- Born
- Birth nameRexford George Holman
- Nickname
- Roye Baker
- Gaunt, emaciated-looking American character actor, typically cast as sneering, psychotic western gunslingers or henchmen. Born Roy Eugene Baker, he was billed as 'Roye Baker' in his motion picture debut as Lloyd Barker (1896-1949), a member of Ma Barker et son gang (1960) (the infamous Barker-Karpis Gang). Though he originally hailed from Oklahoma, Holman's family settled in southern California during the depression era. He was educated at Pierce Junior College in Woodland Hills and found his way to acting via an acquaintance, beginning his career in college and community theatre and summer stock. He was also at one time employed by a Hollywood film editing company.
Between 1960 and 1979, Holman made numerous guest appearances in TV westerns (invariably as vicious, snarky outlaws), racking up the most credits in Gunsmoke (1955), Le Virginien (1962), La grande vallée (1965), La grande caravane (1957) and Rawhide (1959). Fans of Star Trek (1966) will also remember him as Morgan Earp in the episode 'Spectre of the Gun' and as J'Onn, one of Sybok's disciples in Star Trek V : L'Ultime Frontière (1989). His other forays into the science fiction genre include La quatrième dimension (1959), Au-delà du réel (1963) and Land of the Giants (1968). In popular crime and espionage-themed series, he was similarly cast as callous or shifty types with names like Tiger, Evil Face, Oregano, Snake and Angel. As in the westerns, most of his characters ended up the worse for wear (usually afflicted by 'lead poisoning') by the end of the episode.
In 1959, Holman declared his hobbies to be flamenco guitar playing and dancing. He retired from acting in 1989 after reputedly investing wisely in real estate.- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis
- Probably best remembered for playing hotheaded young gunslingers--who usually wound up shot full of holes before the end credits--in many TV westerns in the '50s and '60s.
- In Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019), he's shown via archived footage in his role as the bad guy "Tiger" on the television series All the Streets Are Silent (1965) with Leonardo DiCaprio's character, actor Rick Dalton, who is incorporated into the episode (via CGI) in place of the original episode's Burt Reynolds in the role. In the film, Dalton is commenting on working with the various actors as they are shown onscreen during the credits. When Holman is shown, he says 'That guy was an a**hole.' Permission was received from Holman to use the line (which refers to him personally), 54 years after the original episode was filmed.
- Appeared on the original Star Trek (1966) series and in an original cast movie: Star Trek V : L'Ultime Frontière (1989).
- Although born in Denver, CO, he lived a good number of years of his life in Tulsa, OK.
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