Born Judith Tuvim in New York City, she began her association with the theater as a backstage switchboard operator for Orson Welles' Mercury Theater and made her debut with The Revuers, a cabaret group she formed with Betty Comden and Adolph Green. This led to minor roles in three Hollywood films in 1944 (SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS, WINGED VICTORY and GREENWICH VILLAGE) and to eventual stardom on Broadway as Billie Dawn, the shrewd dumb blonde in Born Yesterday (1946). Harry Cohn of Columbia paid $1 million for the film rights to the play intending to star his hottest property, Rita Hayworth. He was forced to shelve the project after her marriage to Aly Kahn. Cohn, a famously vulgar and abusive film mogul, did not want Holliday "that fat Jewish broad" in the part. But after watching George Cukor showcase her in ADAM'S RIB (1949) in the role of a bird-brained attempted-murder suspect (and stealing the show from the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the process), he relented. She repeated her Broadway role with hilarious success in the 1950 BORN YESTERDAY, winning an Academy Award for her efforts. A comedienne of great intelligence who handled her art with intuitive precision and exuberant talent, she went on to display her unique comic style and voice inflection in a number of other plays and films (THE MARRYING KIND, 1952; IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU and PHFFFT!, both 1954; THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC, 1956; FULL OF LIFE, 1957; and BELLS ARE RINGING, 1960) before being stricken by breast cancer at 43.  Actress 1950: BORN YESTERDAY 1 nomination, 1 Award