Henry Earl Holliman (September 11, 1928 – November 25, 2024) was an American actor, animal rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Holliman's other notable film roles include Broken Lance (1954), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), The Big Combo (1955), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), Giant (1956), Hot Spell (1958), Anzio (1968), The Desperate Mission (1969), The Biscuit Eater (1972), Sharky's Machine (1981), and Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987).

He also had several notable television appearances in The Twilight Zone; Hotel de Paree; The Thorn Birds; Gunsmoke; Murder, She Wrote; and Caroline in the City.

[1] He was so frail in his infancy that one doctor predicted he would not live long enough to see childhood, but when Velma's sister provided him with a generous dose of castor oil shortly after, the ingredients proved to heal him tremendously and helped save his life.

[10] Earl credited Henry and Velma with providing him with so much love and encouragement[11] that despite their own poverty[7] they helped him in terms of looking deep within himself to discover his self-confidence in converting his dreams into reality.

She wanted to see him in his first major film appearance and to work with the theater manager, show columnist, and a friend of the family to go through a vast set of stills for that particular movie so she could begin the composition of an album for him reflecting the start of his professional career as an actor.

[12] Holliman saved money from his positions as an usher at the Strand Theatre, as a newsboy for The Shreveport Times,[13] and as a magician's assistant[14] before he left Louisiana for Hollywood.

[15] Meanwhile, Velma had remarried, and Holliman disliked his new stepfather Guy Bellotte[16] so much that he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II.

[17] Assigned to a Navy communications school in Los Angeles, Holliman spent his free time at the Hollywood Canteen, talking to stars who dropped by to support the servicemen and women.

[13] His many credits include: Broken Lance (1954), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), The Big Combo (1955), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), Giant (1956), The Rainmaker (1956), Gunfight at the O.K.

Corral (1957), Don't Go Near the Water (1957), Hot Spell (1958), The Trap (1959), Last Train from Gun Hill (1959), Visit to a Small Planet (1960), Armored Command (1961), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Anzio (1968), The Desperate Mission (1969), Smoke (1970), The Biscuit Eater (1972), The Solitary Man (1979), Sharky's Machine (1981), and Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987).

[24][25][26] Holliman played a doomed helicopter crewman in the William Holden war drama The Bridges at Toko-Ri and a gangster's double-crossed thug in The Big Combo.

He starred in The Rainmaker (1956), opposite Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, playing a rancher's timid son, who finally must defy his brother to gain self-respect, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture;[27] he was cast in the role instead of Elvis Presley.

[24] Holliman became known to television audiences through his portrayal as Sundance in CBS's Hotel de Paree, with co-star Jeanette Nolan, from 1959 to 1960, and in the title role of Mitch Guthrie with Andrew Prine in NBC's Wide Country, a drama about modern rodeo performers that aired for 28 episodes between 1962 and 1963.

[30] In 1970 and 1971, Holliman made two appearances in the Western comedy series Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy.

He co-starred in all 91 episodes of the hit series (which he later remarked changed his life),[32] playing the police department superior of undercover officer Pepper Anderson.

He shared a starring role in the CBS movie Country Gold (a made for television remake of All About Eve), filmed on location in Nashville, Tennessee, which also featured Loni Anderson, Linda Hamilton, and Cooper Huckabee.

[43] He occasionally performed at his theater when he was not working in Hollywood; other productions in which he appeared there include Arsenic and Old Lace as Mortimer Brewster from April 1 to May 4, 1980,[44] and Same Time, Next Year with Julie Sommars in 1983.

[63] He was well known for nursing animals on his own property, at one point feeding roughly 500 pigeons in a day, as well as healing a wounded dove and a blind opossum inside his home.