“You don’t have a baby here, you have a funeral expense.” That’s what the doctor said about recently deceased actor Earl Holliman to his parents upon seeing the baby they’d just adopted. The adoption was from a mother who already had nine other children to look after. Holliman’s biological mother was overwhelmed, and had no husband to share the burden with. Holliman’s biological father died before he was born.
To say Holliman came into the world relatively disadvantaged is a bit of an understatement, but birth in the United States is its own advantage. Holliman had major options that were a function of being an American first and foremost, and that as a consequence afforded him an ability to move to wherever in the United States he could best realize his dreams.
“I wanted be an actor since I was 6 years old.” That’s what Holliman said after he became what he wanted to be, but it was by no means an easy path for him. According to the uplifting obituary written by the Washington Post’s Brian Murphy, Holliman’s path to stardom of the kind that rates an obituary in the Washington Post was “a Hollywood parable of persistence and luck” that included roles in Giant (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), the opening episode of The Twilight Zone (1957), and 1970s television show Police Woman. Holliman’s first big movie break was in The Rainmaker (1956), a role he won after beating out Elvis Presley.
Where it becomes most interesting is in how Holliman got to California. Murphy reports that the Hollywood hopeful “spent his 15th birthday on the road while hitchhiking from Louisiana to Los Angeles.” Murphy adds that Holliman even wore dark glasses during his first visit to give off the impression of belonging. Sadly, no agents or studios saw in Holliman what he saw in himself, only for the would-be actor to return to Louisiana. Except that he didn’t give up.
He next lied about his age in order to get in the Navy as a radio trainee, which took him back to southern California. Murphy reports that when Holliman had leave, he would go to Long Beach “to the Hollywood Canteen, a popular mixing spot for servicemen and the movie industry.” During one of his visits, he got a dance with Rita Hayworth.
Unfortunately the Navy eventually found out about Holliman’s age and sent him back to Louisiana. While there Holliman finished high school, and then ever eager to expand his horizons beyond Louisiana, he enlisted in the Navy once again. Murphy writes that upon discharge, Holliman “went back to Los Angeles and studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.” It turns out the third visit was the charm. If you’ve read this far you’re aware that Holliman eventually made it in Hollywood, fulfilling a desire that had been with him since the age of 6.
Holliman’s story is an inspiring one of persistence, and it’s also a corrective to the popular modern narrative of “forgotten” Americans stuck in allegedly forgotten places. There’s no such thing, and Holliman’s life shows why. He didn’t just get out of Delhi, he hitchhiked. Nowadays, the buses, trains, automobiles and planes necessary to get Americans (free to migrate anywhere within all 50 states) to where opportunity awaits are endless.
No one is forgotten in a country like ours, they’re just immobile. The life of Earl Holliman shows why they are.
