Taylor Holmes

Taylor Holmes
Holmes in 1919
Born(1878-05-16)May 16, 1878
DiedSeptember 30, 1959(1959-09-30) (aged 81)
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver City
OccupationActor
Years active1899–1959
SpouseEdna Phillips
Children3, including Phillips Holmes
Advertisement (1919)

Taylor Holmes (May 16, 1878 – September 30, 1959) was an American actor. He appeared in over 100 Broadway plays in his five-decade career and is probably best remembered for his screen performances, which he began in silent films in 1917, and for being the voice of King Stefan in the final cut of Disney's Sleeping Beauty as his final film role.

Early life

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

Career

Stage

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.

Film

Florence Shirley and Holmes in promotion for the 1916 Broadway play His Majesty Bunker Bean

Early film appearances included Efficiency Edgar's Courtship and Fools for Luck. 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 in his final film role as the voice of King Stefan in the final version of Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty (1959), in which he replaced Hans Conried, who still remained the model reference for the character. Holmes also played Ebenezer Scrooge in a low-budget half-hour television version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, first telecast in 1949.

Personal life

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

Just eight months after the release of Sleeping Beauty, Taylor Holmes died on September 30, 1959, at the age of 81.

Legacy

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

Partial filmography

Silent

Sound


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