Do you recognize that man? That's Stan Ross, a comic actor who appeared in an awful lot of TV shows and movies but you wouldn't know it from the Internet Movie Database which only lists a tiny bit of what he did. The frame grab above is from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls where he had about four lines…but four pretty memorable lines. They have him down for that appearance but look at this one…
That's Stan Ross pointing a gun at Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife and IMDB doesn't list him for that. They don't have him down for an awful lot of his on-screen appearances and in a few cases, I think they have him confused with several other people in the industry with the same name including Stanley Ralph Ross, a writer-actor who was a pretty good friend of mine. And yes, I also met the Stan Ross from the above pics.
It was in the early eighties at Farmers Market here in Los Angeles. He was with Chuck McCann who introduced us. I would not have recognized Mr. Ross on my own because he had a thick, black bushy beard.
But he was amazed and a little pleased that I knew who he was, particularly because I mentioned his longtime association with Jackie Gleason. Gleason was always hiring him for bit parts even after the whole Gleason operation moved from New York down to Miami Beach. There must have been a thousand guys in Florida that Jackie could have hired to announce his show and do the warm-up for the live audience but he insisted they fly Johnny Olson in each week to do those duties. And even for a tiny part, he'd insist they fly in Stan Ross.
Someone has uploaded to YouTube — alas, in a way that I can't embed it here — a truncated version of The Jackie Gleason Show that was produced in Miami. It aired on CBS on November 25, 1967 and the billable guest stars were Bing Crosby, Alan King and Liberace. You may enjoy what they do…
…but I'm calling your attention to this because beginning around two minutes and five seconds into this video, there's a three-minute bit with Stan Ross playing the kind of creepy character he often played. The entire video (minus a few numbers) can be viewed at this link or if you just want to watch Stan Ross, click this one. You'll hear the audience start laughing at him before he's even on-camera.
That day at Farmers Market, we talked a little but Ross didn't do much of the talking. I guess he lived in the area because thereafter when I went to Farmers Market or the shopping center across the street, I'd see him without Chuck. I'd always wave and say, "Hi, Stan" or sometimes, his catch phrase, "I'm with you!" He'd acknowledge the recognition but hurry on his way like he didn't want to talk. So we didn't talk.
One day though, I spotted him in Andre's, a wonderful little Italian cafeteria that used to be in that shopping mall across from Farmers Market. I wrote about Andre's many times here, most recently in this post. It has now relocated to another address a mile or two away and the food is still good and pretty darn cheap.
Anyway, I used to take another great character actor/second banana, Howard Morris, to Andre's. He was with me when I spotted and pointed out Stan Ross sitting alone at a table out on the patio. Howie said, "That's Stan Ross? I used to see him all the time back in New York at auditions. We were up for a lot of the same parts. I wound up on everything Sid Caesar did and Stan was always working with Jackie Gleason." Howie directed Gleason in the 1969 movie, Don't Drink the Water, and he said Gleason had asked him to cast Stan Ross in one of the roles. Stan was somehow unavailable to they got Richard Libertini, who played a lot of characters not unlike the ones Stan Ross played.
Howie walked over to Stan, introduced himself and sat down for a brief chat. I didn't join them nor could I hear what was said but I could see Stan was pleased to see an old acquaintance but was having trouble communicating. When they parted, Howie came back to our table and said, "He started crying a little. I don't think he gets recognized much." Howie was a little unnerved but still glad he'd table-hopped to say hello.
This would have been, I'm guessing, 1985. Shortly after, I stopped seeing Stan Ross in the neighborhood. I can't find anything online about his later days and since he was reportedly born in 1926, he's either ninety-nine now or gone. A few people over the years have written to ask me if I know what became of him. I'm afraid that's about all I've got.