25 Facts About Lionel Stander

Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor, activist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Lionel Stander had an extensive career in theatre, film, radio, and television that spanned nearly 70 years, from 1928 until 1994.

Lionel Stander was known for his distinctive raspy voice and tough-guy demeanor, as well as for his vocal left-wing political stances.

Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York City on 11 January 1908, to parents of Russian Jewish extraction.

Lionel Stander claimed that he got the roles because one of them required shooting craps, which he did well, and a friend in the company volunteered him.

Lionel Stander appeared in a series of short-lived plays through the early 1930s, including The House Beautiful, which Dorothy Parker famously derided as "the play lousy".

Lionel Stander signed with Vitaphone and was featured in the two-reel comedy In the Dough, with Roscoe Arbuckle and Shemp Howard.

Lionel Stander made several other Vitaphone comedies, usually as a comic tough guy, villain, or authority figure; his last Vitaphone short was The Old Grey Mayor with Bob Hope in 1935.

Lionel Stander moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures.

Lionel Stander's distinctive rumbling voice, tough-guy demeanor, and talent with accents made him a popular radio actor.

Lionel Stander played the role of Spider Schultz in both Harold Lloyd's film The Milky Way and its remake ten years later, The Kid from Brooklyn, starring Danny Kaye.

Lionel Stander was a regular on Danny Kaye's zany comedy-variety radio show on CBS, playing himself as "just the elevator operator" amidst the antics of Kaye, future Our Miss Brooks star Eve Arden, and bandleader Harry James.

Lionel Stander espoused a variety of social and political causes, and was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Lionel Stander campaigned for the release of the Scottsboro Boys.

Lionel Stander was a member of the Popular Front from 1936 until 1939, and subsequently belonged to the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League.

In 1940, Lionel Stander was among the first group of Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee for supposed Communist activities.

Lionel Stander subsequently forced himself into the grand jury hearing, and the district attorney cleared him of the allegations.

Lionel Stander testified that he knew Stander, but did not recall attending any CP meetings with him.

Two years passed before Lionel Stander was issued the requested subpoena.

Lionel Stander was blacklisted from the late 1940s until 1965; perhaps the longest period.

Lionel Stander stayed in Europe and eventually settled in Rome, where he appeared in many spaghetti Westerns, most notably playing a bartender named Max in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.

Lionel Stander played the role of the villainous mob boss in Fernando Di Leo's 1972 poliziottesco thriller Caliber 9.

Lionel Stander played a supporting role in the TV film Revenge Is My Destiny with Chris Robinson.

Lionel Stander played a lounge comic modeled after the real-life Las Vegas comic Joe E Lewis, who used to begin his act by announcing "Post Time" as he sipped his ever-present drink.

Lionel Stander died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1994 at age 86.