Partner Anthony George
Queer Places:
4249 Bellingham Ave, Studio City, CA 91604
Henry Earl Holliman (born September 11, 1928) 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. He won a Golden Globe Award for the film The Rainmaker (1956) and portrayed Sergeant Bill Crowley on the television police drama Police Woman throughout its 1974–1978 run. Anthony George, an American actor mostly seen on television,
had been a notable lover of Holliman.
Henry Earl Holliman was born on September 11, 1928, in Delhi, Louisiana.[1] His biological father William A. Frost was a farmer.[2] His mother Mary Smith[3] was living in poverty with several other children[4] and gave him up for adoption at birth, while her other children were sent to orphanages until she could take them all back, which she did.[1] Earl was the seventh of ten children overall,[2] and in later years, he was able to reconnect and establish relationships with them.[4] He was adopted a week after his birth by Henry Holliman,[5] a traveling oilfield worker, and his wife Velma,[6] a waitress, who then gave him the name Henry Earl Holliman.[1] He 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.[7] Although his upbringing and family history have strong ties to Louisiana, during his teenage years he and his family lived in Kerrville, Texas, for a time[8] as well as some parts of Arkansas[9] (which he once stated made him out to be a "red-blooded Ark-La-Texan"[9]). Holliman's early years were normal until Henry died when he was 13.[10] Earl credited Henry and Velma with providing him with so much love and encouragement [11] that despite their own poverty[7] they helped him in terms of looking deep within himself to discover his self-confidence in converting his dreams into reality.[2] In addition, when he began his career in films, Velma was so supportive of him that she once even went to a theatre in Louisiana an hour before it opened just so she could be the first attendee present. She 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.[12] Holliman saved money from his positions as an usher at the Strand Theatre, as a newsboy for the Shreveport Times,[13] and as a magician's assistant[14] before he left Louisiana for Hollywood. After an unsuccessful first attempt finding work in the film industry, he soon returned to Louisiana after being in California for only one week.[15] Meanwhile, Velma had remarried, and Holliman disliked his new stepfather Guy Bellotte[16] so much that he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II.[17] Assigned to a Navy communications school in Los Angeles, Holliman spent his free time at the Hollywood Canteen, talking to stars who dropped by to support the servicemen and women. A year after his enlistment, the Navy discovered his real age and he was immediately discharged. Holliman returned home, worked in the oilfields in his spare time,[10] washed dishes at various restaurants,[13] 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[10] in 1946; while a student there, he also played right tackle on the school football team[11] and served as senior-class president.[13] After rejecting a scholarship to Louisiana State University,[10] he re-enlisted in the Navy and was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.[10] Interested in acting, he was cast as the lead in several Norfolk Navy Theatre productions.[17] When he left the Navy for good, he studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.[18] He also graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.[19] During the time he studied acting at both the Playhouse and UCLA, he supplemented his income working as a file clerk for Blue Cross (later known as Blue Cross Blue Shield Association)[20] and with North American Aviation constructing airplanes.[13]
In 1960, he lived in Paris, France and resided within a flat located on the Left Bank. Although he adopted the French culture and dialect quite rapidly, he maintained his reputation for being "as American as apple pie."[42] During the late 1970s, he served as the national honorary chairman for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.[43][44] In 1976, he was the grand marshal of the Annual Fourth of July Parade in Huntington Beach, California.[45] He is a vegetarian[46] and is against the exploitation of animals by using their fur for clothing.[47] Holliman supported the re-election of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1956 presidential election.[48] Holliman is known for his work as an animal rights activist, including serving for more than 25 years as president of Actors and Others for Animals.[50] He 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.[28] For many years, during the Christmas season, he was one of many in the film community to help organize various luncheons and dinners for the less fortunate at the Los Angeles Mission.[51] Holliman has been a longtime resident of Studio City, California.[52]
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