Birmingham-born actor Roy Holder appears in this week's Ace of Wands story, The Joker ... and in the picture below. Why did Holder become an actor? "I think, because my face fitted," he says. "In fact I'd bet on it . . ."
The face creases. Correction - creases even more. The creases are a smile.
"I used to think," says Roy Holder, "that I was a brilliant actor. Straight from school into a film and afterwards the work rolling in. But then I was told I have a funny face."
It's a busy face. A Plasticine face. Only 25 years old but a bit battered. "Not so much by life - though it has been bumped - but because that's the way it came out in the making. And the Holder nose doesn't help either."
Ten years ago playwright David Turner wrote a television play, The Train Set, for which a Birmingham schoolboy had to be cast. After auditions Roy Holder was given the part. Up till then his only acting experience had been in school nativity plays. But he looked right, somehow - his busy face was working for him even then.
It's a my-face-is-my-fortune face. "At the beginning I played angelic characters, then I played hard me, now I'm playing clowns."
According to Holder the fact that casting directors are forever sending him scripts is all down to luck. "Having the right face at the right time."
But that detracts from his ability as an actor. After the Turner play he was signed for the film Whistle Down The Wind opposite Hayley Mills. After that he was invited to join the National Theatre.
He has made two films with Zeffirelli - The Taming Of The Shrew, and Romeo And Juliet. His most recent film was Loot with his friend Hywel Bennett.
Home is at Molesey, Surrey; at the bottom of his garden there are weeping willows and a river. The life style is more than just miles from where he was brought up in Birmingham.
He was one of eight children. "Until they came round at school looking for someone for the television play I'd never given a thought to acting. I mean, you expected a trade. Like now when I go back they say: 'What you doing, Roy?' and I tell them, and then they say: 'Yeah, but what are you doing for work? For real?'
"I thought I'd become a tool maker like my brothers."
Recently he went back to where he spent his childhood. "It used to be Coronation Street terraces. Slums, but friendly. Our Mum would go shopping and drop in at five houses on the way back. Now it's all redevelopment. All concrete and motorways. I stood on the rubble, but I didn't have any great feelings about it. You needed a grey beard to do it properly. I just thought it was better to have a green to play on than a terrace like we had.
"As a kid I never thought I'd leave. At school I was small, but a bit brighter than the rest. I had this way of worming. When there were fights I was always at the back urging on the others
"I was the biscuit monitor and always made sure the hard men of the school had the biggest biscuits. That way I bought protection. I had this way of worming."
While at the National Theatre he married Jean, the assistant wardrobe mistress. He was 19. "I suppose coming from a large family made me keen to marry early. It just seemed right. In fact I almost got Jean the sack because I'd be talking to her so often the wardrobe department never saw her. In the end Jean just left."
So far there have been no children. "Going against family tradition and all that," says Holder, "but we're still trying."
He is an uncle though - over and over again.
"Our Joe's got six, Fred's got four, Ken's got two and sister Doreen two. You really know it at Christmas."
When the film offers came in he says, he went wild. Money came tumbling in, and money to be spent. "If you start of having no money, like I did then you don't notice it if it all goes. And after I made sure our Mum was all right I went wild."
"You do two films and you find you've got £1,000 in the bank, and when that happened I went gambling made. I was a terrible gambler. Horses, and cards and casinos. When making the films in Rome with Zeffirelli, I gambled the lot. For six months the money I earned I spent. I gambled away £3,000. First you see it, then you don't, and I didn't have any conscience. I enjoyed losing it.
"Jean and I would go out every night, and we'd go out, and out, and it went, and went, and went.
IN all Holder spent two years living the wild expensive life. "Now I've done it, and I'm settled. We've got the house now, and I haven't changed the car for months.
"But I don't regret it. It was great - just to be in that position where you can do that. Not for long - but just one in your life.
"See - I didn't expect it. I thought I'd be a tool maker."
The article was accompanied by a photographic portrait of Roy.