Holbrook Blinn

Holbrook Blinn (January 23, 1872 – June 24, 1928) was an American stage and film actor born in San Francisco, California, whose Broadway career spanned from 1897 to 1928. He was the son of Civil War veteran Colonel Charles Blinn and actress Nellie Holbrook-Blinn, and he attended Stanford University before pursuing a professional acting career.

Blinn's stage experience began unusually early: he first appeared on stage at age six in The Streets of London. As an adult, he launched his professional career in the early 1890s with a traveling company working through the western United States. By 1892 he had relocated to the East Coast, where he spent two seasons performing in The New South. He subsequently led the first dramatic troupe to tour Alaska, and he also performed in London, where he appeared in The Only Way, Don Juan's Last Wager, and Ib and Little Christina over a period of three years.

Among his Broadway credits, Blinn took on the role of Napoleon in The Duchess of Dantzic in 1903. He delivered a notable performance in Salvation Nell in 1908, playing the brutish husband opposite Mrs. Fiske. Additional Broadway appearances included Within the Law (1912), A Woman of No Importance (1916), The Lady of the Camellias (1917), Getting Together (1918), Molière (1919), Candida, The Challenge of Youth, and The Play's the Thing, in which he starred. Blinn also performed throughout the United States and in London over the course of his career.

Beyond the stage, Blinn appeared in silent films, with screen credits including McTeague (1916), Rosita (1923), Yolanda (1924), and Janice Meredith (1924), the latter two featuring Marion Davies. He was additionally a founder of New York's Princess Theatre and served as director of popular one-act plays produced there.

In 1928, Blinn was unanimously elected president of the Actors' Fidelity League. That same year he died on June 24 from complications following a fall from his horse near his home, Journey's End, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. At the time of his death he was married to actress Ruth Benson. He is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.