Stanley Ridges

File:Actor Stanley Ridges.jpg

in Black Friday (1940)

Stanley Ridges (July 17, 1890 – April 22, 1951) was a British-born American film actor who played character parts.

Life and career

Born July 17, 1890 in Southampton, England, Stanley Ridges became a protégé of Beatrice Lillie, a star of musical stage comedies, and spent many years learning and honing his craft on the stage. Eventually making his way to America, Ridges began as a song-and-dance man on Broadway, but later turned to dramatic roles onstage, appearing in such plays as Maxwell Anderson's Mary of Scotland (as Lord Morton) and Valley Forge (as Lieutenant Colonel Lucifer Tench), becoming a romantic leading man.

Ridges' silent film debut was in Success (1923). With his excellent diction and rich speaking voice, he easily made the transition into sound films, with his career taking off at age 43, in Crime Without Passion (1934), with Claude Rains. Ridges found himself cast in character roles, as his greying hair put his romantic leading man days at an end.

His best known roles were probably two different characters in one film, one of them the kindly Professor Kingsley and the other the murderous Red Cannon in the thriller Black Friday (1940). The Jekyll and Hyde transformations gave Ridges a chance to display his acting ability.

Ridges was often cast in supporting roles in many classic films, and played the lead only once, in the B-picture False Faces (1943).

Among Ridges's other film roles were as the Scotland Yard inspector who is shadowing Charles Laughton in the film The Suspect (1944), as Major Buxton (Gary Cooper's commanding officer) in Sergeant York (1942), as Professor Siletsky in To Be or Not to Be (also 1942), and as Cary Travers Grayson, the official White House physician in Wilson (1944).

By 1950, he had just begun an appearing in television anthologies such as Studio One and Philco Television Playhouse. His last feature film, the Ginger Rogers comedy The Groom Wore Spurs, in which he played a mobster, was released a month before he died. Stanley Ridges died April 22, 1951, in Westbrook, Connecticut, aged 60.

Broadway roles

• Mary of Scotland (1933) as Lord Morton
• Valley Forge (1934) as Lt. Colonel Lucifer Tench

Filmography

• Success (1923) – Gilbert Gordon
• The Poor Fish (1930 short) – George
• Let's Merge (1930 short)
• For Two Cents (1931) – Reporter
• The Sign of the Cross (1932) – Chaplain Lloyd (1944 re-release prologue) (uncredited)
  (his footage was added especially for the 1944 re-release only)
• Crime Without Passion (1934) – Eddie White
• The Scoundrel (1935) – Paul Decker
• Winterset (1936) – Shadow
• Sinner Take All (1936) – MacKelvey
• Internes Can't Take Money (1937) – Innes
• Yellow Jack (1938) – Dr. James Carroll
• If I Were King (1938) – Rene de Montigny
• The Mad Miss Manton (1938) – Edward Norris
• They're Always Caught (1938 short) – Dr. John Pritchard
• There's That Woman Again (1938) – Tony Croy
• Let Us Live (1939) – District Attorney
• Silver on the Sage (1939) – Earl Brennan / Dave Talbot
• Union Pacific (1939) – General Casement
• Each Dawn I Die (1939) – Meuller
• I Stole a Million (1939) – Downs (uncredited)
• Dust Be My Destiny (1939) – Charlie Garrett
• Espionage Agent (1939) – Hamilton Peyton
• Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) – Doctor Frankton
• Black Friday (1940) – Prof. George Kingsley / Red Cannon
• The Sea Wolf (1941) – Johnson
• Mr. District Attorney (1941) – District Attorney Tom F. Winton
• Sergeant York (1941) – Major Buxton
• They Died with Their Boots On (1941) – Major Romulus Taipe
• The Lady Is Willing (1942) – Kenneth Hanline
• To Be or Not to Be (1942) – Professor Siletsky
• The Big Shot (1942) – Martin T. Fleming, Attorney
• Eagle Squadron (1942) – Air Minister
• Eyes in the Night (1942) – Hansen
• Tarzan Triumphs (1943) – Col. von Reichart
• Air Force (1943) – Major Mallory
• False Faces (1943) – District Attorney Stanley S. Harding
• This is the Army (1943) – Maj. John B. Davidson
• The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) – Cmdr. William B. 'Bill' Goggins
• Wilson (1944) – Dr. Cary Grayson
• The Master Race (1944) – Phil Carson
• The Suspect (1944) – Huxley
• God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) – Col. Merian 'Steve' Cooper
• The Phantom Speaks (1945) – Dr. Paul Renwick
• Captain Eddie (1945) – Col. Hans Adamson
• Because of Him (1946) – Charles Gilbert
• Canyon Passage (1946) – Jonas Overmire
• Mr. Ace (1946) – Toomey
• Possessed (1947) – Dr. Harvey Willard
• An Act of Murder (1948) – Doctor Walter Morrison
• Streets of Laredo (1949) – Major Bailey
• You're My Everything (1949) – Mr. Henry Mercer
• Task Force (1949) – Sen. Bentley
• The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) – Kingsley Willis
• Paid in Full (1950) – Dr. P.J. 'Phil' Winston
• No Way Out (1950) – Dr. Sam Moreland
• The Du Pont Story (1950) – Gen. Henry du Pont
• The Groom Wore Spurs (1951) – Harry Kallen

External links

• Works by or about Stanley Ridges at the Internet Archive
• Stanley Ridges at IMDb
• Stanley Ridges at the Internet Broadway Database
• Stanley Ridges at Find a Grave