Theatre Register

Taylor Holmes

Shows · Taylor Holmes

Actor 1878–1959 On stage 19001946

Taylor Holmes (May 16, 1878 – October 1, 1959) was an American actor who appeared in over 100 Broadway plays and on-screen performances over his five-decade career. The 1915 recording of his recitation of Rudyard Kipling's "Boots" was featured in the acclaimed theatrical trailer for Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later (2025).

On stage 35 productions, 46 years

1900 Dangerous Women Star Theatre · Original
1900 Hamlet Garden Theatre · Revival · directed by Fred Williams 16 perf.
1900 Sapho Wallacks Theatre · Original 29 perf.
1902 Hon. John Grigsby Manhattan Theatre · Original · directed by Frank Keenan 27 perf.
1904 Ranson's Folly Hudson Theatre · Original 61 perf.
1907 A Grand Army Man Stuyvesant Theatre · Original 149 perf.
1909 The Midnight Sons Broadway Theatre · Original 257 perf.
1910 The Commuters Criterion Theatre · Original 160 perf.
1911 Hell / Temptations / Gaby Folies Bergere · Original · directed by George Marion 92 perf.
1911 The Million 39th Street Theatre · Original · directed by Richard Pittman 126 perf.
1913 Somewhere Else Broadway Theatre · Original · directed by Frank Smithson 8 perf.
1914 The Third Party 39th Street Theatre · Original 104 perf.
1915 Mr. Myd's Mystery Comedy Theatre · Original 16 perf.
1916 His Majesty Bunker Bean Astor Theatre · Original 72 perf.
1920 Crooked Gamblers Hudson Theatre · Original · directed by Robert Milton 82 perf.
1921 Smooth as Silk Lexington Theatre · Original 50 perf.
1922 The Hotel Mouse Shubert Theatre · Original · directed by John Harwood 88 perf.
1923 Not So Fast Morosco Theatre · Original · directed by Leon Gordon 31 perf.
1926 Happy-Go-Lucky Liberty Theatre · Revival · directed by Fred G. Latham 52 perf.
1928 The Great Necker Ambassador Theatre · Original · directed by J. Fred Butler 39 perf.
1931 Cold in Sables Cort Theatre · Original 15 perf.
1931 Joy of Living Theatre Masque · Original · directed by Harry Butler 16 perf.
1932 New York to Cherbourg Forrest Theatre · Original 3 perf.
1932 Radio City Music Hall Inaugural Program Radio City Music Hall · Original · directed by Leon Leonidoff 1 perf.
1932 That's Gratitude Waldorf Theatre · Revival · directed by Robert Burton 204 perf.
1933 Riddle Me This Hudson Theatre · Revival · directed by Robert Burton 70 perf.
1934 Say When Imperial Theatre · Revival · directed by Bertram Harrison 76 perf.
1935 It's You I Want Cort Theatre · Original · directed by Joshua Logan 15 perf.
1937 I’d Rather Be Right Alvin Theatre · Original · directed by George S. Kaufman 290 perf.
1941 Boudoir John Golden Theatre · Original 11 perf.
1941 First Stop to Heaven Windsor Theatre · Original · directed by Robert Henderson 8 perf.
1942 Vickie Plymouth Theatre · Original · directed by José Ferrer 48 perf.
1942 What Big Ears! Windsor Theatre · Original · directed by Arthur Pierson 8 perf.
1945 Marinka Winter Garden Theatre · Original · directed by Hassard Short 165 perf.
1946 Woman Bites Dog Belasco Theatre · Original · directed by Coby Ruskin 5 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

George Lyman 3 productions
Warren Ashe 2 productions
Margaret Sande 2 productions
Louis Brown 2 productions
Leonard Outram 2 productions
Jack Leslie 2 productions
Howard Hall 2 productions
Harry C Power 2 productions
Gerald Kent 2 productions
Cora Witherspoon 2 productions
Clara Louise Moores 2 productions
Belford Forrest 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 12 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

I’d Rather Be Right

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature5 passages

  • Cast: George M. Cohan, Taylor Holmes, Joy Hodges, Austin Marshall, Marion Green, Mary Jane Walshebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Kane, “Trilby” with Phyllis Neilson-Terry, Wilton Lackaye, Leo Ditrichstein, Rose Coghlan, Burr McIntosh and Taylor Holmes; “A Celebrated Case” with Nat C. Goodwin, Otis Skinner, Florence Reed, Robert Warwick, Helen Ware, Eugene O’Brien and Ann Murdock, and Maude Adams in “Peter Pan” with Ruththeatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • ROSE COGHLAN, TAYLOR HOLMES, PHYLLIS NEILSON-TERRY, LEO DITRICHSTEIN, GEORGE MacFARLANE, BURR McINTOSH, BRANDON TYNAN, WILTON LACKAYE in ‘’TRILBY”’theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • Wetona,” Taylor Holmes in “His Majesty Bunker Bean” and Patricia Collinge in “Pollyanna.” “The Melody of Youth” was played by Lily Cahill, Eva Le Gallienne and Brandon Tynan, “A King of Nowhere” by Lou Tellegen and Olive Tell, “Rio Grande” by Richard Bennett and Lola Fisher, “Please Help Emily” bytheatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • Walsh, Florenz Ames, Taylor Holmes and Joseph Macaulay A Homogeneous Cabinet Have You Met Miss Jones? Take and Take and Take Spring in Vienna A Little Bit of Constitutional Fun Edgar Connor, Harry Langdon, A1 Jolson and Madge Evans in Hallelujah, I'm a Bumtheatre-pdfs/Thou Swell Thou Witty-The Life and Lyrics of Lorenz Hart - Hart, Dorothy.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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