59 Facts About Stanley Holloway

Stanley Holloway was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

Stanley Holloway was renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career.

Stanley Holloway made early stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, after which he had his first major theatre success starring in Kissing Time when the musical transferred to the West End from Broadway.

Stanley Holloway was married twice and had five children, including the actor Julian Stanley Holloway.

Stanley Holloway was named after Henry Morton Stanley, the journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and for his search for David Livingstone.

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Stanley Holloway married Amelia Catherine Knight in September 1856, and they had three children, Maria, Charles and George.

Stanley Holloway left school at the age of 14 and worked as a junior clerk in a boot polish factory, where he earned ten shillings a week.

From 1912 to 1914, Stanley Holloway appeared in the summer seasons at the West Cliff Gardens Theatre, Clacton-on-Sea, where he was billed as a romantic baritone.

In 1913 Stanley Holloway was recruited by the comedian Leslie Henson to feature as a support in Henson's more prestigious concert party called Nicely, Thanks.

In later life, Stanley Holloway often spoke of his admiration for Henson, citing him as a great influence on his career.

Later in 1913, Stanley Holloway decided to train as an operatic baritone, and so he went to Italy to take singing lessons from Ferdinando Guarino in Milan.

At the age of 25, Stanley Holloway enlisted in the Connaught Rangers in which he was commissioned as a subaltern in December 1915 because of his previous training in the London Rifle Brigade.

Stanley Holloway spent much of his time in the later part of the war organising shows to boost army morale in France.

Stanley Holloway made his film debut in a 1921 silent comedy called The Rotters.

The early BBC broadcasts brought variety and classical artists together, and Stanley Holloway could be heard in the same programme as the cellist John Barbirolli or the Band of the Scots Guards.

Stanley Holloway developed his solo act throughout the 1920s while continuing his involvement with the musical theatre and The Co-Optimists.

Stanley Holloway began regularly performing monologues, both on stage and on record, in 1928, with his own creation, Sam Small, in Sam, Sam, Pick oop thy Musket.

Stanley Holloway created Sam Small after Henson had returned from a tour of northern England and told him a story about an insubordinate old soldier from the Battle of Waterloo.

Stanley Holloway developed the character, naming him after a Cockney friend of Henson called Annie Small; the name Sam was chosen at random.

In 1929 Stanley Holloway played another leading role in musical comedy, Lieutenant Richard Manners in Song of the Sea, and later that year he performed in the revue Coo-ee, with Billy Bennett, Dorothy Dickson and Claude Hulbert.

Stanley Holloway's characters are [mischievous, like Albert, or] obstinate, and hilariously clueless.

Stanley Holloway often told his stories in costume; sporting outrageous attire and bushy moustaches.

Stanley Holloway started his association with the filmmakers Ealing Studios in 1934, appearing in the fifth Gracie Fields picture Sing As We Go.

In December 1934, Stanley Holloway made his first appearance in pantomime, playing Abanazar in Aladdin.

Stanley Holloway narrated documentaries aimed at lifting morale in war-torn Britain, including Albert's Savings, written by Marriott Edgar and featuring the character Albert Ramsbottom, and Worker and Warfront No 8, with a script written by E C Bentley about a worker who neglects to have an injury examined and contracts blood poisoning.

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On stage during the war years, Stanley Holloway appeared in revues, first Up and Doing, with Henson, Binnie Hale and Cyril Ritchard in 1940 and 1941, and then Fine and Dandy, with Henson, Dorothy Dickson, Douglas Byng and Graham Payn.

In both shows, Stanley Holloway presented new monologues, and The Times thought a highlight of Fine and Dandy was a parody of the BBC radio programme The Brains Trust, with Stanley Holloway "ponderously anecdotal" and Henson "gigglingly omniscient".

In 1941 Stanley Holloway took a character part in Gabriel Pascal's film of Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara, in which he played a policeman.

Stanley Holloway had leading parts in later films, including The Way Ahead, This Happy Breed and The Way to the Stars.

In 1951 Stanley Holloway played the same role on the stage to the Hamlet of Alec Guinness.

Stanley Holloway starred in a series of films for Ealing Studios, beginning with Champagne Charlie in 1944 alongside Tommy Trinder.

Stanley Holloway next appeared in three of the most famous Ealing Comedies, Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titfield Thunderbolt.

In 1948 Stanley Holloway conducted a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand and supported by the band leader Billy Mayerl.

Stanley Holloway made his Australian debut at The Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne, and recorded television appearances to publicise the forthcoming release of Passport to Pimlico.

Stanley Holloway wrote the monologue Albert Down Under especially for the tour.

In 1954 Stanley Holloway joined the Old Vic theatre company to play Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Robert Helpmann as Oberon and Moira Shearer as Titania.

Mr Stanley Holloway's undeserving dustman [Doolittle] is a pure joy.

In 1956 Holloway created the role of Alfred P Doolittle in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.

The librettist, Alan Jay Lerner, remembered in his memoirs that Stanley Holloway was his first choice for the role, even before it was written.

Stanley Holloway's performances earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Stanley Holloway appeared with Groucho Marx and Helen Traubel of the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1962 Stanley Holloway played the role of an English butler called Higgins in a US television sitcom called Our Man Higgins.

Stanley Holloway returned to the US a few more times after that to take part in The Dean Martin Show three times and The Red Skelton Show twice.

Stanley Holloway appeared in the 1965 war film In Harm's Way, together with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.

Stanley Holloway's portrayal of Beach was received with critical reservation, but the series was a popular success.

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In 1970, Stanley Holloway began an association with the Shaw Festival in Canada, playing Burgess in Candida.

Stanley Holloway made what he considered his West End debut as a straight actor in Siege by David Ambrose at the Cambridge Theatre in 1972, co-starring with Alastair Sim and Michael Bryant.

Stanley Holloway continued to perform until well into his eighties, touring Asia and Australia in 1977 together with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Stanley Holloway made his last appearance performing at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in 1980, aged 89.

Stanley Holloway died of a stroke at the Nightingale Nursing Home in Littlehampton, West Sussex, on 30 January 1982, aged 91.

Stanley Holloway is buried, along with his wife Violet, at St Mary the Virgin Church in East Preston.

Stanley Holloway started to drink heavily as the pressures from the war and of supporting her daughter took their toll.

On 2 January 1939, Stanley Holloway married the 25-year-old actress and former chorus dancer Violet Marion Lane, and they moved to Marylebone.

Stanley Holloway owned other properties including a flat in St John's Wood in North West London, which he used when working in the capital, and a flat in Manhattan during the My Fair Lady Broadway years.

Stanley Holloway was a great actor, a super mimic and a one-man walking comic show.

Stanley Holloway was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 New Year Honours for his services to entertainment.

Stanley Holloway entitled his autobiography Wiv a Little Bit o' Luck after the song he performed in My Fair Lady.

Stanley Holloway had a 54-year recording career, beginning in the age of acoustic recording, and ending in the era of the stereophonic LP.

Stanley Holloway mainly recorded songs from musicals and revues, and he recited many monologues on various subjects.