Stanley Holloway

British theatre and film actor Stanley Holloway (1890-1982) was known for his comic monologues and songs. He appeared in classic Ealing comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953). His best-known film role is the irresponsible and irrepressible Alfred P. Doolittle in the classic musical My Fair Lady (1964).


British postcard by Bamforth & Co, Publishers, Holmfirth and New York, no. 170. Caption: Honeysuckle and Bee. 'The Honeysuckle and the Bee' was one of Stanley Holloway's most famous songs
.

East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 1077, 1959. Photo: J. Arthur Rank / Progress. Stanley Holloway in The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951).

With her head tucked underneath her arm

Stanley Augustus Holloway was born in 1890 in Manor Park, now part of the London Borough of Newham. Holloway's parents were lawyer's clerk George Augustus Holloway and Florence May Bell, who worked as a housekeeper and dressmaker. Holloway was named ‘Stanley’, after the famous journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

George Holloway, his father, abandoned his wife and family in 1905, forcing the 15-year-old Stanley Holloway to drop out of school and start working for a living. He took a job as a clerk at the Billingsgate fish market. In 1907, Holloway started his military service, as an infantry soldier for the London Rifle Brigade.

In 1910, he made his theatrical debut, performing in ‘The White Coons Show’, a concert party variety show. In Clacton-on-Sea, he performed at the West Cliff Theatre from 1911 to 1913, where he was engaged by the then-well-known comedian Leslie Hanson for his comedy concerts. Holloway wanted to become a singer and travelled to Milan to study singing. However, the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 thwarted his plans. During the war, Holloway served in an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army. Late in the War, the military decided to use his acting experience to have Holloway perform in army revues, theatrical shows intended to boost the morale of the troops.

In 1919, he had his first major theatre success starring in ‘Kissing Time’ when the musical transferred to the West End from Broadway. However, he resigned the following year. He made his film debut in the silent film The Rotters (A.V. Bramble, 1921). Holloway celebrated a huge success with the stage show ‘The Co-Optimist’. The play was performed from 1921 to 1927 and made into a film in 1929. In the same year, the show was performed again, expanding Holloway's repertoire, which had a lasting effect on his career in sound film.

Holloway's newfound fame opened some new career opportunities for him. In 1923, he was hired as a regular performer for BBC Radio, and in 1924 he recorded some of his hit songs for release on gramophone discs. In 1928, he started performing on-stage comic monologues. He created the stage character of ‘Sam Small’, a working-class soldier of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Small was very popular with audiences, and Holloway performed this role both on stage and in film. In the 1930s, he appeared in several films by the Ealing Studios, while continuing his successful theatrical career. He also spoke a radio role in the horror play ‘With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm’.


British promotional postcard by Columbia, no. 9937/C/F. Photo: Columbia Records. Stanley Holloway as Old Sam.


British postcard. Photo: London Films. Frances Day, Leslie Henson and Stanley Holloway in The Girl from Maxim's (Alexander Korda, 1933).

Alfred P. Doolittle

In 1939, World War II started. At age 49, veteran soldier Stanley Holloway was considered too old to re-enlist in the Army. He was hired, however, by the British Film Institute and Pathé News to narrate war-time propaganda films, educational films, and documentaries. Later in the 1940s, he narrated the documentary film series ‘Time To Remember’ for Pathé News. It was a retrospective of British and world history from 1915 to 1942.

Another turning point in Holloway's career was the comedy Major Barbara (Gabriel Pascal, 1941) starring Wendy Hiller. The film adaption of G.B. Shaw’s novel was the first time he played for a major studio. During the Second World War, he appeared in front of the camera in This Happy Breed (David Lean, 1944) with Robert Newton, Celia Johnson and John Mills and in The Way Ahead (Carol Reed, 1944) starring David Niven.

After the war, Holloway became known to a wider public through his roles in David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, and as the gravedigger in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948). Ealing Studios then signed him for their comedies and he starred opposite Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951) and The Titfield Thunderbolt (Charles Crichton, 1953).

American producers also became aware of Holloway's comedic abilities. In 1956, he was hired as James Cagney's replacement for the role of Alfred P. Doolittle in the Broadway production of ‘My Fair Lady’. The musical play was an adaption of the play ‘Pygmalion’ (1913) by George Bernard Shaw. For this role, he was nominated for the 1957 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical. He also appeared in the London stage production in 1958, as well as in the film version. For My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964) he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and the Laurel Award for this role. The film version is also the source of the song ‘Wiv a Little Bit of Luck’, which he sang himself and which is also the title of his autobiography.

Holloway also worked for television. He played an English butler who is employed by an American family in the American TV series ‘Our Man Higgins’. In 1967, he was cast in the British sitcom ‘Blandings Castle’, an adaptation of a series of books by P. G. Wodehouse. His last film role was as a crime suspect in the Canadian thriller Journey into Fear (Daniel Mann, 1975). He continued appearing in theatre, but poor health forced him into retirement in 1980. He was 89-years-old, when he last performed at the Royal Variety Performance, at the London Palladium. Stanley Holloway was married twice. From his first marriage to Alice Foran in 1913, he had four children. With his second wife Violet Lane, whom he married in 1939, he had one son, Julian Holloway (1944), who also became an actor. Julian and Tessa, the daughter of the writer Roald Dahl, became the parents of the model and writer Sophie Dahl. Holloway was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1960 New Year Honours for his services to entertainment. Stanley Holloway OBE died in 1982 in Littlehampton, Great Britain. He was buried at St Mary the Virgin Church in East Preston, West Sussex.


British postcard in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series by L.D. LTD., London, no. 74. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Stanley Holloway in Fast and Loose (Gordon Parry, 1954).


Vintage card.

Sources: Dimos I (IMDb), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.