William John Holloway was born on 4 February 1843 at Westminster in London, the eldest child of William Michael Holloway and Emma (
née Symonds). In 1856 the family emigrated to Australia aboard the vessel
Edward Oliver, but Holloway's mother died during the voyage. The ship arrived in Sydney in November 1956. Holloway began his working life as a
boilermaker in the late 1850s at the iron foundry of
P. N. Russell and Co. at
Pyrmont, where in 1870 the future Premier of New South Wales,
J. S. T. McGowen (1855–1922), began his apprenticeship, according to one report, under Holloway's direction. Another notable apprentice, who attributed his love of the stage to Holloway, was
George P. Carey. His theatrical career began in 1862 with the Redfern Amateur Dramatic Club. Fifty years later a correspondent to the
Sydney Morning Herald recounted how they staged the
Eugene Aram story with Holloway in the name part, also reciting
Thomas Hood's
The Dream of Eugene Aram. In 1863 he married Maria McKewen, an actress about whom little has been found. They would have four children (see below). He made what may have been his first professional appearance in Brisbane in the 1866 pantomime season and in March 1867 starred at the
Royal Alexandra Theatre, Brisbane in ''Eugene Aram or The Spectre of St Robert's Cave'', featuring the
Pepper's ghost illusion. Mrs Holloway was on the bill playing Madeline Lester. It is unlikely that either this or the Redfern production had anything to do with the
W. G. Wills drama. A review of his benefit performance damned him with faint praise. When he left Brisbane in March 1868 a review of his farewell benefit was sympathetic. He joined the
corps dramatique of Sydney's
Victoria Theatre in 1869; his first billing was with
Marie Duret in
Lucretia Borgia for
Rosa Cooper. By 1872 Holloway had assembled a touring company, whose members included "Miss Kate Arden". In 1877 he married Arden, whose real name was Elizabeth Jennings, a widow since 1871. Her daughter Elizabeth Esther Jennings (5 October 1864 – 6 August 1920) would become the actress "
Essie Jenyns", acclaimed as the finest Shakespearian actress Australia had produced. Holloway leased the
Theatre Royal (Hobart) and assembled a "Star Dramatic Company" in 1878–9 to support
William Creswick and
Helen Ashton, playing
Sheridan Knowles'
Virginius and
The Hunchback and several Shakespeare classics. Its members included his brother
Charles Holloway. Essie made her first stage appearance with the Holloway company in
Augustin Daly's
Leah the Forsaken in 1879, but Holloway wisely refrained from exposing the
wunderkind prematurely.
England They took a holiday in London 1884–5, during which time Essie Jenyns immersed herself in the work of
Sarah Bernhardt,
Ellen Terry,
Mary Anderson and other great English (and American) actresses.
Australia They returned to Australia with a hectic touring schedule, playing
Frank Harvey's
A Mad Marriage at the
Academy of Music, Ballarat in January 1886, and in February the same author's
The Ring of Iron at the newly opened
Academy of Music in Launceston, to excellent reviews: play, cast (notably Essie Jenyns, in her first professional appearance in Tasmania), and the theatre itself. When they returned to the
Opera House, Sydney however,
The Ring of Iron was described by one reviewer as a "tawdry melodrama" which was "soon withdrawn" in favor of
Mrs G. W. Lovell's
Ingomar the Barbarian, with Holloway in the title role and his wife as Aetoea, a part she knew from her early days with the company. It was however Jenyns as Parthenia that the audience paid to see, and the show ran for 14 weeks, followed by 16 weeks at the
Criterion and 14 at the
Melbourne Opera House. They flocked to see her as Juliet, though Holloway was ridiculous as Romeo; she played Viola in
Twelfth Night to
Arthur Greenaway's Sebastian and Holloway's Malvolio. She played Portia to Holloway's Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice. Between October 1886, and October 1888, she appeared in Sydney for three seasons of 14 weeks, 16 weeks, and 4 weeks, and two in Melbourne of 14 weeks and 8 weeks, after which Holloway began making plans for a tour of Great Britain, but she announced her forthcoming marriage and intention to leave the stage and all bets were off. Holloway and his wife left Melbourne for London by SS
Mogul on 7 November 1888, ostensibly for a holiday, leaving the company in the hands of his brother Charles (1848–1908) and never returned. Ever the journeyman actor, Charles joined
Bland Holt and secured a reputation as an intelligent interpreter of supporting roles. Essie Jenyns married brewery heir John Robert Wood on 5 December 1888 and left the stage for good. They made three tours to South Africa with a company that included his wife, his son W. D. Holloway, and his two daughters Juliet and Theodora. In the first they arrived at the time of the
Jameson Raid (1895–6). In 1898 they toured
The Sign of the Cross throughout the country; also appearing as Richard III, Richelieu, Hamlet, etc. In the third tour, 1905, playing
The Prisoner of Zenda and
The Three Musketeers. Between these highly lucrative tours, he was involved with productions in London: the farce
A Day in Paris at the
Duke of York's Theatre in 1895. In his later years Holloway maintained an interest in the stage. He died on 7 April 1913 at
Clapham Common, London, aged 70 years. == Family ==