, Earl went up to her cabin to introduce himself and when she answered she invited him in to sit and visit with her so she would be able to get to know him somewhat better before they were to begin work on the production. Not long after he was sitting with her, he happened to look out the window into the desert the train was riding through and remarked, " Look at those flowers! Aren't they pretty?" When Elizabeth looked at the cactus flowers, Earl was speaking of she then looked at him and asked, "Do you want one?" Before Earl could answer Elizabeth's question, she immediately stood up, pulled the emergency brake, after the train came to an immediate screeching halt, she then proceeded to run outside and pick the biggest cactus flower she could. While the engineers ran around trying to calm the rest of the cast and crew aboard and find out what happened, Elizabeth had promptly returned to her cabin with Earl still sitting there in amazement to find Ms. Taylor approaching him with a smile on her face, and still looking beautiful as ever with no broken sweat whatsoever, handing him a cactus flower simply saying, "Here.".
- It's like I've died and gone to Heaven. When I did 'Police Woman,' we worked 12- and 14-hour days. Sometimes I would get up at 3:30 a.m. to go to San Pedro and by the end of the day we'd end up in Chatsworth! With a sitcom, we have banker's hours. One day a week you work late in front of an audience. It's a whole different process and incorporates what it's like to be on the stage.
- The adrenaline was really going. Sometimes, when they had a close-up on your face, your wardrobe was being changed. You'd be talking to someone who had long gone for their own costume change. I think all the actors who did that live television really miss that stuff.
- I think Angie came up with that. I think her character's real name was Lee Ann.
- Of course I would, if they asked. I had a good time doing that show. We had a wonderful relationship, a marvelous producer, and the four of us got along great.
- Charlie Dierkop and I, who share the same birthday, September 11, stay in touch from time to time.
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