I. Stanford Jolley(1900-1978)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Perennial film western heavy I. Stanford Jolley could be spotted
anywhere and everywhere in dusty "B" fare from 1935 on. Often
mustachioed, this freelancing, wideset-eyed, black-hatted villain, who
showed up in Hollywood following vaudeville and Broadway experience,
could be counted on to give the sagebrush hero a devil of a time
before the film's end.
Born on October 24, 1900, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and raised in nearby
Morristown, Jolley was nicknamed "Ike" (short for his given name
"Isaac") by his parents but "Stan" by his friends. Of French and
English descent, his entertainment-minded father, Robert B. Jolley, at
one time owned and operated a traveling circus and carnival before
becoming a successful restaurateur and opening an electrical
contracting service. Jolley worked at his father's electrical store
following high school for a time but then drifted around for a few
years while searching for a passionate direction in life.
Around the time he married Emily Hacker in 1921, he took an interest in
performing and started in vaudeville for both the B.F. Keith and Marcus
Loew circuits. He also performed on stage and in stock shows, which led
to a role as a blind man on Broadway in "Humoresque" in 1926. His
father's death interrupted his acting pursuits, and he returned home to
New Jersey in 1929 in order to handle the family's business affairs when the Great Depression brought his father's company to virtual bankruptcy.
In 1935, Jolley took a chance and moved his family (which now included
two children) out west in order to reignite his acting career. His raw,
sunken-cheeked, cold-eyed features seemed ideal for westerns and he
found initial work in the genre in extra parts, wherein he learned how
to ride horses on the spot. Although one of his first bits was in the
Bette Davis drama
Front Page Woman (1935), it
wasn't long before he was firmly entrenched in oaters, playing
uncredited bits throughout the rest of the 1930s. Slowly but surely he
transitioned to featured roles in the WWII era, playing a reliable
adversary to such cowboy heroes as
Ray Corrigan in
Trail of the Silver Spurs (1941)
and Boot Hill Bandits (1942); Tom Keene in
Arizona Roundup (1942);
George Houston in
Border Roundup (1942) and
Outlaws of Boulder Pass (1942); Robert Livingston in
Death Rides the Plains (1943)
and
Wolves of the Range (1943);
Russell Hayden in
Frontier Law (1943);
Buster Crabbe in the western serial
Blazing Frontier (1943),
The Kid Rides Again (1943),
and Lightning Raiders (1945)_;
Dave O'Brien in
Return of the Rangers (1943)
and Outlaw Roundup (1944);
and Tex Ritter in
Oklahoma Raiders (1944),
Gangsters of the Frontier (1944),
and
The Whispering Skull (1944).
Jolley's array of gunslingers, henchmen, and outlaws continued
into the postwar years, but he wasn't completely
confined to westerns. He also made appearances in
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
starring Errol Flynn and
Bette Davis,
The Ape (1940) with
Boris Karloff (in which Jolley's little
boy Stan Jolley appeared as an extra in a
soda shop), Corregidor (1943) with
Otto Kruger, the serial
Batman (1943),
Charlie Chan in the Chinese Cat (1944)
with Sidney Toler,
The Desert Hawk (1944) with
Gilbert Roland, The Crimson Ghost (1946),
the serials King of the Rocket Men (1949) and
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (1951),
Joan of Arc (1948) with
Ingrid Bergman, and
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) with
John Wayne.
Come the 1950s, however, Jolley was almost completely confined in
films and on TV to the western genre. On the small screen he became a
familiar nemesis to "The Lone Ranger" and also played guest villain to
"Annie Oakley," "Hopalong Cassidy, "The Cisco Kid," "Kit Carson,"
"Cheyenne" and "Daniel Boone". Jolley's baritone voice was also used on
radio for such shows as The Lux Radio Theatre. He continued to act
past age 70, including in his last film,
Night of the Lepus (1972),
directed partly by his son Stan Jolley, who
also became an Oscar-nominated art director.
