The Hollywood actor Stanley Ridges was born at 27 Hillside Avenue, Bitterne Park in 1891, the eldest of eleven children. As a teenager he showed an early aptitude for entertainment, being particularly fond of singing, dancing and acting. After a brief stint in the merchant navy he began a career singing and dancing in the chorus lines of musicals in both London and Broadway. By the mid 1920s he was an established performer appearing in many of the hit shows of that decade.
In the 1930s he turned to straight acting and appeared in numerous Hollywood films, specializing in portraying lawyers, doctors, professors and, occasionally, crooks.
Although he lived in the USA he kept in touch with his large family of brothers and sisters in Southampton, and returned for his mother’s funeral in 1933. He died in America in 1951.
Stanely Ridges
Photograph, c.1935
Stanely Ridges×
Further reading:
Southampton People, by John Edgar Mann, p74-75. (HS/t)
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