[1] Born Patrick Parsons in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Holt spent some of his childhood in India with his uncle, after which he was sent to Christ's Hospital, a famous charity school in Britain.

Here he formed a close friendship with a boy in the same boarding house, the future film star Michael Wilding.

His army service saw him in Burma, Singapore and India, often on secret missions behind enemy lines, and he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After the war he joined the J. Arthur Rank charm school and after supporting roles in films such as Hungry Hill, Frieda and The October Man (all 1947), steadily established himself as a lead actor in films of the late 1940s, including The Mark of Cain (1947), My Sister and I (1948), Marry Me and A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (both 1949).

However, by evolving into a character actor, he sustained his career into old age, working on stage and television as well as in the cinema, and he was still listed in the Spotlight casting directory at the time of his death.