Stanley Holloway

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Stanley Holloway (1974)

Stanley Augustus Holloway OBE (born October 1, 1890 in London , Great Britain , † January 30, 1982 in Littlehampton , Great Britain ) was a British theater and film actor who made it very popular in his home country through mainly comedic roles.

Life

After attending school, Stanley Holloway started working as a clerk at the Billingsgate fish market . Since 1907 he has appeared as an amateur actor on open-air stages and events on the British east coast. In Clacton-on-Sea he appeared from 1911 to 1913 at the "West Cliff Theater" and was engaged there by the then well-known comedian Leslie Hanson for his comedic concerts. Holloway wanted to be a singer and traveled to Milan to study singing . However, the outbreak of World War I in 1914 thwarted his plans.

During the war, Holloway served in an Irish infantry regiment in the British Army. In 1920 he began his service with the Royal Irish Constabulary , the Irish protection police. As a member of the Black and Tans , he was a member of a paramilitary branch of this police unit. But he quit the job the following year.

Holloway celebrated a huge success with the stage show “The Co-Optimist”. The play was performed from 1921 to 1927 and filmed in 1929. In the same year, the show was performed again, with Holloway's repertoire was expanded, which had a lasting effect on his career in sound film. He appeared in a few cheap films in the 1930s. He also spoke a radio play role in the horror piece "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm".

His appearance in the comedy film "Major Barbara" in 1941 again marked a turning point in Holloway's career. Here he played for a major studio for the first time . During the Second World War he stood under the directors David Lean , Anthony Asquith and Carol Reed as a patriot or moralist in front of the camera. After the war, he became known to a wider public for his roles in Meeting David Lean and as the gravedigger in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet . The Ealing Studios then took him for their comedies under contract.

In the USA too, studio bosses became increasingly aware of Holloway's comedic abilities. In 1956 he was hired to replace James Cagney for the role of Alfred P. Doolittle in the Broadway production My Fair Lady . For this role he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical in 1957 . Even in a year later following stage production in London he played with, as in the film version from 1964, for which he for the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor nomination. He was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and for the Laurel Award for this role . The song "Wiv a Little Bit of Luck", which he sang himself and which is also the title of his autobiography, also comes from the film version.

Holloway also worked for television. In the 1960s, he played Butler Beach when the BBC PG processed Wodehouse stories from the so-called Blandines series with Lord Emsworth , Galahad Threepwood and the Empress of Blandings as major protagonists for television. He played his most successful role for the American broadcaster ABC in the television series "Our Man Higgins". Here he portrayed an English butler who is employed by an American family and thus takes care of cultural entanglements. Until 1975 he appeared in British and American productions for cinema and TV.

Stanley Holloway was married twice. His first marriage to Alice Foran, which was closed in 1913, remained childless. With his second wife Violet Lane, whom he married in 1939, he had a son, Julian Holloway (* 1944), who also became an actor and became known in Germany for the "Ist ja crazy" comedy series. Julian and his wife Tessa , the daughter of the British-Norwegian writer Roald Dahl , became the parents of the model and writer Sophie Dahl .

Filmography (selection)

CD publications

  • Stanley Holloway: The Lion & Albert - songs and lyrics on CD - Codaex Germany, 2005 - EAN: 0743625548327
  • Stanley Holloway: Keep Smiling - Schlager-CD - Hart Music Vertrieb, 2006 - EAN: 5050457059927
  • Stanley Holloway: Old Sam & Young Albert - Jazz-CD - Naxos Jazz, 2003 - EAN: 0636943271520

Bibliography

  • Stanley Holloway: Stanley Holloway Monologues - English edition - Hamish Hamilton, 1988 - ISBN 0-241-10306-1

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Holloway, Stanley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holloway, Stanley Augustus (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1982
Place of death Littlehampton , UK