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JACK HOLT
Charles John Holt
May 31, 1888-January 18, 1951
Jack was a native of New York City and was the son of
an Episcopal minister. He attended Trinity School in Manhattan, then the Virginia
Military Institute, from which he was expelled for bad behavior.
He mined gold in Alaska, worked as both a railroad and
a civil engineer, delivered mail, rode herd on cattle, and played parts in traveling
stage productions. While looking for work as a surveyor in San Francisco in
1914, he volunteered to ride a horse over a cliff in a stunt for a film crew
shooting in San Rafael. Holt followed the movie people to Hollywood and began
getting bits and stunt jobs in the many Westerns and serials being made there.
He soon became a frequent supporting player and then a star in serials.
In 1917, he moved to Paramount and stared in a very successful series
of Westerns based on the novels of Zane Grey.
At the outbreak of WWII, Holt entered the U.S. Army at
the age of 54, for General George C. Marshall as a horse buyer for
the cavalry. He returned to Hollywood following the war, alternating
between character roles in major films and leading roles in minor
Westerns. He made a cameo appearance in The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre (1948) which starred his son Tim Holt. That same year father
and son played father and son in a B-Western, The Arizona Ranger
(1948). Less than three years later, on January 18, 1951, Holt died
of a heart attack at the Los Angeles Veterans Hospital in Sawtelle.
Also of interest would be son and cowboy star
Tim Holt and daughter and actress Jennifer Holt
