LIONEL STANDER BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Lionel Stander was born on January 11th, 1908 in the Bronx, New York.  After high school he went on to study at the University of North Carolina, however, prior to earning his degree he appeared in his first stage production, "The Muse and the Movies: A Comedy of Greenwich Village", at the age of nineteen and decided he wanted to pursue a career as an actor.
 
He began with finding radio work along with stage work and in 1932, he made his film debut on, "In the Dough" starring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges and followed shortly after with "Salt Water Daffy" (1933) with Jack Haley and Shemp Howard.  After gaining a little more film experience appearing on a number of comedy-shorts produced by Vitaphone's Brooklyn studio, he then relocated to Los Angeles, California in search of more film work.
 
Some of his early film roles in Hollywood included, "Mr. Deed Goes to Town" (1936) starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Douglass Dumbrille, H. B. Warner, Ruth Donnelly, Raymond Walburn and Walter Catlett, "The Milky Way" (1936) starring Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Helen Mack and William Gargan, "Meet Nero Wolfe" (1936) starring Edward Arnold, Nana Bryant, Victor Jory, Eddy Waller, John Qualen and Rita Hayworth and "Nothing Sacred" (1937) starring Carole Lombard Fredric March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger, Margaret Hamilton, Hattie McDaniel, Frank Fay and Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, "No Time to Marry" (1938) with Richard Arlen, Thurston Hall, Scotty Beckett and Mary Astor, "The Crowd Roars" (1938) starring Robert Taylor, Edward Arnold, Frank Morgan, Maureen O'Sullivan, William Gargan, Nat Pendleton, Don 'Red' Barry, Jane Wyman, Gene Reynolds and J. Farrell MacDonald, "What a Life" (1939) starring Jackie Cooper, Betty Field, John Howard and Hedda Hopper and Tahiti Honey" (1943) starring with Simone Simon, Dennis O'Keefe, Michael Walen and Wally Vernon.
 
In addition to making a name for himself as a film actor he also appeared on such radio programs as, "Eddie Cantor Show", "Lux Radio Theater", "The Life of Riley" and "Danny Kaye's comedy variety radio show". 

Although his career was now heading in the right direction, he did receive some negative media attention for his support of left-wing causes.  He was even subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee inquisition in Hollywood in 1940.  All of this communist acquisition caused him to lose his contract with Republic Studio's, however he was still able to find work as an actor elsewhere.
 
Some of his other well known film roles included, "Hangmen Also Die!" (1943) starring Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart and Dennis O'Keefe, "Guadalcanal Diary" (1943) starring Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan, William Bendix, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Richard Jaeckel, Roy Roberts, Minor Watson, Reed Hadley, Ralph Byrd and John Archer, "The Big Show-Off" (1945) with Arthur Lake, Dale Evans, George Meeker and Paul Hurst, "The Kid from Brooklyn" (1946) starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran and Eve Arden, "Specter of the Rose" (1946) with Michael Chekhov and Judith Anderson and "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (1947) starring Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Victor Potel, Margaret Hamilton and Franklin Pangborn.  Along with film work, he also remained working as a stage actor.
 
After appearing on the television series, "The Billy Rose Show" (1950), "Nash Airflyte Theatre" (1951), "Big Town" (1951), "Our Miss Brooks" (1952-1956) and the films, "Two Gals and a Guy" (1951) starring Janis Paige, Robert Alda, James Gleason, Lionel Stander, Arnold Stang and Patty McCormack and "St. Benny the Dip" (1951) co-starring Dick Haymes, Nina Foch, Roland Young and Freddie Bartholomew, he left the entertainment industry for ten years and worked as a broker on Wall Street, after being black listed by Hollywood in the 1950's.

In the early 60's, Stander then returned to Hollywood and began to add more film credits to his resume such as, "The Moving Finger" (1963) with Barbara London, Art Smith and Wendy Barrie, "The Loved One" (1965) starring Robert Morse, Anjanette Comer, Rod Steiger, John Gielgud, Dana Andrews, Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, James Coburn, Tab Hunter, Roddy McDowall, Paul Williams, Bernie Kopell, Barbara Nichols, Alan Napier and Liberace, "Promise Her Anything" (1965) starring Warren Beatty, Leslie Caron, Keenan Wynn and Robert Cummings and "Cul-de-sac" (1966) co-starring Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorleac, Jack MacGowran, Iain Quarrier, Geoffrey Sumner, Renee Houston, William Franklyn, Trevor Delaney, Marie Kean and Jacqueline Bisset.
 
Stander chose to move to Europe for a time and had better success as a film actor there adding such credits as, "The Black Bird" (1975) starring George Segal, Stephane Audran, Signe Hasso, Lee Patrick, Elisha Cook Jr. and Ken Swofford, "The Cassandra Crossing" (1976) starring Richard Harris, Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg, Ava Gardner and John Phillip Law and "New York, New York" (1977) starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli.
 
After being gone from the United States for fifteen years he returned and added a couple more film roles such as, "Wicked Stepmother" (1989) starring Bette Davis, Barbara Carrera, Evelyn Keyes, Coleen Camp and Tom Bosley, "Cookie" (1989) starring Emily Lloyd, Peter Falk, Dianne West, Jerry Lewis, Bob Gunton, Brenda Vaccaro and Ricki Lake, "Joey Takes a Cab" (1991) with Kathleen Freeman, Jackie Gayle, Kaye Ballard, Michael J. Pollard, Alex Cord, Bruce Kirby, Eileen Brennan and Royal Dano and "The Last Good Time" (1994) starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Olivia d'Abo, Maureen Stapleton, Kevin Corrigan, Adrian Pasdar and Beatrice Winde.
 
