Jan Holden

Biography

Valerie Jeanne Wilkinson (9 May 1931 – 11 October 2005) was an English actress who was known as Jan Holden. Jan Holden was a stage actress known for her performances in light comedy and also for her appearances in several popular television series during the 1950s and 1960s. She was an elegant woman notable for her arresting pale blue eyes. She made her West End debut in 1958 in "Speaking of Murder" at St Martin's Theatre, which was followed by "The Tunnel of Love", a farce at the Apollo Theatre. She took her mother's maiden name for her stage name. She was born in Southport, Lancashire and spent her early childhood in India. Her father was a senior manager at the Swadeshi Cotton Mills in Kanpur. Aged six, she and her twin brother Geoffrey were sent to a school in the hills near Shimla. This took a two day train journey. The term lasted nine months and there were three months at home during the cool season. The schools were not mixed, so she and her brother only met at church on Sundays. On the outbreak of the Second World War, she and her mother returned to Britain, where she boarded at Lowther College in North Wales. When the war ended, her mother returned to India and Jan stayed with school friends. At 18, she was offered places at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), the Old Vic School and at the Bristol Old Vic. Her father declined to pay, as he disapproved of her ambition to go on the stage. Eventually he was persuaded to allow her to take a directors' course at the Old Vic. She was one of two pupils selected to be assistant stage managers at the Old Vic. She then turned to repertory, where she met her first husband, the actor Edwin Richfield who appeared in the television series The Buccaneers. They were married in 1952, while they were appearing in a stage version of The Blue Lamp. They had three children. She was heartbroken when her twin brother drowned during the early 1960s and her marriage broke down in 1973, leaving her with three teenage children to bring up. One of her twin daughters died from a brain tumour in 1999, and Holden was in poor health herself during her final two decades. She remained cheerful and courageous. Jan Holden remarried in 1988 to Louis Manson, a solicitor and business executive, who survived her, with a son and a daughter from her first marriage, as well as two stepdaughters and four stepsons.