About 80 years ago, Earl Holliman was working at a movie theater in Shreveport, Louisiana, showing people to their seats in the dark. But he dreamed of being on the big screen himself.
Even though he kept trying, people at auditions told him he didn’t look right for the roles. So, he went to a barber at Paramount Studio and got a new haircut to change his look.
Want to know more about this Golden Globe-winning actor and how a haircut helped start his career? Keep reading!
Born in 1928 in Louisiana, Earl always wanted to be a movie star. At around 14, he worked at Shreveport’s Strand Theater, making 25 cents an hour, guiding people to their seats.
He saved up a little money and at 15, he hitchhiked to Hollywood to follow his dream.
“I brought a pair of dark sunglasses with me because I thought they were very Hollywood. On my first day in Hollywood, I went to Grauman’s Chinese Theater and walked around where the movie stars put their handprints and footprints, hoping people would wonder who I was,” Earl Holliman, now 95, said in an earlier interview. “But it didn’t work out. I thought I’d find a job, but I couldn’t.”
Feeling like he had failed, the young Earl went back home and finished high school. After graduating, he joined the navy, which eventually led him to a radio communications school in Los Angeles.
“Whenever I got shore leave from the navy, I’d rush over to the Hollywood Canteen. There, I met people I’d later work with, like Roddy McDowall,” said Earl Holliman, who had a small role in the 1953 movie Scared Stiff with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. “Later, I applied to and got accepted at the Pasadena Playhouse.”
But breaking into Hollywood was tough for Holliman. At auditions, he kept hearing, “You just don’t look the part.”
“They told me that even though I was a good actor, I wasn’t handsome enough to be a leading man, and I wasn’t quirky enough to be a character actor. I was just kind of in between,” he remembered.
Determined to make it big and get a role in the 1953 movie The Girls of Pleasure Island, Holliman decided to get a makeover.
‘Funny-looking haircut’
Talking about his big break that came with his new look, the Forbidden Planet star said, “When I sat in the barber’s chair, they cut my hair really short, about a quarter of an inch long, and the front laid down like bangs. With my big ears, broken nose, front teeth, little eyes, and funny haircut, I suddenly looked like a character actor. Just like that.”
After getting the role in The Girls of Pleasure Island, Earl Holliman won a Golden Globe for his performance in the 1956 movie The Rainmaker, where he acted alongside Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster.
“That’s still my favorite film,” he said in a 1991 interview with the Calgary Herald. “It was the one that really boosted my career to a whole new level.”
In the following years, Holliman, who also had a successful music career, appeared in movies with Hollywood legends like John Wayne, Dean Martin, Kirk Douglas, and Rock Hudson.
From 1974 to 1978, he became well-known for playing Sergeant Bill Crowley in the TV show Police Woman, alongside Angie Dickinson.
Talking about the connection he had with his co-star, who is now 92 years old, the Giant star said, “She was very sexy, but there was also something about her that made you want to protect her, like she had a little girl quality. It made you want to put your arm around her and tell her everything would be okay.” Holliman added, “We worked together for 12 to 14 hours a day, and Angie had strong opinions. When she thought she was right, that was it, and we had our disagreements. But you could see we had a real warmth between us. It looked like we adored each other. It was genuine.”
After appearing in TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Delta with Delta Burke, and in movies like Bad City Blues (1999) and The Perfect Tenant (2000), the Thorn Birds actor, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977, retired from acting.
Animal advocacy
Since leaving the screen, he’s now focused on his role as an animal rights advocate.
The former star, who’s nursed a blind possum, injured doves and mauled cats, doesn’t discriminate.
He also loves pigeons.
“I feed at least 500 pigeons a day. It’s like a pigeon McDonald’s at my place,” Holliman says.
For 25 years, Holliman was the president of Actors and Other Animals, an organization supported by many celebrities like the late Betty White, Lily Tomlin, Valerie Bertinelli, and Wendie Malick.
