National Library of Australia

Provided by The Australian Dictionary of Biography

HOLT, JOSEPH THOMAS (1851-1942), producer, theatre entrepreneur and actor best known as BLAND, was born on 24 March 1851 at Norwich, England, son of Joseph Frederick Holt and his first wife Marie, née Brown. His father, actor-manager in the Norwich Theatre, went to Melbourne with his wife in September 1854 at the suggestion of George Coppin. From Geelong he went to Hobart Town and Launceston 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. In 1858 he returned to Melbourne with his family, including Bland, in 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 for about two years before returning to England. In September 1878 he became joint lessee of the Duke's Theatre, Holborn. He died in London in October 1903.

Author: Dennis Shoesmith

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