Juvenile actor who graduated to starring his own series of 1940's "B" westerns and to playing solid supporting roles in higher-budget features.


Perhaps best remembered as the younger partner of Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), in which his father, Jack Holt, played a bit part. At the peak of his career in the 1940s "B" westerns, he was the "fastest draw" in the movies with the ability to draw his revolver in five frames of film (slightly over one-sixth of a second). From 1941-43 and 1948-52 Tim Holt was a top ten box office star. During World War II Holt was a member of the Army Air Corps and was wounded - ironically, on the last day of the war - in a bombing raid over Tokyo, for which he received a Purple Heart. While in the Army during WW II Tim Holt narrated a VD film seen by U.S. military personnel for many years afterward. Not related to actor David Holt. Made a couple NRA Gun safety Films in the 1950's called 'Shooting Straight with Tim Holt'. In the late 1950s he managed a 1400 acre 'dude ranch' and to promote it he hosted "The Tim Holt Western Theatre", a Saturday morning television series on KOCO-TV (Channel 5) in Oklahoma City, which telecast many of his western films. He was a home builder with developer Bill Atkinson. While developing Midwest City, near Tinker AF base, Atkinson would give away a Shetland pony with each house sold and Tim helped with the livestock. He campaigned for Atkinson in his run for Lt. Governor and developed an interest in politics. He was encouraged to run for Oklahoma Lt. Governor himself but didn't pursue office worried others would claim he was trying to capitalize on his film career. Ronald Reagan was considered for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). In WW II, while flying as a bombardier in a B-29 returning from a mission over Japan he saw the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima from the atomic bomb. Good friends with John Wayne since their Stagecoach (1939) days, he visited Tim at the Shawnee Hospital shortly before his death. While living in Malibu, year's earlier Wayne and Holt would practice shooting and different styles of wearing their holsters. The only "B" Western hero to smoke in his films. He smoked a pipe.