Phillips Raymond Holmes (July 22, 1907 – August 12, 1942) was an American actor. For his contributions to the film industry, he was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Early life, education and career

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Edna Phillips and stage star Taylor Holmes, Holmes enjoyed a privileged childhood and received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge in England, the University of Grenoble in France, and a year at Princeton University where he was spotted in the undergraduate crowd during the filming of Frank Tuttle's Varsity in 1928 and offered a screen test.[http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_31_n_1.pdf "Phillips Holmes '30{{spaced ndash}} Going Hollywood and After"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216034034/http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_31_n_1.pdf |date=2012-02-16 }} (PDF format). Princeton University Library Chronicle, Volume 31, Autumn 1969. In the early 1930s, he became a popular leading man, playing leads in a few important productions, notably in Josef von Sternberg's An American Tragedy (1931) and Ernst Lubitsch's Broken Lullaby (1932).{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/phillips-holmes-p32999|title=Phillips Holmes | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos|website=AllMovie}}

At Paramount, he starred in melodrama and comedy. In 1933, his contract with Paramount ran out and he moved to MGM for one year. As the decade progressed, Holmes' career declined, and he appeared in a few box-office failures, including Sam Goldwyn's poorly received Nana (1934).{{Cite news|url=https://hqofk.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/phillips-holmes|title=Phillips Holmes|date=2014-10-31|work=Speakeasy|access-date=2018-01-02}} His last American movie was General Spanky (1936). In 1938, he appeared in two UK movies. Housemaster was his last film, and he returned to acting on stage in the United States.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f6d8018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180606100149/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f6d8018|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 6, 2018|title=Phillips Holmes|website=BFI}}

Scandal

In 1933, Holmes was driving with actress Mae Clarke when he crashed into a parked car.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iqyzCgAAQBAJ&q=phillips+holmes+career+decline&pg=PA61|title=Women in Horror Films, 1930s|last=Mank|first=Gregory William|date=2005-05-17|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786423347|language=en}} Clarke, who suffered a broken jaw and facial cuts, sued Holmes for {{US$|21,500|1933|link=yes}}, claiming that he had been driving while drunk. Clarke dropped the suit when Holmes agreed to pay her medical expenses. The changes in her face adversely affected her burgeoning career in the long run (in 1931, she had played both Henry Frankenstein's fiancee in Frankenstein and was the recipient of half a grapefruit in the face from James Cagney in The Public Enemy).

Military service and death

At the start of World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed, aged 35, in a mid-air collision in northwest Ontario, Canada.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vz1yy1gjnuoC&q=%22phillips+holmes%22+plane+crash&pg=PA249|title=A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran|last=Buller|first=Richard P.|date=2005|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9780879103125|language=en}}Database (undated). [http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/phillips-holmes/ "Phillips Holmes"]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 10, 2014. Recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission under a younger age of 31, he was buried at the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven, Hawthorne, New York.{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2719953/HOLMES,%20PHILLIPS|title=CWGC casualty record}}