Willy Holt

Willy Holt was born in Quincy, Florida, in 1921, the son of an American military photographer and his French wife.^[3] After his parents divorced his mother returned with him to her home country, where he was naturalised as a French citizen in 1923.^[4] He graduated with a baccalauréat from the Lycée Fermat in Toulouse during the early years of the Occupation.^[5]

Holt was married for four years to the actress Micheline Bourday,^[6] subsequently marrying the actress Martine Pascal in 1958.^[7] He and Pascal had two children.

Holt was a member of the French Resistance and was arrested at Grenoble railway station in December 1943 while transferring money on behalf of anti-Nazi Resistance fighters. He was interned at Auschwitz, via the Drancy internment camp. He survived the death march from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, where he was liberated on 13 April 1945.^[8] Holt wrote about his wartime experiences in his 1995 book Femmes en deuil sur camion.^[9]

After briefly working as a fashion designer, Holt was hired to work in television in 1946. His set designs for several television shows led to further work in cinema, initially as an art director.^[10]

As befitted his Franco-American origins, Holt worked on several productions in both countries, collaborating with a number of internationally renowned film directors such as John Frankenheimer, Stanley Donen, Otto Preminger, Robert Parrish, Fred Zinnemann, Bertrand Blier, Woody Allen, Michael Ritchie, Louis Malle and Roman Polanski.

• Willy Holt at IMDb  
• Willy Holt at AllMovie