Jack Holt Biography

Fast Facts

• Was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Went to Alaska with an exploration company shortly after high school, anticipating a copper boom, but ended up spending several years there as a prospector, freight packer, fur trapper and mail carrier
• Worked as a cowpuncher in Oregon after returning to the contiguous United States
• Took a stunt job with a motion picture company in San Francisco in 1913, during which he caught the attention of director William Nigh and was invited to Hollywood
• He was originally cast as a menace, but soon switched to heroic roles, usually in westerns
• Played the leads in multiple movie adaptations of Zane Grey's novels
• The National Film Preservation Foundation released a 2011 anthology called "Treasures 5 The West 1898-1938" which includes a scene of him triumphantly riding a horse down a steep embankment into the Russian River
• Enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 54 during World War II so that he could work as a horse buyer for the United States Cavalry
• In 1928, he became a life member of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of California
• Was the visual inspiration for Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy" and Al Capp's "Fearless Fosdick․"