Background
He grew up in Georgetown, Guyana, during the 1940s and "50s.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Ram Holder
Edit ProfileCareer
He is best known for playing Augustus "Porkpie" Grant in the British television series Desmond"s but has performed on stage and in both film and television During the early "50s the strict, straight-laced church membership was scandalised when he broke away and changed his name to "Ram" John. Holder began his performing career as a folk singer in New New York
In 1962 he came to London and worked with Pearl Connor"s Negro Theatre Workshop initially as a musician, and later as an actor.
Holder performed at several London theatres including the Royal National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and Bristol Old Victoria His first major film role was as the effeminate dancer Marcus in Ted Kotcheff"s 1969 film Two Gentlemen Sharing, which told the story of interracial relations in swinging London.
John Boorman then cast him as the black preacher in the 1970 comedy film Leo the Last, also about race relations, which was set in a Notting Hill slum in West London. Holder also sang the songs in the film.
He again played a preacher in the Horace Ové-directed film Pressure in 1975, made a cameo performance in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) as a poet, and appeared in Sankofa Film and Video"s debut feature The Passion of Remembrance in 1986.
His other film roles included appearances in Britannia Hospital (1982), Half Moon Street (1986), Playing Away (1987), Virtual Sexuality (1999), Lucky Break (2001) and as a Jamaican barber in The Calcium Kid (2004). Holder played the role of Augustus "Porkpie" Grant in the situation comedy Desmond"s, which was written by Trix Worrell, and broadcast on Channel 4 from 1989 until 1994. He later had his own short-lived spin-off series Porkpie.
Holder has appeared in several television productions and joined the cast of EastEnders in late September 2006, playing Cedric Lucas.
His last stage performance to date was as Slow Drag in the 2006 revival of August Wilson"s Ma Rainey"s Black Bottom at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Holder is a talented musician, who has recorded a number of albums: Black London Blues (1969), Bootleg Blues (1971), (1975) and Ram Blues & Soul.
He has also released various singles and contributed to soundtracks for film and television, including three songs for the film adaptation of Take a Girl Like You. He has also appeared as "Flying Freddy Mersa" in episodes of the British Broadcasting Corporation Television children"s programme The Story of Tracy Beaker.
In May 2008 Holder appeared in an episode of the British Broadcasting Corporation drama The Invisibles.
Holder will soon be seen in an ensemble part in Song for Marion, a feature film from Paul Andrew Williams, the director of London to Brighton, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp.
