Grandpa Ponder Boyce Holleman Grandpa Ponder, who has amassed the greatest fortune in Clay County, Mississippi, watches helplessly as his son, Daniel, slowly gives it away. Born in Wiggins, Mississippi, 76-year-old actor Boyce Holleman worked as attorney for 51 years before beginning his acting career in 1975. "I had a neighbor ask me about trying out for some local plays," Holleman told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. "I did Big Daddy in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. It just grew from there." He has appeared in episodes of In the Heat of the Night and America's Most Wanted and in several movies shot in the South, including Kingfish, The Beast Within, A Simple Twist of Fate, and Secret Passings. In Welty's words: When I used to spot Grandpa's Studebaker out front, lighting from the country, and Grandpa heading up the walk, with no Uncle Daniel by his side, and his beard beginning to shake under his chin, and he had a beautiful beard, I'd yell back to the kitchen, "Ada! Be making Mr. Sam some good strong iced tea!" Grandpa was of the old school, and wanted people to measure up -- everybody in general, and Uncle Daniel and me in particular. He and Grandma raised me, too. "Clear out, you all," I'd say to who all was in here. "Here comes Grandpa Ponder, and no telling what he has to tell me." I was his favorite grandchild, besides being the only one left alive or in calling distance. The Ponder Heart, chapter 1