Lionel Stander

Craggy-faced character player with a distinctive raspy voice who made his film debut in 1932 and went on to enliven numerous films, usually as an endearing curmudgeon, until he was blacklisted in the early 1950s. Stander supported himself as a stock player and Wall Street broker before resurfacing in international films, particularly "spaghetti westerns," in the 1960s. He later played the eccentric chauffeur on the TV series, "Hart to Hart" (1979-84). Stander was memorable as the cynical press agent in "A Star is Born" (1937) and as an old-time gangster in Roman Polanski's atmospheric "Cul-de-Sac" (1966).