Ronald Ernest McMurtry, professionally known as Ron Shand and earlier in his career billed as Ronnie McMurtry, was an Australian actor and comedian who worked extensively in numerously genres of the show business industry including, circus, soft shoe, theatre, cabaret, revue vaudeville, radio, television and film and was a recording artist in a career spanning over 70 years.
12 Facts About Ron Shand
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Ron Shand started his career performing in circus and vaudeville, but was probably best known however in his later years for his role as Herb Evans the elderly hen-pecked husband of Dorrie Evans in television soap opera Number 96 and at 65 was then the oldest member of the regular cast.
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Ron Shand has appeared in TV and film roles into his mid-80s and died in August 1993, aged 87.
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Ron was given the surname "Shand" by his grandparents who were travelling circus performers and Ron grew up with them in Melbourne.
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Ron Shand started his showbiz career in 1920, with the circus as a clown aged just 14 and subsequently performed as a song and dance man in vaudeville, did tent shows and comedy for most of the 1920s with his first wife Laurel Streeter and dancer Eddie Clifford.
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Ron Shand started in theatre in 1931 and had numerous character roles throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
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Ron Shand appeared in the Tivoli circuit for many years playing in revue and pantomime, before joining the J C Williamson theatre company for several seasons in musical comedy.
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Ron Shand was then one of the original members of the John Alden Shakespeare Company that toured all the capital cities of Australia.
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Ron Shand played in several straight dramatic roles with the company, appearing in such plays as The Man Who Came to Dinner, Arsenic and Old Lace, Love Thy Neighbour and Bell, Book and Candle.
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Ron Shand was part of the cast of a 1977 The Benny Hill Show TV special made in Australia, in place of Hill's usual short, bald stooge Jackie Wright.
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Ron Shand was married to performer Laurel Streeter and later actress and singer Letty Craydon.
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Ron Shand's younger sister, Iris Shand, was a soubrette, dancer and actress, as well as a theatre director and stage manager.