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.
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]
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.[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 BergmanJoan 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]
Personal life
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]
