Ron Shand
Ronald Ernest McMurtry, professionally known as Ron Shand and earlier in his career billed as Ronnie McMurtry, was an Australian actor and comedian who worked extensively in numerously genres of the show business industry including, circus, soft shoe, theatre, cabaret, revue, vaudeville, radio, television and film in a career spanning over 70 years.
He started his career performing in circus and vaudeville, but was probably best known however in his later years for his role as Herb Evans the elderly hen-pecked husband of Dorrie Evans in television soap opera Number 96 and at 65 was then the oldest member of the regular cast. He continued to appear in TV and film roles into his mid-80s and died in August 1993, aged 87.
Biography
Early life
Shand came from a background in show business, particularly of circus performers, that spanned four generations on his mother's side and three generations on his father's side: his grandfather Patrick Montgomery was an Irish-born ringmaster and horse trainer and was married to Annie Gordon, who was half French and half Spanish.Born to entertainer parents, his father, Ernest Shand, and mother were circus acrobats, with his father also an equestrian, they both had met at 19, while performing with the Fitzgerald's Circus. Ron was given the surname "Shand" by his grandparents who were travelling circus performers and Ron grew up with them in Melbourne.
Career
Circus, vaudeville and theatre
Ron Shand started his showbiz career in 1920, with the circus as a clown aged just 14 and subsequently performed as a song and dance man in vaudeville, did tent shows and comedy for most of the 1920s with his first wife Laurel Streeter and dancer Eddie Clifford.Shand started in theatre in 1931 and had numerous character roles throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in the Tivoli circuit for many years playing in revue and pantomime, before joining the J. C. Williamson theatre company for several seasons in musical comedy. Roles with J C Williamson included The Pajama Game, Can-Can, The Sentimental Bloke, and Sail Away produced by Noël Coward.
Shand was then one of the original members of the John Alden Shakespeare Company that toured all the capital cities of Australia. Shand played in several straight dramatic roles with the company, appearing in such plays as The Man Who Came to Dinner, Arsenic and Old Lace, Love Thy Neighbour and Bell, Book and Candle.
Television
Shand, by the early 1960s would move into the relative new medium of television appearing in several Australian television drama series, including Homicide and in the early 70s, with roles in Matlock Police, Division 4, among others.Shand subsequently found his widest audiences through his portrayal of hen-pecked Herbert Evans, husband to shrill gossip Dorrie, in the phenomenally successful sex-comedy soap opera Number 96. Dorrie and Herb became two of the show's most popular figures and continued in the series for its entire 1972–1977 run. After the series ended, Shand acted in television dramas in guesting parts in The Young Doctors, A Country Practice, Prisoner and G.P., and the acclaimed miniseries Poor Man's Orange. He was also part of the cast of a 1977 The Benny Hill Show TV special made in Australia, in place of Hill's usual short, bald stooge Jackie Wright.
Personal life
Shand was married to performer Laurel Streeter and later actress and singer Letty Craydon. He appeared with Letty in revues.His younger sister, Iris Shand, was a soubrette, dancer and actress, as well as a theatre director and stage manager.