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The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc.



(Courtesy of Jack Tillmany)		Stanley Price

Full name:
Stanley Louis Price

1892 or 1893 - 1955



Cast listing for the December, 1923 opening of "Abie's Irish Rose" at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago ... with Stanley Price as "Abie" ("Abraham Levy").


After exiting "Abie's Irish Rose", Stanley formed his own touring company ... and future wife Frances Severns was his leading lady.

In Summer - Fall, 1926, they spent months doing their repertoire of plays at the Post Theater in Battle Creek, Michigan. Their next stop was a lengthy run at the Temple Theater in Hammond, Indiana and the above newspaper ad is from October, 1926.

The June 8, 1927 Variety noted that "Stanley Price closed his stock at the Temple, Hammond, after thirty weeks."
Stanley Louis Price was born December 31, 1892 or 1893 in Atchison, Kansas to Frank Henry Price and Laura Elizabeth Pratt.

His acting skills were developed on the stage and with touring repertory companies. And he served in the military during World War I.

His first wife was actress Mabelle Estelle, and they met when working together in plays. They married circa 1920, but the relationship was troubled and stormy, and Price filed for divorce in 1925 in Chicago. He was finally granted the divorce in 1928.

Circa 1923 - 1926, there's many trade and newspaper mentions of Price playing "Abie" in a touring company for "Abie's Irish Rose". October 13, 1923 issue of Billboard reported that Price and the Abie troupe had completed a record twenty-nine week run in Pittsburg. And a May, 1925 announcement in Variety noted that the group had completed fifty-eight weeks at Chicago's Studebaker Theater, eleven weeks at the Garrick Theater in Milwaukee, and started playing the Garrick Theater in Detroit.

There's some links below to newspaper articles and obituary on Stanley, and that he did 1100+ ... 1700+ ... 2200+ performances of "Abie". Unsure of his real performance numbers but rough math calculations based on the above play dates indicates at least 900. Must have been difficult living out of a suitcase for years. And the schedule was grueling: six or seven evening performances per week plus two matinees a week.

After his time as "Abie" ended, Stanley toured for a while and then settled in Hollywood and a movie career.

During the Chicago version of "Abie", Price met actress Frances Severns. They married circa 1929 and had two children - daughter Frances was born December, 1929 in Chicago, and son Stanley Otis Price was born June, 1932 in Los Angeles.

Stanley became a familiar figure - wearing either cowboy outfits or suits - in B westerns, serials, and assorted A and B grade films of the 1930s through the mid 1950s.

Les Adams has him identified in about 200 sound era films. Les adds some further statistics and comments:

Price occasionally played the main villain / brains heavy. But most often, he was a western or serial henchman or in the background as a doctor, barkeep, lawman, etc.

Some may describe him as quirky, off-beat, hammy. He did use facial expressions and body language to bolster his on screen presence. In some roles, he was crazed ... or terrified ... or just plain nervous, confused, or dumbfounded. And I always felt that his voice was too monotone (boring).

A few highlights of Stanley Price in B grade oaters, cliffhangers ... and with the Three Stooges:

In his later years, he occasionally returned to the stage. There's a link below to a 1948 newspaper article noting that Price was back playing "Judas" in the 21st annual "Pilgrimage Play" in Los Angeles.

His last screen work was in the early 1950s at Lippert in the six Jimmy Ellison / Russell Hayden sagebrushers; at Monogram / Allied Artists in films starring Whip Wilson, Johnny Mack Brown and Bill Elliott; and at Columbia in a few of Three Stooges shorts. Supposedly, he had an unbilled role in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Paramount, 1956) which was released the year after his death. I've never been able to spot him among the gazillions of faces in that Cecil B. DeMille epic.

He turns up as a frequent dialogue director / supervisor / coach in 1940s - 1950s films helmed by Thomas Carr, Lewis D. Collins, William Berke, the great Samuel Fuller, and a few others. His dialogue credits include one of my favorite war films, THE STEEL HELMET (Lippert, 1951), which was written and directed by Samuel Fuller and starred Gene Evans as the cigar chomping 'Sergeant Zack'.

Some biographies erroneously list him as a story and / or screenplay writer. He is probably confused with Stanley Price (1931 - 2019) who did writing and screenplays for films and TV in the 1960s - 1990s.

His stage and movie career amounted to about forty years.

Stanley Price suffered a heart attack at his Los Angeles home and passed away at his doctor's office on July 13, 1955.

Wife Frances married again and she died in 1997.



  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Stanley Price: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0697156/

A few Newspaper articles on Stanley and Frances ... and these links will open in a separate window / tab:

Price didn't spend much time on the New York stage. The Internet Broadway Database only shows him working in the brief 1929 New York City run of the comedy "Adam's Apple": https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/stanley-price-56590

Daniel Neyer's "The Files of Jerry Blake" website has lots of details on Stanley Price in serials: https://filesofjerryblake.com/serial-henchmen/stanley-price/

The Three Stooges Net website includes a listing of the various cast members in the Stooges' shorts, and here's Stanley Price with the zany trio: http://www.threestooges.net/cast/actor/276/

The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), California Death Index, death certificate, newspapers, and trade publications provide more on Stanley Price and family:

Find A Grave website has Stanley Price interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, California: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9982468/stanley-price

Stanley's wife Frances married again - Frances Price Sebby (1904 - 1997) is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75099221/frances-price-sebby




(From Old Corral collection)

Above - Tom Mix has Stanley Price corralled in a lobby card from THE MIRACLE RIDER (Mascot, 1935) chapterplay. Did ya catch the boo-boo in this lobby card? Take a gander at the left side holster on Mix and Price. They did an image reversal/flip when they produced this card. Mix wore his sixgun on his right hip.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Tom Keene lands a right to the jaw of Stanley Price in the pressbook cover of Keene's LONE STAR LAW MEN (Monogram, 1941). In this, Price played "Moose Mason", one of Charlie King's gang. Betty Miles is riding her horse Sonny in the bottom right.



(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

Above from left to right are House Peters Jr., I. Stanford Jolley, Stanley Price, Whip Wilson and Tommy Farrell in Whip's last starring film, WYOMING ROUNDUP (Monogram, 1952).



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