Earl Holliman, whose prolific acting career included a Golden Globe-winning role in “The Rainmaker” and television series such as “Police Woman,” has died. He was 96 years old.
Holliman died Monday afternoon at her home in Studio City, her husband, Craig Curtis, told the Times. No cause of death was given.
The actor, with a square jaw and a unique voice, high and soft but convincing, has made his mark in cinema, television as well as the theater. He appeared in more than 50 films and nearly 50 television shows beginning in the early 1950s.
He is perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Bill Crowley, macho counterpart to undercover cop Angie Dickinson on “Police Woman” from 1974 to 1978.
Holliman told The Times in 1993 that his fondest memory of the show was his friendship with Dickinson. He remembers moving into an unfurnished house and putting off decorating only to return from a film project to find that she had furnished his house while he was away.
The actor won a supporting actor Golden Globe for “The Rainmaker” in 1956, starring Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster.
“It was my first starring role,” Holliman said in a 1975 interview about his role as Jimmy Curry, brother of Hepburn’s Lizzie. But it hasn’t been easy. “I had to fight to get a test,” he said. But he said: “Working with Katharine Hepburn was the joy of my life. »
The same year, the actor appeared in the film “Giant” in the role of Bob Dace, son-in-law of the characters played by Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Other classics he was involved with include 1957’s “Gunfight at the OK Corral” and 1965’s “The Sons of Katie Elder.”
Earl Holliman sits with fellow actors Angie Dickinson, center, and Susan Strasberg at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston in 1983. The three had appeared at a rally to protest the mistreatment of laboratory animals.
(Sean Kardon/Associated Press)
He was also notably present in the first episode of “The Twilight Zone”, created in October 1959. He played a man with amnesia in “Where Is Everybody?” Other television series he starred in included “Hotel de Paree” (1959-60) and “Wide Country” (1962-63).
Holliman spoke with The Times in 1993 about his years on live television, which he said were an adrenaline rush.
He remembers one performance: “At the end of the first act, I was up to my neck in quicksand. As I’m rescued, I have 90 seconds for the people backstage to strip me down to my jockstrap, rinse me, change me, and I have to move to the other side of the stage for the next act, which has me in opening a coconut. …
“Sometimes when they were doing a close-up on your face, your wardrobe was being changed. You would talk to someone who has been gone for a long time to change their costume. I think all the actors who have done this live television are really missing that.
Holliman was born September 11, 1928 in Delhi, Louisiana. He was adopted at one week old, according to Hollywood journalist. When his new parents saw him, “I was sick and they immediately took me to the doctor, who apparently told me, ‘You don’t have a baby here, you have funeral expenses.’ They paid the midwife $7.50 for me – it was in the woods of Louisiana.
As a teenager, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles, using money he had saved working as a movie theater usher and doing other odd jobs. Soon, running out of money, he had to return home, where he enlisted in the Navy. But when they discovered he was only 15, he was released.
He then re-enlisted, and while stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, he participated in Navy theater productions. After his service, he returned west and worked on his craft at UCLA and the Pasadena Playhouse.
Holliman was also an animal rights activist and served as president of Actors and Others for Animals for decades. In 1977, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He is survived by his husband Curtis and a handful of nieces and nephews.
