JACK HOLT

Jack Holt was an actor from the 1910s to the 1950s. Although he played in westerns and action movies most of his career, he was born in New York City and grew up there. His early adulthood somewhat resembled Lon Chaney Sr.'s, because he did not enter movies until he was 26 (after having been kicked out of military school and having all sorts of odd jobs). He was on a movie set when he was 26 and he volunteered to ride a horse off a cliff for an action scene, and that got him hired as a stuntman! For the next three years, he had minor roles and worked as a stuntman, but in 1917, he was hired by Paramount (and he was 29). In the late 1920s, he switched to Columbia, and starred in three early Frank Capra movies, and he became one of their bigger stars in the early 1930s. Holt was one of the stocky "square-jawed" leading men who were very popular in the 1930s, and it is said that he was the model for Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, and also Al Capp's Dick Tracy parody character, Fearless Fosdick! Unlike many top stars, he successfully transitioned to character roles, and he continued acting into the 1950s! His son was Tim Holt, who was a star of many B-westerns like his dad, but he had some major roles, including in Treasure of Sierra Madre, where his father took a bit part so he could act with his son! Jack Holt passed away in 1951 at the age of 62.