Fritz Holt

Fritz Holt, born George William Holt III on October 9, 1940, in San Francisco, California, was an American theatre producer and director who died on July 14, 1987, in Montclair, New Jersey, at the age of 46. A graduate of the University of Oregon, he built a career that spanned stage management, producing, and directing across several decades of Broadway activity.

Holt began his professional life as an assistant stage manager at the Mineola Playhouse in Mineola, New York. That position led to his hiring by Harold Prince to assistant stage manage the national tour of Cabaret, a working relationship that continued through Prince's productions of Company and Follies. His first Broadway credit as a stage manager came with the 1969 Arthur Kopit play Indians, marking his formal entry into the New York theatre scene.

He transitioned into producing with the 1974 revival of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury, which also marked his Broadway appearance that year under the credit Jule's Friends at the Palace. He subsequently coordinated Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue and produced a revival of The Royal Family, which earned him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival in 1976. A succession of productions that followed, including Summer Brave, Platinum, a revival of The Goodbye People, Phyllis Newman's one-woman show The Madwoman of Central Park West, and the Frank Loesser-inspired revue Perfectly Frank, which he also directed, did not achieve commercial success.

Holt's career reached its peak with La Cage aux Folles, which opened in 1983 and earned him the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1984. That same year, he was a principal contributor alongside Reverend Mead Miner Bailey to the New York-based AIDS Resource Center, an organization focused on youth affected by HIV/AIDS. The charity later opened a residence on Christopher Street, which was renamed Bailey-Holt House in recognition of both men's contributions. In 1985, Holt staged the AIDS benefit Best of the Best at the Metropolitan Opera House.

In the final weeks of his life, Holt produced an Actors' Fund benefit commemorating the 100th birthday of George Abbott. He died shortly afterward from complications from pneumonia as a result of AIDS.