The heavy-smoking character actor was diagnosed with emphysema in his
final years and died of the respiratory illness on December 6, 1978, at
the Motion Picture and TV Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.
anywhere and everywhere in dusty "B" fare from 1935 on. Often
mustachioed, this freelancing, wideset-eyed, black-hatted villain, who
showed up in Hollywood following vaudeville and Broadway experience,
could be counted on to give the sagebrush hero a devil of a time
before the film's end.
Born on October 24, 1900, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and raised in nearby
Morristown, Jolley was nicknamed "Ike" (short for his given name
"Isaac") by his parents but "Stan" by his friends. Of French and
English descent, his entertainment-minded father, Robert B. Jolley, at
one time owned and operated a traveling circus and carnival before
becoming a successful restaurateur and opening an electrical
contracting service. Jolley worked at his father's electrical store
following high school for a time but then drifted around for a few
years while searching for a passionate direction in life.
Around the time he married Emily Hacker in 1921, he took an interest in
performing and started in vaudeville for both the B.F. Keith and Marcus
Loew circuits. He also performed on stage and in stock shows, which led
to a role as a blind man on Broadway in "Humoresque" in 1926. His
father's death interrupted his acting pursuits, and he returned home to
New Jersey in 1929 in order to handle the family's business affairs when the Great Depression brought his father's company to virtual bankruptcy.
In 1935, Jolley took a chance and moved his family (which now included
two children) out west in order to reignite his acting career. His raw,
sunken-cheeked, cold-eyed features seemed ideal for westerns and he
found initial work in the genre in extra parts, wherein he learned how
to ride horses on the spot. Although one of his first bits was in the
Bette Davis drama
Front Page Woman (1935), it
wasn't long before he was firmly entrenched in oaters, playing
uncredited bits throughout the rest of the 1930s. Slowly but surely he
transitioned to featured roles in the WWII era, playing a reliable
adversary to such cowboy heroes as
Ray Corrigan in
Trail of the Silver Spurs (1941)
and Boot Hill Bandits (1942); Tom Keene in
Arizona Roundup (1942);
George Houston in
Border Roundup (1942) and
Outlaws of Boulder Pass (1942); Robert Livingston in
Death Rides the Plains (1943)
and
Wolves of the Range (1943);
Russell Hayden in
Frontier Law (1943);
Buster Crabbe in the western serial
Blazing Frontier (1943),
The Kid Rides Again (1943),
and Lightning Raiders (1945)_;
Dave O'Brien in
Return of the Rangers (1943)
and Outlaw Roundup (1944);
and Tex Ritter in
Oklahoma Raiders (1944),
Gangsters of the Frontier (1944),
and
The Whispering Skull (1944).
Jolley's array of gunslingers, henchmen, and outlaws continued
into the postwar years, but he wasn't completely
confined to westerns. He also made appearances in
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
starring Errol Flynn and
Bette Davis,
The Ape (1940) with
Boris Karloff (in which Jolley's little
boy Stan Jolley appeared as an extra in a
soda shop), Corregidor (1943) with
Otto Kruger, the serial
Batman (1943),
Charlie Chan in the Chinese Cat (1944)
with Sidney Toler,
The Desert Hawk (1944) with
Gilbert Roland, The Crimson Ghost (1946),
the serials King of the Rocket Men (1949) and
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (1951),
Joan of Arc (1948) with
Ingrid Bergman, and
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) with
John Wayne.
Come the 1950s, however, Jolley was almost completely confined in
films and on TV to the western genre. On the small screen he became a
familiar nemesis to "The Lone Ranger" and also played guest villain to
"Annie Oakley," "Hopalong Cassidy, "The Cisco Kid," "Kit Carson,"
"Cheyenne" and "Daniel Boone". Jolley's baritone voice was also used on
radio for such shows as The Lux Radio Theatre. He continued to act
past age 70, including in his last film,
Night of the Lepus (1972),
directed partly by his son Stan Jolley, who
also became an Oscar-nominated art director.
The heavy-smoking character actor was diagnosed with emphysema in his
final years and died of the respiratory illness on December 6, 1978, at
the Motion Picture and TV Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.