Draft:Michael Holden (actor)

Michael Holden (born Michael Turner on 15 June 1946) was a Welsh actor who appeared in British television productions in the late 1960s until 1970.

Life and career
Holden grew up near Bangor in North Wales with a family home in Tyddyn Canol, Llanllechid. As a young actor he played the part of a troublesome schoolboy in the popular television sitcom Please Sir! in 1968. The following year he appeared in Strange Report.

His most prominent role was as Gwyn in the television adaptation of The Owl Service (1969-1970). Holden's Welsh-speaking was key to securing the part. His fan mail for the role sent to Granada Television ran into three figures.

At the time of his death Holden had given up acting and was working as a computer programmer.

Murder
Holden was violently assaulted while drinking with friends in the Rose and Crown pub in Mayfair, London, on 23 September 1977. He had remonstrated with two rowdy drinkers, asking them to "belt up". Atferwards, one of the men "'approached the actor from behind and, raising a soda syphon crashed it down on the man's head'."

Holden died from bruising of the brain due to a fracture of the skull. His assailant was jailed for life at the Old Bailey on 26 September 1978.