Post by teleadm on Feb 21, 2019 13:01:00 GMT
Unless you are a B-Western fan you probably only remember him in two movies, The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948, but he was also in Stella Dallas 1937, Stagecoach 1939, Back Street 1941, Hitler's Children 1943, My Darling Clementine 1946 as Henry Fonda's brother, and His Kind of Woman 1951 squeezed in between Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.
In the 1940s he was one of the 10 most popular western stars. Those B-Westerns shouldn't be looked down upon, since they usually made up for the losses of ambitious A-movie failures.
Tim Holt was more or less born into the movies, since his father was tough-guy action star of the 1920s and 1930s Jack Holt, and Tim played Jack's son in the now lost The Vanishing Prairie 1928 when he was 7 years old.
Stella Dallas 1937, here with Anne Shirley
Stagecoach 1939, standing in the background. Under contract at Walter Wanger usually meant loan outs, but he had a supporting role in this Wanger production.
His contract with Wanger expired. RKO signed Holt to a seven-year contract in December 1938.
5th Avenue Girl 1939, RKO placed him opposite their biggest female star, Ginger Rogers.
Back Street 1941, loan out to Universal as Charles Boyer's son, here seen with Margaret Sullavan.
Along the Rio Grande 1941, just one of the many westerns he made for RKO, and they made money too. He continued to make those movies until 1952.
"Tim played a cowboy, a Treasury agent, a Texas Ranger, or a number of other occupations. The characters were pretty much the same: Tim, with his boyish good looks, is drawn into situations where he must right some wrongs. Holt had a charming personality on the screen, which made him one of the top western stars of the 1940s".
The Magnificent Ambersons 1942, directed by Orson Welles and one of the movies Tim is best remembered from. If it was the greatest movie ever we'll never know since RKO re-edited it heavily.
Hitler's Children 1943, the last movie Tim did before he was called to active duty during WWII. It was one of RKO's most profitable movies during the war.
Holt became a decorated combat veteran of World War II, flying in the Pacific Theatre with the United States Army Air Forces as a B-29 bombardier. He was wounded over Tokyo on the last day of the war and was awarded a Purple Heart. He was also a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Thee three Earp brothers in My Darling Clementine 1946, with Ward Bond and Henry Fonda.
A sign of popularity, magazines bearing his name.
Tim Holt with his sidekick in more than 25 movies, Richard Martin.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948, with Walter Huston and Humphrey Bogart. Holt's best known movie.
Holt's casting in Madre impressed RKO studio chief Dore Schary who announced "expanding plans" for the actor, looking to cast him in films other than Westerns. He also promised a bigger budget for Holt's Westerns, but Schary soon moved over to MGM, and for Holt it was back to the saddle in westerns.
His Kind of Woman 1951, with Robert Mitchum and in costume.
With the event of television, the big movie companies begun to make less and less B-westerns, and so Tim Holt's movie career was nearly over by 1952.
However he kept busy managing theatres and making personal appearances. He got a degree in animal nutrition from Iowa, worked as a builder, produced rodeos, staged and performed Western music jamborees, and worked as an advertising manager for a radio station from 1962 onwards. Holt later said of this period "Do you realize that this is the first time in my life that I can make my own decisions and do what I want to do? First it was my parents who told me what to do, then RKO told me what to do, then I went into the service and Uncle Sam told me what to do. I came back out and RKO still told me what to do. This is the first time I have not been under somebody's thumb in my life".
Holt returned in a few more movies, usually those returns were services to friends.
The Monster That Challenged the World 1957, a black-and-white science-fiction monster film.
He also did The Yesterday Machine 1963 and This Stuff'll Kill Ya! 1971.
Guest star on The Virginian TV-series episode A Woman of Stone 1969, was Holt's next to last acting job. He had only acted once before on television, Chevron Theatre episode Adventure in Java 1953.
Tim Holt left us in 1973 at age 54, a victim to bone cancer.
