Holliday, a product of the Copiague area of Long Island, New York, was raised in a Christian home, born into a Baptist family. At age 12, he lost his father. With the encouragement of his mother, he participated in track at Copiague High School where he was part of the Fantastic Four Relay Team and was the star of his football team. He was nicknamed as Mr. Hotshot and was known as a "scoring machine" on and off the football field. He graduated in 1967 and attended University of Maryland on a full scholarship. As he recalled, times were turbulent, and the football team was preparing to go on strike against the NCAA over a change in coaches.
He was "jazzed" by a class he took related to the history of theater and acting became his new passion. In 1969, as an undergraduate he played Yank in The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill. He was the first black person to perform in a leading role on the college's "main stage."
After graduation from college his first work was with the Inaugural Theater Group at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. There, he conducted workshops as a founding member of the D.C. Black Repertory Company. In 1975, he was fired from his job because of his continued problems with drugs and alcohol. His chemical abuse continued for the next 14 years. However, despite those problems he starred in the role of Carlyle in David Rabe's Vietnam War–era play Streamers at the Lincoln Theatre.[1]
In early 1986, while providing the voice of Roadblock, he received a phone call from producers Fred Silverman and Dean Hargrove. He was their first choice to play Matlock's private investigator Tyler Hudson on the Matlock series opposite TV veteran Andy Griffith. Holliday said in a 2012 interview with Blake Radio that when he was 11 years old he occasionally watched The Andy Griffith Show; he had recognized all the characters from his mentor's show and won the Matlock role.[2] He was eventually fired from the series due to ongoing concerns around his substance abuse.[3]
He published a book of poetry in 1998 entitled The Book of K-III: The Contemporary Poetics of Kene Holliday.
Holliday became a traveling evangelist,[when?] and he and his wife spent the next decade preaching in gospel musicals.[citation needed]
In 2002, Holliday became the round-the-clock caregiver for his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and subsequently became a member of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.[3]
While taking care of his mother, he accepted the lead role in the movie Great World of Sound in 2007.[4]
