Oscar Profile #29: Tim Holt

Born February 5, 1918, Charles John Holt III, the son of Jack Holt, one of the founding members of AMPAS, young Tim, like his father, became a workaholic actor most famous for his roles in westerns. He had the quickest trigger draw of any actor in films which clocked in at about 1/6 of a second, a feat he honed from the age of six when he practiced with fake pistols which he drew from the gun belt he wore over his bathrobe.

Gone too soon, and remembered not nearly as well as he should be, young Tim made his acting debut in 1927 and had his first adult role at the age of 19 as the SOS operator in Frank Borzage’s History Is Made at Night (1937). Other roles quickly followed, including that of Anne Shirley’s beau in Stella Dallas (1937); Ginger Rogers’ brother in 5th Ave. Girl (1938); the cavalry officer in Stageocach (1939); Thomas Mitchell’s oldest son in Swiss Family Robinson (1940); and Charles Boyer’s vindictive son in Back Street (1941).

At the same time he began his long association with RKO as the star of their B western unit, making over forty films in two six year periods, 1938-1943 and 1947-1952, the interruption caused mainly by his World War II service. He was a top ten cowboy star from 1941-1943 and 1948-1952, quitting at the top of his game after the death of his father and his growing disillusionment with the material he was being given.

A perfectionist as well a workaholic, Tim’s attention to detail was paramount in his western roles. His natural charm and winning smile were counter-balanced with his knowing looks which often betrayed the seemingly innocent double entendres spoken by him and other actors in those films.

He always wore gloves in his westerns because he believed that’s what real cowboys did. He performed his own stunts, jumping from building to building, from buildings onto horses and from stagecoaches onto to runaway horses, breaking his limbs and his nose many times over.

He continued to intersperse his starring roles in B westerns with major supporting roles in A films including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942); Hitler’s Children (1943), a rare lead in a non-western and one of the year’s biggest box office hits; My Darling Clementine (1946); The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); and His Kind of Woman (1951).

Most of his major films are widely available, but his westerns have been out of circulation for decades. Warner Archive has recently made available the first ten of these in a five disc set. These films are all great fun and feature such A-listers as George O’Brien, Rita Hayworth, Harry Carey, Marjorie Reynolds and Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards as well as a number of interesting if forgotten other players. Warner Archive promises to eventually release them all.

The marvelous 1940 version of Swiss Family Robinson was bought by Walt Disney when he remade it in 1960 and has been under lock and key ever since.

Tim Holt was a decorated bombardier during World War II. He narrated the Army’s documentary on VD that became a training requirement for G.I.s for decades. He was the only western hero to smoke in B westerns – he smoked a pipe. He was the third recipient of the Golden Boot’s In Memoriam award in 1992 following only Jay Silverheels and Harry Carey and preceding William Boyd, Burt Lancaster, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and others who may be better known today.

Tim Holt died of bone cancer in February, 1973, just days after his 55th birthday.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE RENEGADE RANGER (1938), directed by David Howard
THE LAW WEST OF TOMBSTONE (1938), directed by Glenn Tryon

George O’Brien was top-billed in The Renegade Ranger as a true blue Texas Ranger, but Tim Holt had the title role, that of the bad boy who is booted out of the service for fighting and goes to work for bandit queen Rita Hayworth. Of course lovely Rita really isn’t a bandit and Tim isn’t really a bad boy.

Harry Carey was top billed in The Law West of Tombstone as a teller of tall tales who becomes the mayor of a small western town while Tim Holt is a quick on the trigger bad boy who cleans up his act when he falls for Carey’s daughter.

Holt, who was only 19 at the time, had such wide appeal in these ingratiating B westerns that thereafter his characters with only slight variation, good guys who were a little bad or bad guys who were really good, were their film’s principal character. As O’Brien and Carey had done for him, though, the generous Holt always made sure that other actors were given their chance to shine in those films.

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942), directed by Orson Welles

Playing against type as vile, mean, selfish George Minafer, Holt has the role that Welles had considered playing himself in his follow-up to Citizen Kane. Legend has it that RKO butchered the film after Welles left to make another film in Mexico, but editor and future Oscar winning director Robert Wise did an excellent job finishing the film in Welles’ absence. Everyone in it is superb, but Agnes Moorehead as Aunt Fanny is the standout, particularly in the scene in which she begs young Holt not to send her to the poor house. The question is would Moorehead’s performance in that scene have been quite so breathtaking if Holt had played George as less of a heel? I’m inclined to think not.

HITLER’S CHILDREN (1943), directed by Edward Dmytryk

Holt is an American-born German and Bonita Granville a German-born American living in Germany who find themselves on opposite sides of Nazi ideology in this smash hit shocker in which Granville has two choices to go on living after she has deified the Nazis: either have a child with a Nazi soldier to give to the state or be sterilized to wipe away her sins. Otto Kruger as a Nazi colonel and H.B. Warner as a Catholic bishop are outstanding in support, but it’s the impassioned performances of Holt and Granville that left audiences of the day drained.

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946), directed by John Ford

One of John Ford’s most beautifully realized westerns, it’s often praised for the performances of Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp, Victor Mature as Doc Holliday and Walter Brennan in a rare villainous role as Old Man Clanton, but Holt also makes a fine impression as Virgil Earp, Wyatt’s younger brother. The film’s set pieces, including the climactic battle at the O.K. Corral may be brilliant cinema, but it’s historically inaccurate. In real life Virgil was Wyatt’s older brother, and the more experienced lawman. Morgan, who was played by the older Ward Bond, was actually his younger brother. Virgil did not die tragically in Tombstone in 1881, but lived until 1905 when he died peacefully at the age of 62.

THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948), directed by John Huston

Holt won the best notices of his career as Humphrey Bogart’s partner in this acclaimed meditation on greed and human nature at its worst. Holt more than holds his own with both Bogart and Walter Huston in their legendary performances. Huston, of course, was directed to his long overdue Oscar by son John, but Holt got to work with his father as well. That’s Jack Holt in an un-credited cameo as the bum Walter Huston shares his philosophy of life with in the early flophouse scene.