Jack Holt
Jack Holt , actually Charles John Holt (* 31 May 1888 in New York City ; † 18 January 1951 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American silent - and sound film - actor . He was best known for westerns .
Life
Jack Holt was the son of a clergyman and grew up in New York and Winchester , Virginia . After his plans to either pursue a military career or to become a lawyer failed to materialize, he broke all bridges to a bourgeois existence and moved to the United States as a casual worker. Among other things, he worked in railroad construction , as a postman and as a gold prospector in Alaska . Eventually he came to various traveling theaters as an actor and reached California in 1914 . There he quickly gained a foothold in the flourishing film business and initially became a stuntman .
John Ford and other directors from Universal Studios discovered him as an actor and gave him extended supporting roles in westerns, which in those years mainly came into the cinemas in the form of series . He later moved to Paramount Pictures and became a well-known star in films based on western novels by Zane Gray . He was also able to continue his career in sound film, especially in productions for Columbia Pictures, without any downturn. His best-known films include San Francisco alongside Clark Gable , Spencer Tracy and Jeanette MacDonald and Colorado (1951) directed by William A. Wellman alongside Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalbán and Adolphe Menjou . In John Huston's classic film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) with Humphrey Bogart , Walter Huston and his son Tim Holt in the lead roles , he has a cameo as a surprise guest.
Jack Holt was an excellent horse expert and worked as a horse buyer for the US cavalry during the Second World War on behalf of the later US Secretary of State George C. Marshall . He achieved the rank of major . After the end of World War II, he returned to the film business and played numerous character roles. In 1951 he died of a heart attack and was buried in Los Angeles National Cemetery .
He was married with three children, his son Tim Holt and daughter Margret (stage name Jennifer Holt ) also became actors. The cartoonist Chester Gould designed the comic figure Dick Tracy after the angular character head of Jack Holt. The actor received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .
Filmography (selection)
- 1914: Solomy Jane
- 1917: The Little American
- 1929: Flieger (Flight)
- 1931: The Airship (Dirigible)
- 1934: Black Moon
- 1935: The smallest rebel ( The Littlest Rebel )
- 1936: San Francisco
- 1943: Cat People (Cat People)
- 1945: Speedboats in front of Bataan (They were expandable)
- 1946: Gunfire at the Ranch (My Pal Trigger)
- 1946: The Chase
- 1947: The Rough Horsemen of the Fearless Legion (The Gallant Legion)
- 1949: Loaded Pistols
- 1949: hands up, old boy! (Red Desert)
- 1949: Storm over the Pacific (Task Force)
- 1949: Assault on Express 44 (The Last Bandit)
- 1950: Return of the Frontiersman
- 1950: crooks, gangsters, beautiful girls (The Dalton's Women)
- 1950: With bad luck and brimstone (Brimstone)
- 1951: Colorado
Web links
- Jack Holt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jack Holt in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Jack Holt in San Francisco
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Holt, Jack |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Holt, Charles John (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American silent and sound film actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1888 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 1951 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , USA |