Byrd Holland
 Journeyman Makeup Artist   
 (1927 - 2023)

Byrd was born in Atlanta, Georgia on July 20, 1927 to Eleanor Tomlinson Odum and William Tate Holland. After serving in the Navy at the end of World War II, he moved to New York, where he studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse under Sanford Meisner, appearing in the legendary teacher’s off-Broadway plays. He toured the country in summer stock productions, becoming a senior member of Actor’s Equity by age 25, making him one of the youngest senior members at that time. In 1953, he moved to Hollywood, where he married Patricia Ann Masters. Together, they raised two children, Tate and Tara.

Byrd’s acting credits included the original Fast and the Furious from 1954, cult classic The Creeping Terror, The Black Klansman, and Madame X. In Five Minutes to Live, he was cast as the sheriff who shoots Johnny Cabot, played by country music legend Johnny Cash.

He told Fangoria in 2003 that his first make-up job was on Terror In the Jungle, in which he’d originally been hired to play a reporter.

"A makeup artist named Harry Thomas came to me one day and said, ‘You’re good at this acting thing, but there’s a movie coming up and they need a makeup artist, and I can’t do it.’ I said, ‘I’m not a makeup artist!’ He said, ‘Well, you know enough about makeup that you can get through this thing.’ So I played the reporter at the beginning … and I also did makeup."

Mr. Holland was perhaps best known for his out-of-the-box make-up FX on 70’s horror films such as Rabid and Lemora. He was Department Head on motion pictures such as Executive Action, The Spectre of Edgar Allen Poe, and Journey to the Center of Time. His television credits included The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory, Six Against the Rock, Crazy Times, Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge, Crisis In Midair, The Rock & Roll Years, American Bandstand, and Hard Copy. Over the course of his 40-year career, he worked with Ron Howard, John Travolta, Danny DeVito, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, Cloris Leachman, Joseph Cotten, Neil Young, Tom Hanks, Burt Reynolds, Natalie Cole, Dick Clark, Paul McCartney, the Jackson 5, Hal Linden, Jonathan Winters, James Arness, Elliott Gould, Jimmy Carter, Bob Dole, and Pete Wilson.

Byrd is remembered fondly as a vivid storyteller who saw the humor in everything. His wife, Patricia, died in April, 2011. His brother, William, died January, 2015. He is survived by his children, Tate and Tara; his daughter-in-law, Kayci; and his grandchildren, Jake, Kaylie, and Ryan.

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