Stanley Ridges
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley Ridges (17 July 1890 – 22 April 1951) was a British-born actor who made his mark in films by playing a wide assortment of character parts.
Born 17 July 1890 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK, 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 most 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 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 22 April 1951, in Westbrook, Connecticut, aged 60.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.116 |
Birthday | 1890-07-17 |
Place of Birth | Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK |
Also Known As | Stanley Charles Ridges, Stanley C. Ridges, |
1942
To Be or Not to Be
7.828/714
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
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To Be or Not to Be
1930
For Two Cents
0/0
DeWolf Hopper thinks he is on the verge of death and a couple of newspapers are bidding for the story rights. One of the newspapers is willing to pay...
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For Two Cents
1947
Possessed
6.9/80
After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
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Possessed
1939
Dust Be My Destiny
6.1/16
Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter l...
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Dust Be My Destiny
1941
The Sea Wolf
7/54
Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
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The Sea Wolf
1934
Crime Without Passion
5.8/20
Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown. When he wants to end the dalliance with...
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Crime Without Passion
1949
The File on Thelma Jordon
6.5/59
Cleve Marshall, an assistant district attorney, falls for Thelma Jordon, a mysterious woman with a troubled past. When Thelma becomes a suspect in her...
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The File on Thelma Jordon
1950
No Way Out
6.9/91
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
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No Way Out
1940
Black Friday
6/50
University professor George Kingsley is struck by gangsters while crossing the street, leaving him with brain damage and one of the gangsters, Cannon,...
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Black Friday
1939
Each Dawn I Die
6.7/52
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the re...
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Each Dawn I Die
1935
The Scoundrel
6.227/11
A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a "restless" spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a mont...
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The Scoundrel
1946
Canyon Passage
6.6/58
In 1850s Oregon, a businessman is torn between his love of two very different women and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the l...
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Canyon Passage
1948
An Act of Murder
6.75/20
A man kills his terminally ill wife to prevent her further suffering.
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An Act of Murder
1943
This Is the Army
5.7/21
In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son...
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This Is the Army
1943
Air Force
6.3/53
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of t...
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Air Force
1941
Sergeant York
7.2/203
Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep rel...
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Sergeant York
1950
Paid in Full
6.6/8
Two sisters fall in love with the same man. After the wedding, the new husband realizes he may have married the wrong sister.
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Paid in Full
1941
They Died with Their Boots On
6.6/105
The story follows General George Armstrong Custer's adventures from his West Point days to his death. He defies orders during the Civil War, trains th...
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They Died with Their Boots On
1939
Nick Carter, Master Detective
5.7/12
Detective Nick Carter is brought in to foil spies at the Radex Airplane Factory, where a new fighter plane is under manufacture.
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Nick Carter, Master Detective
1939
Let Us Live
6.6/11
When a confused eyewitness identifies New York City cabbie Brick Tennant as a killer, he is sentenced to death for a murder that he wasn't involved in...
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Let Us Live
1942
The Big Shot
6.3/19
Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a fourth conviction will mean a life sentence. Finally, haunt...
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The Big Shot
1939
Silver on the Sage
0/0
Hoppy goes undercover as a gambler from the East when Bar 20 cattle are stolen by unknown rustlers. Brennan/Talbot are twin brothers (one a casino own...
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Silver on the Sage
1942
The Lady Is Willing
6.8/6
Bold, eccentric Broadway performer Elizabeth Madden befuddles her handlers by coming home with a baby she picked up on the street. She wants to keep t...
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The Lady Is Willing
1949
You're My Everything
3.3/3
In 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and...
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You're My Everything
1943
Tarzan Triumphs
6.1/51
Zandra, white princess of a lost civilization, comes to Tarzan for help when Nazis invade the jungle with plans to conquer her people and take their w...
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Tarzan Triumphs
1942
Eyes in the Night
6/30
Blind detective Duncan Maclain gets mixed up with enemy agents and murder when he tries to help an old friend with a rebellious stepdaughter.
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Eyes in the Night
1951
The Groom Wore Spurs
4.9/8
Pretty female attorney Abigail "AJ" Furnival is hired to keep high-flying cowboy movie star Ben Castle out of trouble in Las Vegas. Despite his many f...
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The Groom Wore Spurs
1938
If I Were King
6.8/9
King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash...
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If I Were King
1936
Sinner Take All
4.6/5
A young lawyer is determined to identify who is murdering members of a wealthy New York publishing family.
