Famous actor Earl Holliman, best known for his roles on “Police Woman,” and the very first episode of Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone,” titled “Where Is Everybody,” died at the age of 96.
Holliman’s spouse, Craig Curtis, confirmed the famous actor died Monday in hospice care at his home in Studio City, California, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Holliman was a highly acclaimed, Golden Globe-winning actor. He won best supporting actor for portraying Katharine Hepburn’s younger brother in “The Rainmaker” in 1956, beating out Elvis Presley for the role. He enjoyed a long-standing career in Hollywood. His official cause of death has not been publicly shared as of early Wednesday.
Earl Holliman poses for a portrait in1958 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Richard C. Miller/Getty Images)
Holliman was best known for playing Angie Dickinson’s boss on the hit NBC cop drama, “Police Woman,” which aired in the 1970s.
The talented actor was born in Delhi, Louisiana. His biological father died six months before he was born and he was placed in an orphanage before being adopted when he was one week old. Despite the tragic beginnings of his life, he was adopted into a loving family and grew up happily.
“I had wonderful parents who gave me all the love in the world. They encouraged me to be whatever I can be. I was their only child,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Holliman dreamed about becoming an actor and hitchhiked from Texas to the outskirts of Hollywood to pursue an acting career when he was just 14 years old.
Earl Holliman and Angie Dickinson in a scene from the TV series, ‘Police Woman’, circa 1975. (Photo by Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)
He had a short stint in the U.S. Navy before immersing himself in the study of acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. Holliman made his professional debut with one line of dialogue as an elevator operator in the Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis comedy “Scared Stiff” in 1953, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His acting career took flight and he was signed on for minor roles in four other films that year. He went on to appear in “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” with William Holden and Grace Kelly in 1954 and starred in an installment of CBS’s Playhouse 90 called “The Dark Side of the Earth.” That was the pivotal role that led to him being cast for “The Twilight Zone,” where his career as an actor was solidified.
Holliman appeared in “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” in 1957 and took on roles in “Giant,” alongside Elizabeth Taylor, and “The Sons of Katie Elder” and “Forbidden Planet.”
Holliman received another Globe nomination in 1993 for playing a bar owner on the short-lived ABC series “Delta,” starring Delta Burke, and enjoyed a role in the landmark 1983 ABC miniseries, “The Thorn Birds.”
1973: Actors Vince Van Patten and Earl Holliman seek adventure on the Arizona rodeo circuit in the 1880s in a scene from the two part western drama TV movie “The Boy And The Bronc Buster” which aired in 1973. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Some of his many other TV credits included “Gunsmoke,” “The Fugitive, Dr. Kildare,” “Cannon”, “Bonanza,” “Slattery’s People,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Empty Nest, “Murder, She Wrote and “Caroline in the City.”
His film credits include “I Died a Thousand Times,” “Hot Spell,” “Last Train From Gun Hill,” “Summer and Smoke,” “A Covenant With Death,” “Anzio,” “Bad City Blues” and “The Perfect Tenant.” (RELATED: Legendary Actor James Earl Jones Dead At 93)
Holliman is being remembered fondly as fans and fellow actors pay tribute to the star and the legacy he left behind on social media.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
