Stanley Andrews

Stanley Andrews (born Stanley Andrzejewski; August 28, 1891 – June 23, 1969) was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program Little Orphan Annie and later as "The Old Ranger", the first host of the syndicated western anthology television series, Death Valley Days.

Early life

Andrews was born in Chicago, Illinois. Little is known of his early years, except that he was reared in the Midwest. As a young adult, he acted on stage and in radio.

Career

Andrews worked in stock theater early in his career. In an interview in 1957, he credited acting in Minneapolis in 1916 for giving him the confidence necessary "to embark on a successful career." He recalled that the troupe presented a different play each week for 52 weeks.

His first big role was on radio as Daddy Warbucks in the Little Orphan Annie series, where he starred from 1931 to1936. He appeared in more than 250 movies, which included Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Beau Geste, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Ox-Bow Incident, It's a Wonderful Life, State of the Union, The Lemon Drop Kid, Superman and the Mole Men (the very first theatrical Superman film); his final film role in Cry Terror! in 1958.

Besides his regular appearances on Death Valley Days, he appeared in seventeen episodes of The Range Rider, with Jock Mahoney and Dick Jones, eleven segments of Annie Oakley, ten episodes of The Gene Autry Show, seven episodes of The Lone Ranger, six appearances on Buffalo Bill, Jr., again with Dick Jones, and four times each on Tales of the Texas Rangers and the western aviation series, Sky King. In the latter series with Kirby Grant and Gloria Winters, Andrews was cast as Jim Herrick in "Danger Point", and as Josh Bradford in "The Threatening Bomb" (both 1952) and as Old Dan Grable in "Golden Burro" and as Pop Benson in "Rustlers on Wheels" (both 1956). Andrews portrayed Dr. Henry Fulmer in the 1955 episode "Joey Saves the Day" of the NBC children's western series, Fury.

His role as the Old Ranger began in 1952 and ended in 1963, when the sponsors of Death Valley Days, U.S. Borax, decided upon a younger man to be the series host. The choice fell on Ronald Reagan, who, like Andrews, was from Illinois and shared an interest in western history. When Reagan left the show to run for Governor, hosting duties were taken over by Reagan's good friend, Robert Taylor. Taylor died during the series run and was succeeded by Dale Robertson.

Death

In 1969, Andrews died in Los Angeles, California, aged 77. He was survived by two nephews.