Phillips Holmes(1907-1942)
- Actor
A future in movies for this fair-haired, fresh-faced young adult of the
1930s was by no means certain at the time of his untimely death in a
mid-air plane collision. Hints of the All-American leading man promise
Phillips Holmes managed to convey during the early to mid decade,
particularly in the film adaptation of
Theodore Dreiser 's novel
An American Tragedy (1931),
had faded significantly. In the meantime he was maintaining with stage
work and had just graduated from Air Ground School as an aircraftsman
when he suddenly died at age 35 on August 12, 1942.
Phillips, his sister Madeline and their youngest brother,
Ralph Holmes (pronounced "Rafe,"
who later became an actor as well) came from ripe acting stock.
Character actor Taylor Holmes was a
well-established character player in vaudeville and on the stage and
screen. He and actress wife
Edna Phillips met during a
production of "Hamlet" and first-born Phillips' odd first name was
bestowed upon him courtesy of his Canadian-born mother. The children
were often shunted about to live with various relatives while their
parents were on the road. Phillips attended many different schools
growing up and graduated from Newman Prep School in New Jersey. He
traveled to Europe for his college education, attending Cambridge
University in England and (later) Grenoble University in France. His
natural ability at athletics led to solid respect as a member of the
rowing team during his college years. He eventually returned to the US
and decided upon Princeton.
An inherent interest in acting (Princeton's The Triangle Club) led to
his stage debut in the Princeton Triangle Show "Napoleon Passes" at the
Metropolitan Opera House in 1927. While at college he, by luck and via
certain connections, also managed to make his film debut with
Varsity (1928) and was offered a
Paramount contract as a result. After a number of false starts, bit
parts, bad pictures and a major bout with nervous exhaustion, Phillips
began to score some early first impressions with juvenile leads in the
films
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929),
Pointed Heels (1929), the
Gary Cooper starrer
Only the Brave (1930) and, more
notably,
The Devil's Holiday (1930)
and Stolen Heaven (1931), both
opposite established star
Nancy Carroll.
It all led to the role of his career in Dreiser's
An American Tragedy (1931)
the ill-fated story of a wanderlust young man who falls hard for a
beautiful socialite (Frances Dee) while
trying to find a way to extricate himself from the clutches of a drab,
maudlin girl from the wrong side of the tracks he had met earlier and
impregnated (Sylvia Sidney). In
the same part that would later establish
Montgomery Clift as a archetypal
tortured romantic in
A Place in the Sun (1951),
Holmes equipped himself admirably in a difficult role and was seemingly
on his way to Hollywood stardom.
Firmly on the Paramount roster list, the handsome blue-eyed blond
co-starred as both vulnerable, weak-willed gents and feistier men in
comedy and melodrama, including
Broken Lullaby (1932) and
Two Kinds of Women (1932). He
then signed with MGM and appeared in more of the same standard filming
-- Night Court (1932),
The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933)
and Men Must Fight (1933). A huge
chance for major attention turned bleak after being heavily promoted in
the film Nana (1934) opposite beauteous
Russian import Anna Sten. Touted as the "next
Garbo", the movie tanked badly with his performance cited as bland and
wooden, and the equally stiff Ms. Sten lost all hope for stardom.
Phillips provided a bit more dash and élan in
Caravan (1934) opposite
Loretta Young but it was not enough to
turn his career around. From then on he freelanced both here and abroad
in mostly "B" fodder that included the "Our Gang" feature-length
misfire General Spanky (1936) and
the British programmers
The Dominant Sex (1937) and (his
swan song) Housemaster (1938), both
with "tea rose" beauty
Diana Churchill.
Phillps had to make do on stage at this point with his participation in
such plays as "The Petrified Forest", "Golden Boy", "The Male Animal"
and "The Philadelphia Story". Along with his career decline, he
suffered upsets in his personal life. A fractured romance with
scandalous millionaire chanteuse
Libby Holman led to her marrying brother
Ralph on the rebound. That 1939 marriage fell apart within a few years
and Ralph would subsequently commit suicide in his NY apartment from a
barbiturate overdose in 1945, three years after Phillips' death.
With WWII now a harsh reality, both brothers enlisted in the Royal
Canadian Air Force toward the end of 1941. While Ralph became a pilot
officer, Phillips attended the Air Ground School at Winnipeg. Following
graduation, he and six of his aircraftsmen classmates were transferred
but the plane carrying the men en route to their new destination
(Ottawa) collided with another in Ontario killing all aboard.
