37 Facts About Earl Holliman

Henry Earl Holliman was born on September 11,1928 and is an American actor, animal-rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Earl Holliman's biological father William A Frost was a farmer.

Earl Holliman was the seventh of ten children overall, and in later years, he was able to reconnect and establish relationships with them.

Earl Holliman was adopted a week after his birth by Henry Holliman, a traveling oilfield worker, and his wife Velma, a waitress, who then gave him the name Henry Earl Holliman.

Earl Holliman was so frail in his infancy that one doctor predicted he would not live long enough to see childhood, but when Velma's sister provided him with a generous dose of castor oil shortly after, the ingredients proved to heal him tremendously and helped save his life.

Earl Holliman credited Henry and Velma with providing him with so much love and encouragement that despite their own poverty they helped him in terms of looking deep within himself to discover his self-confidence in converting his dreams into reality.

Earl Holliman wanted to see him in his first major film appearance and to work with the theatre manager, show columnist, and a friend of the family to go through a vast set of stills for that particular movie so she could begin the composition of an album for him reflecting the start of his professional career as an actor.

Meanwhile, Velma had remarried, and Earl Holliman disliked his new stepfather Guy Bellotte so much that he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II.

Earl Holliman returned home, worked in the oilfields in his spare time, washed dishes at various restaurants, and after some attendance at Louisiana Avenue, Fair Park, and Byrd High School in Shreveport, completed his public education at Oil City High School in Oil City, graduating with high honors in 1946; while a student there, he played right tackle on the school football team and served as senior-class president.

Earl Holliman graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Earl Holliman first got a small bit part opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in Scared Stiff.

Earl Holliman played a doomed helicopter crewman in the William Holden war drama The Bridges at Toko-Ri and a gangster's double-crossed thug in The Big Combo.

Earl Holliman co-starred with Jack Palance in the crime drama I Died a Thousand Times, a remake of High Sierra.

Earl Holliman was the soft-spoken son-in-law of a rancher Bick Benedict played by Rock Hudson in the epic Western saga Giant.

Earl Holliman was Wyatt Earp's deputy in Gunfight at the OK.

Earl Holliman played a drunken deputy sheriff whose brother Richard Widmark returns to town in a modern-day Western, The Trap, and the brother of John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Michael Anderson Jr.

Earl Holliman portrayed a corrupt Atlanta politician in the crime drama, Sharky's Machine, directed by its star, Burt Reynolds.

Earl Holliman became known to television audiences through his portrayal as Sundance in CBS's Hotel de Paree, with costar Jeanette Nolan, from 1959 to 1960, and in the title role of Mitch Guthrie with Andrew Prine in NBC's Wide Country, a drama about modern rodeo performers that aired for 28 episodes between 1962 and 1963.

In 1967, Earl Holliman guest-starred on Wayne Maunder's short-lived ABC military-Western series Custer.

In 1970, Earl Holliman starred in the TV movie Tribes as the antagonist Master Sergeant Frank DePayster, co-starring with Darren McGavin and Jan-Michael Vincent.

In 1970 and 1971, Earl Holliman made two appearances in the Western comedy series Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy.

Earl Holliman co-starred in all 91 episodes of the hit series, playing the police department superior of undercover officer Pepper Anderson.

Earl Holliman later took part in The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast comedy roast of co-star Dickinson on August 2,1977.

Earl Holliman has appeared in television guest roles throughout the 1970s to 1990s.

Earl Holliman shared a starring role in the CBS movie Country Gold, filmed on location in Nashville, Tennessee, which featured Loni Anderson, Linda Hamilton, and Cooper Huckabee.

Earl Holliman was a regular celebrity panelist on The Hollywood Squares, where he was recognized for his ability to trick the contestants with believable bluff answers.

Earl Holliman took part in the Gunsmoke reunion movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge in 1987 as Jake Flagg, having guest-starred on the Gunsmoke TV series with James Arness three times between 1969 and 1973.

Earl Holliman was an occasional celebrity on the $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramid game shows between 1983 and 1991.

From 1958 to 1963, Earl Holliman found a brief but successful career as a singer, and had a record deal with such notable recording studios as Capitol Records, Prep, and HiFi.

Earl Holliman occasionally performed at his theater when he was not working in Hollywood; other productions in which he appeared there include Arsenic and Old Lace as Mortimer Brewster from April 1 to May 4,1980, and Same Time, Next Year with Julie Sommars in 1983.

Earl Holliman appeared in stage productions of the 1973 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire as Mitch and the 1977 Santa Monica Civic production of A Chorus Line as Zach the Choreographer.

Earl Holliman is a vegetarian and is against the exploitation of animals by using their fur for clothing.

Earl Holliman supported the re-election of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1956 presidential election.

Earl Holliman is well known for nursing animals on his own property, at one point feeding roughly 500 pigeons in a day, as well as healing a wounded dove and blind opossum inside his home.

Earl Holliman has been a longtime resident of Studio City, California.

At one time, Earl Holliman dated actresses Jane Fonda and Dolores Hart.

Earl Holliman is not in the film even though some sources claim he is.