Fay Holderness was a vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 performer and film actress from Oconto, Wisconsin

Oconto, Wisconsin

Oconto is a city in Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,708 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is located partially within the town of Oconto.-History:...

.

Holderness performed in a vaudeville production in Olean, New York

Olean, New York

Olean is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County, and serves as the financial, business, transportation and entertainment center of the county. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern Tier region of New York.The city is...

 in 1920, a presentation of The Village Four. Three actors along with Holderness appeared in this comedy and harmony singing skit.

She performed in silent movie

Silent Movie

Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...

 productions as early as 1917. In 1919 Holderness was in the cast of Hearts of the World

Hearts of the World

Hearts of the World is a silent film directed by D.W. Griffith, a wartime propaganda classic that was filmed on location in Britain and near the Western Front, made at the request of the British Government to change the neutral mindset of the American public.-Plot:Two families live next to one...

, directed by D.W. Griffith. The film was shot on location in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 over a period of eighteen months. Other actors in the movie are Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish

Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....

, Dorothy Gish

Dorothy Gish

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...

, Kate Bruce, and George Fawcett.

Holderness was in the cast of Dick Turpin (1925). This tale of romance and adventure was set in old England. The film featured Tom Mix

Tom Mix

Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

, Kathleen Meyers, Philo McCullough, and Alan Hale, Sr.

Alan Hale, Sr.

Alan Hale, Sr. was an American movie actor and director, most widely remembered for his many supporting character roles, in particular as frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn. His wife of over thirty years was Gretchen Hartman , a child actress and silent film player and mother of their three children...

She appeared in many short comedies, including several with Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

, playing Mrs. Laurel in Their Purple Moment

Their Purple Moment

Their Purple Moment is a 1928 short comedy silent film starring Laurel and Hardy....

 (1928), and Mrs. Hardy in Hog Wild

Hog Wild (1930 film)

Hog Wild is a 1930 short film starring Laurel and Hardy, directed by James Parrott and produced by Hal Roach.- Opening title :"Amnesia! Mr. Hardy was beginning to forget things, but Mr. Laurel had no fear of losing his memory -- As a matter of fact, Mr...

 (1930). She also supported W. C. Fields

W. C. Fields

William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

 in The Barber Shop (1933) and The Bank Dick

The Bank Dick

The Bank Dick is a 1940 comedy film. W. C. Fields plays a character named Egbert Sousé who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard as a result...

 (1940).

Her career continued into the late 1930s and the era of sound film. Holderness' last screen credits are for Share The Wealth (1936) and Just Speeding (1936). Her uncredited parts take her career into the 1940s. Among these are parts in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and The Mummy's Ghost (1944).

Fay Holderness died in 1963 at the Pacific Convalarium in Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

, aged 82, from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.