Stanley Holloway

Stanley Augustus Holloway OBE (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was a renowned English actor, comedian, singer, and monologist, recognized for his comic and character roles on both stage and screen. He is perhaps best known for playing Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. His comic monologues and songs, performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career, gained him a significant following. Stanley Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his early life, made numerous stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, and then experienced his first major theatre success in Kissing Time. His career took off in 1921 when he joined a concert party, The Co-Optimists. In the 1930s, Stanley increasingly starred in variety, pantomime, and musical comedy, including several revues. Post-World War II, he appeared in noteworthy films such as Brief Encounter and a series of films for Ealing Studios. In his later years, he continued to make films, tour in revues, appeared in stage plays and television series in the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia. He had five children, including the actor Julian Holloway.