Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE (1 October 1890 â€" 30 January 1982)
was an English stage and film actor, humourist, singer, poet and
monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage
and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He
was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he
performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career.Born in
London, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He
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. In 1921, he joined a concert party, The Co-Optimists, and
his career began to flourish. At first, he was employed chiefly as a
singer, but his skills as an actor and reciter of comic monologues
were soon recognised. Characters from his monologues such as Sam
Small, invented by Holloway, and Albert Ramsbottom, created for him by
Marriott Edgar, were absorbed into popular British culture, and
Holloway developed a following for the recordings of his many
monologues. By the 1930s, he was in demand to star in variety,
pantomime and musical comedy, including several revues.Following the
outbreak of the Second World War, Holloway made short propaganda films
on behalf of the British Film Institute and Pathé News and took
character parts in a series of war films including Major Barbara, The
Way Ahead, This Happy Breed and The Way to the Stars. After the war,
he appeared in the film Brief Encounter and made a series of films for
Ealing Studios, including Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob
and The Titfield Thunderbolt.
was an English stage and film actor, humourist, singer, poet and
monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage
and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He
was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he
performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career.Born in
London, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He
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. In 1921, he joined a concert party, The Co-Optimists, and
his career began to flourish. At first, he was employed chiefly as a
singer, but his skills as an actor and reciter of comic monologues
were soon recognised. Characters from his monologues such as Sam
Small, invented by Holloway, and Albert Ramsbottom, created for him by
Marriott Edgar, were absorbed into popular British culture, and
Holloway developed a following for the recordings of his many
monologues. By the 1930s, he was in demand to star in variety,
pantomime and musical comedy, including several revues.Following the
outbreak of the Second World War, Holloway made short propaganda films
on behalf of the British Film Institute and Pathé News and took
character parts in a series of war films including Major Barbara, The
Way Ahead, This Happy Breed and The Way to the Stars. After the war,
he appeared in the film Brief Encounter and made a series of films for
Ealing Studios, including Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob
and The Titfield Thunderbolt.
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