Harry Dawson Reynolds (m. 1921-19??; divorced); 1 son Harold A. Winston (1932-1937; divorced) William Hoyt (1944–1991; her death); 1 son
Children
2
Gloria Anna Holden (September 5, 1903 – March 22, 1991) was an English-born American film actress, best known for her role as Dracula's Daughter. She often portrayed cold society women.[1]
Early life
Holden was born in London, England.[2] She emigrated to the United States as a child with her parents, Charles Laurence Sutherland and Eska (née Bergmann). Her mother was German.[3][better source needed] She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Before she became an actress, she modeled for artists, was a shopper for a store, and worked in a beauty salon.[4] In her early teens, living in suburban Philadelphia (Gladwyne), she took voice lessons from Philip Warren Cook and was a church chorister in Ardmore and, later, Overbrook.[5]
Theatre
Holden's early stage work included small parts in plays such as The Royal Family, in which she spoke four lines playing a nurse. She was an understudy to Mary Ellis in Children of Darkness, and had a minor role in That Ferguson Family.[6] She was an understudy for Brass Ankle (1931), had a bit part in The Desert Song (1926),[4] and succeeded Lilly Cahill in As Husbands Go at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, in June 1931. In August 1932, Holden was part of the cast of Manhattan Melody at the Longacre Theatre. The Lawrence Hazard play, adapted by L. Lawrence Weber, also featured Helen Lowell, Minnie Dupree and William Corbett as players. She was the leading lady in Survivor (1933), written by D.L. James. Holden was among the cast members in Memory (1933), a Myron Fagan play.[citation needed]
Holden was active in stock theater in Cincinnati, Ohio; Princeton, New Jersey; and Scarborough, New York.[4]
Holden married Harry Dawson Reynolds in 1921. The following year, she gave birth to a son, Lawrence Reynolds, who became actor Glen Corbett, whose children, Laurie and Christopher Holden, adopted their paternal grandmother's maiden name professionally. The marriage between Holden and Reynolds ended in divorce.
She married, secondly, to Harold A. Winston on December 17, 1932. This union also ended in divorce, on December 2, 1937.
In 1944, she married her third husband, William Hoyt, to whom she remained married until her death. They had one son, William Christopher Hoyt, who was born in 1948 and killed by a boulder rolled onto his car in 1970, listed as a homicide.[10]
Harold Winston, Gloria Holden's second husband, was credited with helping discover actor William Holden. An account of how William Holden obtained his stage name is based on a statement by George Ross of Billboard magazine: "William Holden, the lad just signed for the coveted lead in 'Golden Boy', used to be Bill Beadle. And here is how he obtained his new movie tag. On the Columbia lot is an assistant director and scout named Harold Winston. Not long ago he was divorced from the actress, Gloria Holden, but carried the torch after the marital rift. Winston was one of those who discovered the "Golden Boy" newcomer and who renamed him — in honor of his former spouse!..."[12]
^"Began as Chorister." Buffalo (NY) Evening News, 12 March 1932.
^""House Unguarded at Little" - New Play of the Panama Canal Zone Will Open on Broadway on Jan. 15 - Gossip of the Players". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: 12A. January 4, 1929.
