It was an odd turn of fate for an actor who’s remembered for his leading roles in several Hollywood classics — the 1942 Orson Welles film The Magnificent Ambersons, the 1946 John Ford western My Darling Clementine and the 1948 John Huston film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
A decorated combat veteran in World War II, Holt earned a Purple Heart while flying in the Pacific Theatre as a B-29 bombardier with the Army Air Force. He starred in westerns before and after the war, including 46 RKO B pictures.
Holt proved popular enough to star in a western comic book published by Magazine Enterprises from 1948 to 1956. In the 20th issue of Tim Holt, writer Gardner Fox and artist Frank Bolle told readers how Sheriff Tim Holt heard the story of Redmask, a mystery man of the Rio Grande long before, and decided to adopt that identity to fight crime.
Holt’s secret identity may have been inspired by the popularity of the Ghost Rider, a Dick Ayers feature appearing in his title.
“The real-life Tim Holt’s career as a cowboy star petered out in the early ’50s,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “In fact, by the middle of 1952, he wasn’t doing those roles at all anymore. But the comic book continued for another couple of years. There’s little doubt that his activities as Redmask contributed to his longevity in that venue, because when the Tim Holt title finally bit the dust, it was replaced with Red Mask... The switch took place with #42 (July 1954). The only difference in the content was that a couple of issues earlier, he’d switched from a triangular lower-half face mask like Vigilante wore to a domino mask like that of Nighthawk.”
Meanwhile, the real Holt became the manager of an Oklahoma radio station, dying in 1973 at the age of 54.
Joseph Lenius:
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I first became aware of Tim Holt via comic fandom, i.e., by learning that there had been Tim Holt comics, even though I never had any. Then I saw at least one Tim Holt movie on TV, but was unimpressed. But later (while still a kid), I was very surprised to see him in The Magnificent Ambersons, a great movie!
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, I was a fan of Tim Holt’s movie work, especially his appearance in the aforementioned film ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’.
I do believe that I actually did come across a few Tim Holt (including Redmask) comics during the early days of my exposure to ‘comics from before my time’, but I don’t remember making the connection between the character and the actor. It’s possible that I did back then, but have forgotten about it in the many years since.
He’s yet another in the grand tradition of masked cowboy heroes, a trope I have a lifelong fondness for.
Alaric Shapli:
ReplyDeleteAnd once the title changed, they stopped mentioning the character's real name. A clever way to keep writing a licensed character after you lose the license. (The Ghost Rider backup stories were generally better, though.)
Michael Wurl:
ReplyDeleteMy dad liked Tim Holt. Thatsa looong time ago.
Michael Fraley:
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that Redmask lost his secret identity. Like the Lone Ranger, he was just Redmask all of the time. Like the Spirit, no one ever pointed out that he was wearing a mask or asked why. The series ended in 1957 with Redmask #54 -- one of the few masked heroes to make it into the silver age ... without ever really being noticed.
I replied:
I imagine they wanted to avoid a legal tangle with Tim Holt after the license expired.
David Lasky:
ReplyDeleteI've long been fascinated by the fact that he starred in "Ambersons," one of the great films of cinema, and yet is virtually unknown today. I mentioned this to my father about 20 years ago, and he mentioned that Holt had been an actor in Westerns. It's nice to know he had a comic book too!
I replied:
That fascinates me too. He was in SEVERAL film classics. His career as an actor was all over the map, and then he was forgotten.