In addition to making a big comeback as a film actor, he remained working on stage and also appeared on a number of television series such as, "Moonlighting" starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, "The Boys", "Dream On" and numerous "Hart to Hart" television movies.
 
His role on the television series, "Hart to Hart" (1979-1984) starring with Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers, won him a Golden Globe Award for, "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV". 

Lionel Stander married numerous times, first in 1928 to Lucy Dietz and they had one child together before the marriage came to an end in 1936.  He then married Alice Twitchell in 1938 however by 1942 this marriage also ended.  His third wife was Vehanne Monteagle in 1945 and after two children another marriage ended in divorce in 1950.  He chose to marry for a fourth time to Diana Radbec in 1953 and they had one child before ending their union in 1963.  Stander again married to wife number five, Maria Penn in 1963 and he had another child before another divorce in 1967.  His sixth and final wife was Stephanie Van Hennick whom he married in 1971 and they had one child together and stayed married until he passed away from lung cancer on November 30th, 1994 in Los Angeles, California at the age of eighty four.  His remains are buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.   

Filmography

1995         Hart to Hart: Secrets of the Hart 
1994         Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die 
1994         Hart to Hart: Crimes of the Hart 
1994         Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is
1994         The Last Good Time
1993         Hart to Hart Returns 
1991         Dream On 
1991         Joey Takes a Cab
1988-1989     The Boys
1989         Cookie
1989         Wicked Stepmother
1987         Belli freschi
1987         CBS Summer Playhouse 
1986         Moonlighting 
1986         The Transformers: The Movie
1979-1984     Hart to Hart 
1979         1941
1978         The Squeeze
1978         Cyclone
1978         Matilda
1977         New York, New York
1977         The Sunshine Boys
1976         The Cassandra Crossing
1976         San Pasquale Baylonne protettore delle donne
1975         The Black Bird
1975         Mark of Zorro
1975         Red Coat
1975         La novizia
1974         Innocence and Desire
1974         Piazza pulita
1974         Viaggia, ragazza, viaggia, hai la musica nelle vene
1974         La via dei babbuini
1974         Di mamma non ce n'è una sola
1973         The Sensuous Sicilian
1973         Il tuo piacere è il mio
1973         La mano nera - prima della mafia, più della mafia
1973         Crescete e moltiplicatevi
1973         Dirty Weekend
1973         Halleluja to Vera Cruz
1972         The Adventures of Pinocchio 
1972         Father Jackleg
1972         Treasure Island
1972         Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi
1972         All the Brothers of the West Support Their Father
1972         Pulp
1972         The Senator Likes Women
1972         Caliber 9
1971         We Are All in Temporary Liberty
1971         The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
1971         Between Miracles
1971         Stanza 17-17 palazzo delle tasse, ufficio imposte
1970         Mir hat es immer Spaß gemacht
1969         Boot Hill
1969         Zenabel
1969         It Takes a Thief 
1969         Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova, veneziano
1969         H2S
1969         Armchair Theatre 
1968         Once Upon a Time in the West
1968         Gates to Paradise
1968         Al di là della legge
1968         A Dandy in Aspic
1968         Seven Times Seven
1966         Cul-de-sac
1965         Promise Her Anything
1965         The Loved One
1965         The Wednesday Play 
1963         The Moving Finger
1961         Blast of Silence
1951         St. Benny the Dip
1951         Two Gals and a Guy
1951         Big Town
1951         Nash Airflyte Theatre 
1950         The Billy Rose Show
1949         Drooler's Delight
1948         Wild and Woody! 
1948         Trouble Makers
1948         Unfaithfully Yours
1948         Wet Blanket Policy 
1948         Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
1948         Call Northside 777
1947         The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
1946         Fair Weather Fiends
1946         Gentleman Joe Palooka
1946         Specter of the Rose
1946         A Boy, a Girl and a Dog
1946         Who's Cookin Who? 
1946         In Old Sacramento
1946         Apple Andy 
1946         The Kid from Brooklyn
1945         The Loose Nut 
1945         Watchtower Over Tomorrow
1945         The Big Show-Off
1944         Fish Fry 
1943         Guadalcanal Diary
1943         Tahiti Honey
1943         Hangmen Also Die!
1940         Hit Parade of 1941
1940         The Bride Wore Crutches
1939         What a Life
1939         The Ice Follies of 1939
1938         The Crowd Roars
1938         Professor Beware
1938         No Time to Marry
1937         The Last Gangster
1937         The League of Frightened Men
1937         A Star Is Born
1936         More Than a Secretary
1936         They Met in a Taxi
1936         Meet Nero Wolfe
1936         Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936         The Music Goes 'Round
1936         The Milky Way
1936         Soak the Rich
1936         I Loved a Soldier
1935         If You Could Only Cook
1935         I Live My Life
1935         The Gay Deception
1935         Page Miss Glory
1935         We're in the Money
1935         Hooray for Love
1935         The Scoundrel
1935         The Old Grey Mayor
1934         Smoked Hams 
1934         I Scream
1934         Pugs and Kisses
1934         Mushrooms
1934         How'd Ya Like That?
1934         Guess Stars
1933         Salt Water Daffy
1932         In the Dough