Biography

As a youth in 1940's Glasgow, Stanley spent as much time as possible at the Grosvenor Cinema, even skipping school. His father was a branch manager of Commercial Union while his mother would have liked to have been an actress. When the family agreed that acting was respectable, his mother took him round halls where he gave renderings of Harry Lauder and Mae West. Schooling eventually came to a stop which disappointed his father, who had wanted him to be a doctor. His father died, but lived long enough to know that Stanley was going to do well. He eventually moved South with his wife, Moira, and proceeded to established himself in London on his own terms with a reputation for being a perfectionist.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5

Stanley says, that he was rotten at every thing at school and was always 2nd to bottom of his class. He was small for his age and the smallest in class, so making kids laugh in the playground stopped him getting into fights and being bullied. You couldn't keep him out of cinemas. His mother encouraged him, as he was a natural mimic and she took him round church halls and concert halls. At seven, he was doing imitations of Harry Lauder and at 14 he was a regular on Childrens Hour and in plays on the radio..Just after the war, he was called up to be a Bevan boy in the mines doing surface work, then he went South to work with London's Unity Theatre. He was called up in the army and got into Combined Services Entertainment, winding up doing shows in Singapore where he shared a hut with Kenneth Williams and John Schlesinger. For years after the war, he worked in straight theatre, first in Edinburgh under Sir Tyrone Guthrie, then a series of West End shows: Amorous Prawn, On the Brighter Side and What the Butler Saw. By 1960, he was in his own national TV series and was named Light Entertainment Personality of the year. Films included Crooks Anonymous,Very Important Person and Fast Lady. He enjoyed preparing shows and rehearsing but didn't enjoy performing. He married Moira Robertson, whom he met in rep in Scotland in the play Bunty Pulls the Strings in 1952.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5