In 1991, Tim Holt was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1992, the Golden Boot Awards honored Holt for his lifetime contributions to western cinema.
Thanks for watching!
The reason I wrote this was because this year it was 100 years ago Tim Holt was born.
In the 1940s he was one of the 10 most popular western stars. Those B-Westerns shouldn't be looked down upon, since they usually made up for the losses of ambitious A-movie failures.
Tim Holt was more or less born into the movies, since his father was tough-guy action star of the 1920s and 1930s Jack Holt, and Tim played Jack's son in the now lost The Vanishing Prairie 1928 when he was 7 years old.
Stella Dallas 1937, here with Anne Shirley
Stagecoach 1939, standing in the background. Under contract at Walter Wanger usually meant loan outs, but he had a supporting role in this Wanger production.
His contract with Wanger expired. RKO signed Holt to a seven-year contract in December 1938.
5th Avenue Girl 1939, RKO placed him opposite their biggest female star, Ginger Rogers.
Back Street 1941, loan out to Universal as Charles Boyer's son, here seen with Margaret Sullavan.
Along the Rio Grande 1941, just one of the many westerns he made for RKO, and they made money too. He continued to make those movies until 1952.
"Tim played a cowboy, a Treasury agent, a Texas Ranger, or a number of other occupations. The characters were pretty much the same: Tim, with his boyish good looks, is drawn into situations where he must right some wrongs. Holt had a charming personality on the screen, which made him one of the top western stars of the 1940s".
The Magnificent Ambersons 1942, directed by Orson Welles and one of the movies Tim is best remembered from. If it was the greatest movie ever we'll never know since RKO re-edited it heavily.
Hitler's Children 1943, the last movie Tim did before he was called to active duty during WWII. It was one of RKO's most profitable movies during the war.
Holt became a decorated combat veteran of World War II, flying in the Pacific Theatre with the United States Army Air Forces as a B-29 bombardier. He was wounded over Tokyo on the last day of the war and was awarded a Purple Heart. He was also a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Thee three Earp brothers in My Darling Clementine 1946, with Ward Bond and Henry Fonda.
A sign of popularity, magazines bearing his name.
Tim Holt with his sidekick in more than 25 movies, Richard Martin.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948, with Walter Huston and Humphrey Bogart. Holt's best known movie.
Holt's casting in Madre impressed RKO studio chief Dore Schary who announced "expanding plans" for the actor, looking to cast him in films other than Westerns. He also promised a bigger budget for Holt's Westerns, but Schary soon moved over to MGM, and for Holt it was back to the saddle in westerns.
His Kind of Woman 1951, with Robert Mitchum and in costume.
With the event of television, the big movie companies begun to make less and less B-westerns, and so Tim Holt's movie career was nearly over by 1952.
However he kept busy managing theatres and making personal appearances. He got a degree in animal nutrition from Iowa, worked as a builder, produced rodeos, staged and performed Western music jamborees, and worked as an advertising manager for a radio station from 1962 onwards. Holt later said of this period "Do you realize that this is the first time in my life that I can make my own decisions and do what I want to do? First it was my parents who told me what to do, then RKO told me what to do, then I went into the service and Uncle Sam told me what to do. I came back out and RKO still told me what to do. This is the first time I have not been under somebody's thumb in my life".
Holt returned in a few more movies, usually those returns were services to friends.
The Monster That Challenged the World 1957, a black-and-white science-fiction monster film.
He also did The Yesterday Machine 1963 and This Stuff'll Kill Ya! 1971.
Guest star on The Virginian TV-series episode A Woman of Stone 1969, was Holt's next to last acting job. He had only acted once before on television, Chevron Theatre episode Adventure in Java 1953.
Tim Holt left us in 1973 at age 54, a victim to bone cancer.
In 1991, Tim Holt was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1992, the Golden Boot Awards honored Holt for his lifetime contributions to western cinema.
Thanks for watching!
The reason I wrote this was because this year it was 100 years ago Tim Holt was born.
