Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor, activist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He had an extensive career in theatre, film, radio, and television that spanned nearly 70 years, from 1928 until 1994. He was known for his distinctive raspy voice and tough-guy demeanor, as well as for his vocal left-wing political stances. One of the first Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he was blacklisted from the late 1940s until the mid-1960s.
Stander was born in The Bronx, New York City on 11 January 1908, to parents of Russian Jewish extraction.
During his one year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he appeared in the student productions The Muse of the Unpublished Writer, and The Muse and the Movies: A Comedy of Greenwich Village. Stander's acting career began in 1928, as Cop and First Fairy in Him by E. E. Cummings, at the Provincetown Playhouse. He claimed that he got the roles because one of them required shooting craps, which he did well, and a friend in the company volunteered him. He appeared in a series of short-lived plays through the early 1930s, including The House Beautiful, which Dorothy Parker famously derided as "the play lousy".
Date of Birth | 11th January 1908 |
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Date of Death | 30th November 1994 |
Age at Death | 86 Years |
Zodiac Sign | Capricorn |
Country | United States of America |
Current City | The Bronx |
Birth Place | The Bronx |
Death Place | Los Angeles |
Nationality | United States of America |
Citizenship | United States of America |
Spouses |
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Education |
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, DeWitt Clinton High School |
Occupation | actor, stage actor, television actor, film actor |
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