Matinee Classics - Stanley Holloway Biography & Filmography

Stanley Holloway ACTOR

PHOTOS

STANLEY HOLLOWAY BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Stanley Holloway was born on October 1st, 1890 in Manor Park, London in England with the middle name Augustus, born to George Augustus Holloway and Florence Mary née Bell. During his teenage years he worked as a clerk and then began doing stage work prior to World War I, performing before infantry service men.

He then began to focus more on stage acting performing in such productions as, "Kissing Time". He then became a member of a concert party and worked as a singer as well as an actor. He trained as an operatic baritone and also studied singing lessons in Italy.

As he continued to embark on a career in entertainment he had some additional success on two musical productions. In 1921 he made his film debut in, "The Rotters". Soon he also added radio credits to his resume performing as a BBC Radio performer. He recorded such songs as, "London Town" and "Memory Street".

He is also remembered for developing a character, Sam Small, for which he recorded over 20 monologues based around this character. Holloway then began to add numerous British film credits to his resume appearing in, "Sing As We Go" (1934), "Squibs" (1935) and "The Vicar of Bray" (1937).

During World War II he was to old to serve in the service, so he was hired to make propaganda films as well as a number of war films such as, "Major Barbara" (1941), "The Way Ahead" (1944), "This Happy Breed" (1944) and "The Way to the Stars" (1945).

Soon Holloway was making quite a name for himself in the industry and continued to appear on a number of more successful films such as, "Brief Encounter" (1945), "Passport to Pimlico" (1949), "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951), "The Titfeld Thunderbolt" (1953) and "Meet Mr. Lucifer" (1953).

In 1956, he earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in, "My Fair Lady" starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn and continued working as a film actor adding, "Jumping for Joy" (1956), "Alive and Kicking" (1959) and "No Love for Johnnie" (1961) to his credits. And last but surely not the least Stanley was featured as a 'coast watcher' during a World War II epic film "In Harm's Way" (1965) comprized of an all star cast of John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Burgess Meredith, Brandon de Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda.

In addition to his film and stage work he also added such television roles to his resume appearing on, "Our Man Higgins", "The Red Skelton Show" and "Blandings Castle Stories".

Towards the end of his career he mainly focused on stage roles again appearing in a production of, "You Never Can Tell" (1973) and his last film role was in 1975 in, "Journey Into Fear".

Holloway married twice throughout his lifetime, first for a brief period to Alice Foran in 1913 and they had four children before she passed away in 1937. He then married Violet Lane in 1939 and they had one child together and remained married until he passed away on January 30th, 1982 in England. His remains are buried at St. Mary the Virgin Church in East Preston, West Sussex.

Filmography