Stanley Ridges

Born in England in 1891, 'Stanley Ridges' (qv) would become a protégé of 'Beatrice Lillie' (qv), a star of musical comedies, and spent a great many years learning and honing his craft on the stage. He eventually would make his way over to America, and become a romantic leading man on Broadway. His first film appearance was in _Success (1923)_ (qv), but his film career would not begin to take off until he was 43 in _Crime Without Passion (1934)_ (qv) opposite 'Claude Rains' (qv). Stanley found himself cast in character roles, as his graying hair put his romantic leading man days at an end. Despite this he was well cast in the horror film _Black Friday (1940)_ (qv) opposite 'Boris Karloff' (qv) as a beloved professor who becomes the innocent victim of a shooting. To save him Karloff's character transplants part of the brain of the criminal who shot Stanley's character. Stanley goes on to steal the film, doing a Jekyll-and-Hyde act going from the beloved professor to the crass and uncouth criminal.Ridges would be cast in other memorable films, including _The Sea Wolf (1941)_ (qv), _Sergeant York (1941)_ (qv), _To Be or Not to Be (1942)_ (qv) and _The Suspect (1944)_ (qv). His last film would be _The Groom Wore Spurs (1951)_ (qv) with 'Ginger Rogers' (qv), before passing away in April of that year.::Keith Burnage (qv's & corrections by A. Nonyous)