Background
Born in Southport, Lancashire, Jeanne Wilkinson, as she then was, spent her early childhood in India, where her father was a senior manager at the Swadeshi Cotton Mills in Kanpur.
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January Holden
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Career
In theatre she was known for her performances in light comedy and appeared in several popular television series during the 1950s and 1960s. Getting there took a two-day train journey. The term lasted nine months, and there were three months at home during the cool season.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Holden and her mother returned to Britain, where she became a boarder at Lowther College in North Wales.
When the war ended, her mother returned to India while January stayed at her school and lived with school friends during the holidays. At the age of eighteen, she was offered places at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Old Vic School, and the Bristol Old Vic, but her father declined to pay the fees, as he disapproved of her ambition to go on the stage.
Eventually he was persuaded to allow her to take a directors" course at the Old Vic, where she was one of two pupils chosen as assistant stage managers. They had three children.
Holden was an elegant actress, notable for her arresting pale blue eyes.
She made her West End debut in 1958 in "Speaking of Murder" at Street Martin"s Theatre, which was followed by "The Tunnel of Love", a farce at the Apollo Theatre.