1930s was by no means certain at the time of his untimely death in a
mid-air plane collision. Hints of the All-American leading man promise
Phillips Holmes managed to convey during the early to mid decade,
particularly in the film adaptation of
Theodore Dreiser 's novel
An American Tragedy (1931),
had faded significantly. In the meantime he was maintaining with stage
work and had just graduated from Air Ground School as an aircraftsman
when he suddenly died at age 35 on August 12, 1942.
Phillips, his sister Madeline and their youngest brother,
Ralph Holmes (pronounced "Rafe,"
who later became an actor as well) came from ripe acting stock.
Character actor Taylor Holmes was a
well-established character player in vaudeville and on the stage and
screen. He and actress wife
Edna Phillips met during a
production of "Hamlet" and first-born Phillips' odd first name was
bestowed upon him courtesy of his Canadian-born mother. The children
were often shunted about to live with various relatives while their
parents were on the road. Phillips attended many different schools
growing up and graduated from Newman Prep School in New Jersey. He
traveled to Europe for his college education, attending Cambridge
University in England and (later) Grenoble University in France. His
natural ability at athletics led to solid respect as a member of the
rowing team during his college years. He eventually returned to the US
and decided upon Princeton.
An inherent interest in acting (Princeton's The Triangle Club) led to
his stage debut in the Princeton Triangle Show "Napoleon Passes" at the
Metropolitan Opera House in 1927. While at college he, by luck and via
certain connections, also managed to make his film debut with
Varsity (1928) and was offered a
Paramount contract as a result. After a number of false starts, bit
parts, bad pictures and a major bout with nervous exhaustion, Phillips
began to score some early first impressions with juvenile leads in the
films
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929),
Pointed Heels (1929), the
Gary Cooper starrer
Only the Brave (1930) and, more
notably,
The Devil's Holiday (1930)
and Stolen Heaven (1931), both
opposite established star
Nancy Carroll.
It all led to the role of his career in Dreiser's
An American Tragedy (1931)
the ill-fated story of a wanderlust young man who falls hard for a
beautiful socialite (Frances Dee) while
trying to find a way to extricate himself from the clutches of a drab,
maudlin girl from the wrong side of the tracks he had met earlier and
impregnated (Sylvia Sidney). In
the same part that would later establish
Montgomery Clift as a archetypal
tortured romantic in
A Place in the Sun (1951),
Holmes equipped himself admirably in a difficult role and was seemingly
on his way to Hollywood stardom.
Firmly on the Paramount roster list, the handsome blue-eyed blond
co-starred as both vulnerable, weak-willed gents and feistier men in
comedy and melodrama, including
Broken Lullaby (1932) and
Two Kinds of Women (1932). He
then signed with MGM and appeared in more of the same standard filming
-- Night Court (1932),
The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933)
and Men Must Fight (1933). A huge
chance for major attention turned bleak after being heavily promoted in
the film Nana (1934) opposite beauteous
Russian import Anna Sten. Touted as the "next
Garbo", the movie tanked badly with his performance cited as bland and
wooden, and the equally stiff Ms. Sten lost all hope for stardom.
Phillips provided a bit more dash and élan in
Caravan (1934) opposite
Loretta Young but it was not enough to
turn his career around. From then on he freelanced both here and abroad
in mostly "B" fodder that included the "Our Gang" feature-length
misfire General Spanky (1936) and
the British programmers
The Dominant Sex (1937) and (his
swan song) Housemaster (1938), both
with "tea rose" beauty
Diana Churchill.
Phillps had to make do on stage at this point with his participation in
such plays as "The Petrified Forest", "Golden Boy", "The Male Animal"
and "The Philadelphia Story". Along with his career decline, he
suffered upsets in his personal life. A fractured romance with
scandalous millionaire chanteuse
Libby Holman led to her marrying brother
Ralph on the rebound. That 1939 marriage fell apart within a few years
and Ralph would subsequently commit suicide in his NY apartment from a
barbiturate overdose in 1945, three years after Phillips' death.
With WWII now a harsh reality, both brothers enlisted in the Royal
Canadian Air Force toward the end of 1941. While Ralph became a pilot
officer, Phillips attended the Air Ground School at Winnipeg. Following
graduation, he and six of his aircraftsmen classmates were transferred
but the plane carrying the men en route to their new destination
(Ottawa) collided with another in Ontario killing all aboard.