Guy Standing (actor)

Guy Standing
Born	(1873-09-01)1 September 1873 London, England, UK
Died	24 February 1937(1937-02-24) (aged 63) Hollywood Hills, California, U.S.

Commander Sir Guy Standing KBE RNVR (1 September 1873–24 February 1937) was an English actor.

Biography

Standing served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve throughout the First World War, reaching the rank of Commander. In 1918, he was part of the British War Mission to the United States. For this service, he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1918 and raised to Knight Commander (KBE) the following year.

After becoming a noted actor in British and American theatre, he moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s appearing in Paramount films. His best-known role is probably that of Colonel Stone, autocratic father of Lieutenant Stone (played by Richard Cromwell), in Henry Hathaway's Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935).

He was the son of Herbert Standing (1846–1923), a noted actor from the stage and in silent films. His brothers Jack Standing, Herbert Standing Jr., Percy Standing and Wyndham Standing were also actors, as was his second wife Dorothy Hammond, (née Plaskitt; died 1950), his son Guy Standing Jr. and his daughter, Kay Hammond (née Dorothy Katherine Standing), and grandson John Standing. Another son, Michael Standing, was the first BBC cricket commentator and went on to become Head of Light Entertainment, responsible for such classics as The Goon Show, The Navy Lark and Hancock's Half Hour.

Standing's first wife was the stage actress Isabelle Urquhart, several years his senior. They divorced and she died in 1907 aged 42.

Death

Standing died of a heart attack after being bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking in the Hollywood Hills; he was 63 years old. He was buried in the Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California.

External links

• portrait of Guy Standing NY Public Library
• 1906 portrait of Sir Guy Standing(Univ. of Washington/Sayre Collection)