Clarance Holt
| Clarance Holt | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Joseph Frederick Holt 9 January 1826 Marylebone, London, England |
| Died | 27 September 1903 (aged 77) Bloomsbury, England |
| Occupation | actor-manager |
| Years active | 1846–1893 |
| Spouse(s) | Marian Vaughan |
| Children | Ellen Elizabeth Holt Elizabeth May Holt Joseph Thomas Holt |
Clarance Holt (9 January 1826 – 27 September 1903), born Joseph Frederick Holt was an English actor-manager who had a successful career on the stage in England, Australia and New Zealand. His company included his wife and, frequently, his three children, all of whom went on to have successful careers on the stage.
He was born on 9 January 1826 in Marylebone, London the youngest son of Thomas Holt and Elizabeth Giddens. His father was a successful military tailor with an establishment (Thomas Holt & Son) in Piccadilly. He was variously described in his younger days as actor, acrobat and comedian and eventually adopted the stage name of Clarance. Holt made his stage debut in 1842 as Timothy in William Thomas Moncrieff's farce All at Coventry at the Victoria Theatre, London. He married Marian Browne (sometimes named Marian Vaughan) in 1847 and they were acting together by 1850 when he was appointed manager of the Theatre Royal, Norwich under the name of Joseph Clarance.
Holt went to Melbourne with his wife in September 1854 at the suggestion of George Coppin. From Geelong he went to Hobart Town and Launceston, Tasmania and in September 1855 opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Sydney. Before leaving Australia in April 1857 he had played in most of the goldfields centres of Victoria and performed on 330 nights. In 1858 he returned to Melbourne with his family on board the Josephine. A successful tragedian, Holt played Othello to Gustavus Brooke's Iago; in 1862 as joint lessee of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, he engaged such players as Brooke, Anna Bishop, Joseph Jefferson and others. When the lease ran out he went to Dunedin and "became the pioneer of the English drama in New Zealand" by establishing the theatre there.
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