PICTURE STARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 15

PICTURE STARS

JACK HOLT Jack Holt is the son of an Episcopal clergyman. He was born in the southern State of Virginia and lived there until he was nine years old. His father was then called to a parish in New York, where Jack was sent to school. Later, -after his father’s health had failed and the family again moved to Virginia, he was sent to the Virginia Military Institute to complete his education. After graduation he obtained a position as a civil engineer with a railroad company. This position took him to the ranching section of the United States and the horses and cattle punching proved more attractive to Jack than engineering, so he abandoned his original intention of following an engineering career and became a cattle puncher. It is to this experience that he owes his expert horsemanship. It was as a rider he happened into his first motion picture. Many experiences, however, had intervened between this and his cattle punching days. He had explored for copper in Alaska, awaiting a boom which never came, and he had appeared in many stock companies and vaudeville sketches on the stage, gaining an experience which later assisted him

greatly in his motion picture career. Gaining his entrance into pictures as a horseman, he appeared in many Western productions, but finally drifted into the role, of “heavy” into other pictures. However, he was soon playing the villain roles so attractively and sympathetically that the heroes objected and he was given the leads. One of his first leading roles was in “The Life Line,” a Paramount picture. He immediately signed a contract to play leads in Paramount productions and appeared in many successes until his popularity won him stardom. Among his most recent productions for Paramount are “Eve’s Secret,” “The Light of the Western Stars,” “Wild Horse Mesa,” “The Ancient Highway,” “The Enchanted Hill.” “Sea Horses,” “The Blind Goddess,” “Born to the West,” and “The Mysterious Rider.”