Taylor Holmes

Taylor Holmes
Holmes in 1919
Born	(1878-05-16)May 16, 1878 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	September 30, 1959(1959-09-30) (aged 81) Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S.
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1899–1959
Spouse	Edna Phillips
Children	3, including Phillips Holmes

Taylor Holmes (May 16, 1878 – September 30, 1959) was an American actor who appeared in over 100 Broadway plays in his five-decade career. However, he is probably best remembered for his screen performances, which he began in silent films in 1917.

Holmes was born on May 16, 1878, in Newark, New Jersey.

He made his Broadway debut in February 1900 in the controversial play Sapho, which was briefly closed for indecency. Holmes played Rosencrantz with E. H. Sothern in a production of Hamlet and toured with Robert Edeson. He appeared in stage hits such as The Commuters, The Music Master, and His Majesty Bunker Bean.^[1]

Early film appearances included Efficiency Edgar's Courtship and Fools for Luck.^[2] One of his first starring roles was in A Pair of Sixes (1918).

By the 1940s, he was working more on film than on stage. Holmes played a number of memorable roles, particularly in film noir, including the gullible millionaire conned in Nightmare Alley (1947), a shifty lawyer in Kiss of Death (1947), and as Gavery, a reptilian disbarred lawyer in Act of Violence (1949). He is also recognized for playing the Bishop of Avranches, who fiercely denounces Pierre Cauchon in the Ingrid Bergman Joan of Arc (1948), Marilyn Monroe's potential father-in-law in the 1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ("I don't want to marry your son for his money, I want to marry him for your money!"), and the voice of King Stefan in the final cut of Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty (1959), Holmes' last credited screen role. He also played Ebenezer Scrooge in a low-budget half-hour television version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, first telecast in 1949.^[3]

Holmes was married to actress Edna Phillips and was the father of actors Phillips Holmes, Madeleine Taylor Holmes, and Ralph Holmes.

Eight months after the release of Sleeping Beauty, Holmes died on September 30, 1959, at the age of 81.^[4]

Holmes has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His interment was in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Silent

• Efficiency Edgar's Courtship (1917) (short) as Edgar Bumpus
• Fools for Luck (1917) as Philander Jepson
• Two-Bit Seats (1917) as Jimmy Mason
• The Small Town Guy (1917) as Ernest Gledhill
• Uneasy Money (1918) as Lord Dawlish
• Ruggles of Red Gap (1918) as Marmaduke Ruggles
• A Pair of Sixes (1918) as T. Boggs Johns
• It's a Bear (1919) as Orlando Wintrhop
• A Regular Fellow (1919) (*George Eastman preserved) as Dalion Pemberton
• Taxi (1919) as Robert Hervey Randolph
• Upside Down (1919) as Archibald Pim
• Three Black Eyes (1919) as Larry Van Cortlandt
• Nothing But the Truth (1920) as Robert Bennett
• The Very Idea (1920) as Gilbert Goodhue
• Nothing but Lies (1920) as George Cross
• Twenty Dollars a Week (1924) as William Hart
• Her Market Value (1925) as Courtney Brooks
• The Crimson Runner (1925) as Bobo (valet)
• The Verdict (1925) as Valet
• Borrowed Finery (1925) as Billy
• One Hour of Love (1927) as Joe Monahan
• Should a Mason Tell? (1927) (short) as Henry
• Their Second Honeymoon (1927) (short) as Henry
• King Harold (1927) (short) as Henry

Sound

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taylor Holmes.

• Taylor Holmes at IMDb
• Taylor Holmes at the Internet Broadway Database
• Taylor Holmes at Find a Grave
• Taylor Holmes portrait section NY Public Library Billy Rose Collection