Ralph Holmes

Biography

The American stage and film actor Ralph "Rafe" Holmes was the son of the actors Taylor Holmes and Edna Phillips and the brother of actor Phillip Holmes. He is best remembered for being the second husband of legendary torch singer Libby Holman, who became a millionairess when a million dollars was a million dollars after her first husband, R. J. Reynolds tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds, shot himself to death in 1932 after an argument with her. Holmes, too, killed himself, as did Holman in 1971. Holmes made his Broadway debut in January 1935 in the comedy "A Lady Detained." The play flopped, but his next production, You Can't Take It with You (1938) was a smash hit, playing for two years from 1936 to 1938. His last appearance on Broadway came in 1939, in the successful musical-comedy "Yokel Boy". The play opened in July, four months after he married Holman, who previously had been involved with his brother Phillip. He and his wife appeared on the summer stock circuit. Along with his brother Phillip, Rafe Holmes joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 to fight the Axis during World War Two. (Their mother was Canadian.) Phillip was killed in 1942 in a plane accident in Canada, and Rafe allegedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his war experiences, which exacerbated his chronic depression and alcoholism. After returning from the war after being demobilized in August 1945, he was not welcomed back by his wife. He died from an overdose of barbiturates on November 15, 1945.