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Sinner Take All
1949
Streets of Laredo
5.9/13
Texas, 1878: cheerful outlaw-buddies Jim, Lorn and Wahoo rescue spunky orphan Rannie Carter from rustling racketeers, then are forced to separate. Lor...
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Streets of Laredo
1938
They're Always Caught
5.8/5
This MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short shows the role the crime laboratory plays in the solving of cases, and how even the smallest detail can becom...
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They're Always Caught
1941
Mr. District Attorney
6.2/6
An assistant prosecutor and his spunky friend investigate a suddenly hot case.
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Mr. District Attorney
1944
The Master Race
6.2/5
When allied troops liberate a small battle-scarred Belgium town in 1944 the American and British commanders do all they can to help the war-weary peop...
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The Master Race
1939
Union Pacific
6.5/69
One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opp...
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Union Pacific
1938
The Mad Miss Manton
6.5/36
When the murdered body discovered by beautiful, vivacious socialite Melsa Manton disappears, police and press label her a prankster until she proves t...
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The Mad Miss Manton
1945
The Suspect
6.7/60
Genial shopkeeper Philip has to endure the constant nagging of a shrewish wife while he secretly yearns for a pretty young stenographer. When the henp...
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The Suspect
1945
The Phantom Speaks
5.375/8
The spirit of an executed murderer enters the body of a physician, and forces him to do its bidding--namely, murder.
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The Phantom Speaks
1944
Wilson
5.5/23
The political career of Woodrow Wilson is chronicled, beginning with his decision to leave his post at Princeton to run for Governor of New Jersey, an...
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Wilson
1938
There's That Woman Again
5/1
Bill Reardon, a private detective, is working on a case involving stolen items from a local jewelry store. The case takes a different turn when Bill's...
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There's That Woman Again
1946
Mr. Ace
5.6/7
A rich society woman uses a gangster to win a congressional election.
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Mr. Ace
1939
Espionage Agent
5.9/9
When Barry Corvall discovers that his new bride is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to route out an esp...
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Espionage Agent
1936
Winterset
5.462/13
A man is determined to find the real culprit behind the crime for which his father was wrongly executed.
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Winterset
1949
Task Force
7/12
After learning the finer points of carrier aviation in the 1920s, career officer Jonathan Scott and his pals spend the next two decades promoting the...
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Task Force
1946
Because of Him
6.2/5
A young woman who wants to break into the theater schemes to become the protege of a famous Broadway star.
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Because of Him
1937
Internes Can't Take Money
6.4/16
Dr. Kildare treats and falls for impoverished ex-con Janet Healy, widow of a bank robber, who can't find her baby. Later she helps Kildare sew up gang...
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Internes Can't Take Money
1945
Captain Eddie
6/2
WWI flyer Eddie Rickenbaker remembers his life which brought him from a car salesman, race driver and pilot in WWI, to an important person in the earl...
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Captain Eddie
1942
Eagle Squadron
0/0
An American joins the British Royal Air Force just before Pearl Harbor is attacked, and falls in love with a beautiful English girl.
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Eagle Squadron
1944
The Story of Dr. Wassell
6.3/20
As the Japanese sweep through the East Indies during World War II, Dr. Wassell is determined to escape from Java with some crewmen of the cruiser Marb...
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The Story of Dr. Wassell
1930
The Poor Fish
0/0
Harry comes home unexpectedly and overhears his wife calling another man 'sweetheart' on the telephone. It turns out that both men are avid fishermen....
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The Poor Fish
1939
I Stole a Million
6/1
A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways.
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I Stole a Million
1943
False Faces
7/2
A district attorney sets out to vindicate his son who's been accused of murdering a nightclub singer.
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False Faces
1938
Yellow Jack
5.6/8
A fairly accurate historical account of Walter Reed's search for the cause of "Yellow Jack" or Yellow Fever and those who risked their lives in the pu...
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Yellow Jack
1923
Success
0/0
The often-told film story of a drunken actor hitting the skids, making a comeback, and helping his grown daughter in the bargain.
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Success
1943
The Voice That Thrilled the World
5.3/3
This short traces the history of sound in the movies, beginning with French scientist Leon Scott's experiments in 1857. Featured are snippets from ear...
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The Voice That Thrilled the World
1950
The Man Who Had Influence
8/1
Business mogul's son David Grant uses his father's power to extricate himself from problems - until implication in a woman's death tests David's willi...
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The Man Who Had Influence
1945
God Is My Co-Pilot
7/7
Robert L. Scott has dreamed his whole life of being a fighter pilot, but when war comes he finds himself flying transport planes over The Hump into Ch...
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