Joyce Holden (born Jo Ann Heckert, September 1, 1930) is an American retired film and television actress.

Contents

• 1 Early years
• 2 Film
• 3 Television
• 4 Personal life
• 5 References

Early years

Holden was born in Kansas City, Missouri. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D.P. Heckert, she is of Swedish, English, German and Dutch ancestry.

As a teenager, she modeled at a department store and used her drawing abilities to win a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Ins*ute. In the summer before Holden's senior year in high school, she and her brother went with their mother to Los Angeles, intending to spend two weeks' vacation there. Instead, they stayed, and she attended Hollywood High School her senior year. She went on to study at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Film

Holden's screen debut was in Universal-International's The Milkman (1950). Her other films included Iron Man (1951), Bronco Buster, Girls in the Night (1953) and You Never Can Tell (1951).

In 1958, she retired from acting after having appeared in 13 films. Lee Cozad wrote in the book More Magnificent Mountain Movies, "Holden found herself in a Hollywood that was awash with young brunette starlets and subsequently hung on for a couple of years, playing bit parts in 'A' movies and a few leads in 'B' pictures."

In a 1952 newspaper column distributed by Newspaper Enterprise *ociation, Holden attributed the difficulties in her film career to the fact that she started in comedy films. "It's murder when a young actress is stamped as a comedienne in Hollywood," she said. "My big mistake was in showing I had a comedy flair. There's no chance in Hollywood for an actress who starts out in comedy. You graduate into it."

Television

Holden was a regular on The Donald O'Connor Show (1954-1955). She also appeared in the Spin and Marty segment on The Mickey Mouse Club.

Personal life

On June 16, 1951, Holden married song writer Arnold Stanford in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were divorced on October 31, 1955.

She wed her second husband, industrial real estate broker David Mannhalter, in 1958. The couple are active members of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

References

• Film portal
• Television portal