Stanley Morgan on his role as Concierge in Dr No

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2007-04-01

Stanley Morgan was born on 10 November 1929 in Liverpool. He has worked variously as a bank clerk, sewing machine salesman, debt collector and radio actor. In 1951 he emigrated to Canada where he spent some time at the Bank of Nova Scotia before emigrating yet again in 1955 - this time to Southern Rhodesia, where his interest in performing began. In 1958 he won an award for "Best Actor of the Year" and was sponsored to return to London to act professionally.

In the 1960's he co-starred in a number of British films such as The L-Shaped Room, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Night Train To Paris, and Konga. Stanley also had a pivotal role as the Casino Concierge in the first James Bond film - Dr. No (1962).

Around this time he also featured in TV commercials such as Camay Soap, Black and Decker Tools and Esso Petrol. Then an advertising producer suggested he make a 'voice-over' test tape for Whiskas cat food...and a whole new career was launched. During the next ten years he did the voice-overs for some 500 commercials - Esso, Shell, British Army, Castella Cigars, Whiskas, Kodak etc - and became one of the top voice-over artists of the era.

In the late 1960's and throughout the 1970's he turned his hand to writing and wrote a series of books detailing the adventures of a happy-go-lucky ladies man, RUSS TOBIN. The first million sales of Tobin occurred in 1973. Stan says "Granada (Mayflower) presented me with a gold pen which I still have but have never used!" Total sales of Tobin were around TEN MILLION - without the benefit of critical review or any substantial advertising. He sold particularly well in Australia, New Zealand, India and the Far East, and, to nobody's surprise, was banned in 1970s South Africa.

Stan also gave us a trilogy based around a dodgy Airline, and somewhere along the way found time to write a couple of serious adventure books, a handful of sex-comedies and later on in the 1980's and 90's some serious NOVELS which eluded critical acclaim, suffered from publishing disasters and are as a result, devilishly hard to come by.

Since writing his first novel in 1968, Stanley has written more than 40 books spanning four decades. His Tobin novels and others were available at the time in airport departure lounges, train stations and the like - easy-going, hilarious reading for long boring journeys. Now at the turn of the century these works of GENIUS can be located through Amazon Marketplace, eBay and Abe Books. However, two recent publications - TOBIN GOES CUCKOO (Russ Tobin's nineteenth outing) and TRANCE, an excellent thriller - are available through his publisher www.twentyfirstcenturypublishers.com or through Stan's own website www.stanleymorgan.co.uk.

Stanley currently lives in Cheshire, England with his wife Linda.

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Stanley Morgan on his role as Concierge in Dr No

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