Stanley Andrews

Early life

Andrews was born Stanley Andrzejewski 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

His first big role was on radio as Daddy Warbucks in the Little Orphan Annie series, where he starred from 1931 to 1936. 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 (he played Mr. Welch though he was not credited), 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 Robert Taylor and then on Ronald W. Reagan, future governor of California and U.S. President. Robert Taylor died during the series run and replaced by Reagan, his close friend. Like Andrews, Reagan was a native of Illinois and shared his predecessor's interest in western history.

Death

In 1969, Andrews died in Los Angeles, California, aged 77.