Early life

Gloria Holden came to America as a child. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania

Wayne, Pennsylvania

Wayne is an unincorporated community located on the Main Line, centered in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. While the center of Wayne is in Radnor Township, Wayne extends into both Tredyffrin Township in Chester County and Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County...

, and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts

American Academy of Dramatic Arts

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Theater

Holden's early stage work included small parts in plays such as The Royal Family, in which she spoke four lines playing a nurse. She was an understudy

Understudy

In theater, an understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a regular actor or actress in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part...

 to Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis was a long-lived star of the British stage best known for her roles in the genre of musical theatre. After appearing with the Metropolitan Opera beginning in 1918, later appearing opposite Enrico Caruso, she acted on Broadway, creating the title role in Rose Marie...

 in Children of Darkness, and had a minor role in The Ferguson Family. She succeeded Lilly Cahill as the feminine lead in As Husbands Go at the John Golden Theatre

John Golden Theatre

The John Golden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 252 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. Designed in a Moorish style along with the adjacent Royale Theatre by architect Herbert J. Krapp for Irwin Chanin, it opened as the Theatre Masque on February 24 1927 with the play Puppets of Passion...

 on Broadway, in June 1931.

In August 1932, Holden was part of the cast of Manhattan Melody, at the Longacre Theatre

Longacre Theatre

The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 220 West 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.-Theatre History:Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts in 1912, it was named for Longacre Square, the original name for Times Square...

. The Lawrence Hazard play, adapted by L. Lawrence Weber, also featured Helen Lowell, Minnie Dupree, and William Corbett as players. She was the leading lady

Leading lady

Leading lady is an informal term for the actress who plays a secondary lead or supporting role, usually a love interest, to the leading actor in a film or play. It is not usually applied to the leading actress in the performance if her character is the protagonist.A leading lady can also be an...

 in Survivor (1933), written by D.L. James. Holden was among the cast members in Memory (1933), a Myron Fagan play.

The western drama, The Long Frontier (1935), was presented at the Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse, is a not-for-profit theater in Westport, Connecticut. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos the Playhouse produces new and classic plays for the public....

, Westport, Connecticut

Westport, Connecticut

-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

. Nance O'Neil headed a cast which included Holden, Alan Bunce, and Claire Carleton.

Films

She may be best remembered for two roles in her long career, that of Mme. Zola in The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola is a 1937 American biographical film about French author Émile Zola. Set in the mid through late 19th century, it depicts his friendship with noted painter Paul Cézanne, and his rise to fame through his prolific writing, with particular focus on his involvement in the Dreyfus...

 (1937), and her "exotic" depiction of the title role in Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter is a 1936 American vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the...

 (1936). Her performance in the latter influenced the writings or horror novelist Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...

, and Dracula's Daughter is directly mentioned in Rice's novel The Queen of the Damned

The Queen of the Damned

The Queen of the Damned is the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. It follows Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat...

.

In July 1937, Holden was assigned to play the character of Marian Morgan in The Man Without a Country

The Man Without a Country (1937 film)

The Man Without a Country is a 1937 short drama film directed by Crane Wilbur in Technicolor. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1937 for Best Short Subject . It is a remake of the 1917 film of the same name, based on the story by Edward Everett Hale. Actor Holmes Herbert appeared in both...

 (1937). The Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

 short co-starred John Litel

John Litel

John Litel was an American film actor. During World War I, Litel enlisted in the French Army and was twice decorated for bravery....

 and was nominated for an Academy Award.

In the Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 production, Dodge City

Dodge City (1939 film)

Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Bruce Cabot. Directed by Hungarian-turned-Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor...

 (1939), Holden played the part of the aunt of Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland

Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

.

In the Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

-themed Behind The Rising Sun (1943), Holden portrays Sara Braden and plays alongside of Robert Ryan

Robert Ryan

Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...

 and Margo.

Gloria Holden accumulated film credits throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including films such as The Hucksters

The Hucksters

The Hucksters is a 1947 MGM film directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable that marked the debut of Deborah Kerr in an American film. It also featured Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnold and Ava Gardner...

 (1947), Killer McCoy (1947), Precious Waters (1948), A Kiss for Corliss (1949), and The Eddy Duchin Story

The Eddy Duchin Story

The Eddy Duchin Story is a 1956 biopic of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin. It was directed by George Sidney-helmed film, written by Samuel A. Taylor, and starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. The musical soundtrack recording, imitating Duchin's style, was performed by pianist Carmen Cavallaro....

 (1956). Her last roles came in 1958, when she played in This Happy Feeling

This Happy Feeling

This Happy Feeling is a 1958 film by Blake Edwards adapted from the F. Hugh Herbert play For Love or Money. Edwards regretted Universal's eleventh hour decision of a name change, but the studio was hoping to trade off another pop hit by Debbie Reynolds as they had with Tammy and the Bachelor....

 and Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame (film)

Auntie Mame is a 1958 film based on the novel by Patrick Dennis and its theatrical adaptation by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. This film version stars Rosalind Russell and was directed by Morton DaCosta...

.

Personal life

In 1937 dated Rudy Sehr, a member of a Viennese

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 banking family and a film cutter in Hollywood
Gloria. In 1944 she married William Hoyt, her husband until her death. They had one son, their only child Christopher, who died in 1970. Gloria Holden was an enthusiastic cyclist.

Gloria Holden was mother of Glen Corbett

Glen Corbett

Glen Corbett was an American actor, son of actress Gloria Holden, and married to actress Adrienne Ellis. He was perhaps best known for his roles as Mack Miller on The Fireball and Barney Stetson on The Violent Years .Father of actress Laurie Holden Glen Corbett (Born Larry Holden ) was an...

 (born Larry Holden, of her first mariage), former mother-in-law of Adrienne Ellis

Adrienne Ellis

Adrienne Ellis is an American-Canadian actress, ex-daughter-in-law of actress Gloria Holden. She began her career in 1960, when she plays Shirley on the TV Series Dan Raven. Others credits includes TV Series Suspicion, The Virginian and Morning Star. Adrienne Ellis was the wife of actor Glen Corbett...

 and grandmother of Christopher Holden

Christopher Holden

Christopher William Holden is an American actor and assistant director, son of actors Glen Corbett and Adrienne Ellis. Younger brother of actress Laurie Holden ). His stepfather is Academy Award-winning director Michael Anderson...

 and actress Laurie Holden

Laurie Holden

Heather Laurie Holden is an American-Canadian actress and human rights activist. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Marita Covarrubias in The X-Files, Adele Stanton on The Majestic, Cybil Bennett in Silent Hill, Amanda Dumfries in The Mist, Olivia Murray in The Shield, and Andrea in The...

 (The X-Files

The X-Files

The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

, The Mist

The Mist

The Mist is a horror novella by the American author Stephen King, in which the small town of Bridgton, Maine is suddenly enveloped in an unnatural mist that conceals otherworldly monsters. It was first published as the first and longest story of the 1980 horror anthology Dark Forces. A slightly...

, The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is a monthly black-and-white US comic book series published by Image Comics beginning in 2003. The comic was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, who was replaced by Charlie Adlard from issue #7 onward, although Moore continued to do the covers through issue...

).

She died in March 1991 in Redlands, California

Redlands, California

Redlands is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 68,747, up from 63,591 at the 2000 census. The city is located east of downtown San Bernardino.- History :...

, from a heart attack, aged 82.

External links

• Gloria Holden New York Times Filmography
  Filmography
  Filmography is a collective noun for a list of films related by some criterion. For example, an actor's career filmography is the list of films he or she has appeared in; a director's comedy filmography is the list of comedy films directed by a particular director...