Taylor Holmes


Taylor Holmes was an American actor who appeared in over 100 Broadway plays and on-screen performances over his five-decade career. The 1915 recording of his recitation of Rudyard Kipling's "Boots" was featured in the acclaimed theatrical trailer for Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later.

Early life

Holmes was born on May 16, 1878, in Newark, New Jersey.

Career

Stage

He made his Broadway debut in February 1900 in the controversial play Sapho, which was briefly closed for indecency. Holmes played Rosencrantz with E. H. Sothern in a production of Hamlet and toured with Robert Edeson. He appeared in stage hits such as The Commuters, The Music Master, and His Majesty Bunker Bean.

Film

Early film appearances included Efficiency Edgar's Courtship and Fools for Luck. One of his first starring roles was in A Pair of Sixes.
By the 1940s, he was working more on film than on stage. Holmes played a number of memorable roles, particularly in film noir, including the gullible millionaire conned in Nightmare Alley, a shifty lawyer in Kiss of Death, and as Gavery, a reptilian disbarred lawyer in Act of Violence. He is also recognized for playing the Bishop of Avranches, who fiercely denounces Pierre Cauchon in the Ingrid Bergman Joan of Arc, Marilyn Monroe's potential father-in-law in the 1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the voice of King Stefan in the final cut of Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty, Holmes' last credited screen role. He also played Ebenezer Scrooge in a low-budget half-hour television version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, first telecast in 1949.

Personal life

Holmes was married to actress Edna Phillips and was the father of actors Phillips Holmes, Madeleine Taylor Holmes, and Ralph Holmes.
Eight months after the release of Sleeping Beauty, Holmes died on October 1, 1959, at the age of 81. He was interred in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Legacy

Holmes has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Holmes’ 1915 spoken-word recording of the Rudyard Kipling poem "Boots" was used for its psychological effect in U.S. military SERE schools. His recitation was also used for the first and second trailers for the 2025 zombie apocalypse movie 28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle, and in the film.

Partial filmography

Silent
Sound