Navy Vet Earl Holliman, 96, dead

I wonder what the most common excuses for not serving are? “I wanted to enlist in high school, but my parents wouldn’t sign for me” has to be one of the most common. (A valued friend who died last year was at least honest – “I thought about going in but wound up getting into bikes, booze, drugs, and partying for so long I was too old to”.)  Well, Mr. Holliman did manage to get into the Navy when he was only 15.

He was raised in Oil City, La., and enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 during WWII where he mingled with stars at the famous Hollywood Canteen. The Navy discovered his age a year later and he was discharged, only to re-enlist after he graduated high school.  Variety

Points for under-age enlistment. And to explain the Hollywood access, the radioman’s school he was sent to was in the area. BIG points when he was thrown out, aged a bit, and going back in legitimately and doing his hitch. A pretty decent athlete, also his senior class president and honors student, he played right tackle in his eventual high school and turned down a scholarship at Louisiana State presumably to re-enlist in the Navy, and wound up stationed at Norfolk. (BIL was stationed there too, and said the high school cheerleaders had a cheer “We don’t drink, we don’t smoke. Norfolk! Norfolk!”)

Holliman had a pretty decent Hollywood film career – you probably saw him in many movies (“Giant”, “Broken Lance”, “Forbidden Planet”, “Gunfight at the OK Corral”, “Bridges at Toko-Ri”, “Rainmaker” (for which he beat Elvis Presley to get the  role) and “Sons of Katie Elder” come to mind. His TV career was solid as well – he starred in the very first Twilight Zone episode, guested on many series, appeared on many, many game shows, and of course his biggest TV gig – starring with Angie Dickinson on “Police Woman. (If she failed to make your radar, watch John Wayne’s “Rio Bravo again. Yowzahs.)

Holliman had a few sidelines, too –  five years of decently successful pop music recordings, performed on stage for years (Tennessee Williams himself went to see Holliman perform 11 times and said Holliman’s his were the best portrayals of Williams roles.)

And notably, Holliman was the National Honorary Chairman of the Marine’s Toys for Tots program.Wiki – Earl Holliman

Born into grinding proverty, a long and successful career – here’s a Navy vet worth noting. Fair winds and following seas, sir.

Category: Fair Winds and Following Seas, None, We Remember