He made his Broadway debut in February 1900 in the controversial play Sapho, which was briefly closed for indecency.

He is also recognized for playing the Bishop of Avranches, who fiercely denounces Pierre Cauchon in the Ingrid Bergman Joan of Arc (1948), Marilyn Monroe's potential father-in-law in the 1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ("I don't want to marry your son for his money, I want to marry him for your money!

"), and the voice of King Stefan in the final cut of Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty (1959), 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.

Holmes' 1915 spoken-word recording of the Rudyard Kipling poem "Boots" was used for its psychological effect in U.S. military SERE schools.