Stanley Perera: softspoken actor of yesteryear
Piyasena Wickramage
‘Let the dead past bury its dead!
And, departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time
Footprints, that perhaps another
Sailing over life’s solemn main...
H W Longfellow
Stanley Perera of the John Jayapala fame in the film Kele Handa the
first ever Sinhala novel to be filmed by B A W Jayamanna was a novel
feature in many aspects. The typical actors of the Minerva theater group
was refreshed by the newcomer Stanley Perera.
With the wavy hair and a thin mustache on the face, this new actor
was young and energetic, compared to the lead actors of the Sinhala
feature films from 1947 to 1952. On the other hand was Prem Jayanth of
the Sujatha fame the block bustre movie of producer K Gunaratnam’s
Cinemas presentation.
These two films, Kele Handa and Sujatha were a refreshment of formula
films influenced by the South Indian Tamil films and the North Indian
Hindu films and the two heroes Prem Jayanth and Stanley Perera were
equally welcomed by the cinema goers as a refreshing film stars within
an overnight.
In the fifties specially in the Indian cinema, there were Raj Kapoor,
Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar in the North Indian Hindu Films, compared to
the South Indian Tamil Cinema the heroes were Shivaji Ganeshan and M G
Ramachandran.
 A wave of new film stars came into limelight with Prem Jayanth and
Stanley Perera. The heroines were Florida Jayalath, Shanthi Lekha and of
course the queen of silver screen Rukmani Devi.
Now what were these matinee idols common features:
The wavy hair, the mustache, the European suit (occasionally they
were dressed in the Ariya Sinhala clothe and long shirt to please the
critics)
Their photographs were used in calendars, and at picture framing
small outlets their (B/W) photographs were sold at a nominal price. The
photographs of the star gods were framed by these merchants themselves.
One such place in our hometown, Nugegoda, is still called National
Picture Mart.
So Stanley Perera belongs to the early fifties and late sixtees reign
in the Sinhala film Industry’s hero of refreshed young generations. Some
compared Stanley with Prem Jayanth and said the former one is more
appealing as an actor. Prof. Sarachchandra has mentioned the latter
doesn’t know what acting means even to himself!
What I felt with Stanley Perera’s death was that a generation of
senior artistes come to an end. Stanley Perera was a professional
artiste who was able to have a continuous film acting career. He tried
to make a change in his acting method, which began as Rukmani Devi’s
lover in two films; It was a great opportunity for a young actor to
begin with! In the latter part of sixtees he was trying to change the
dialogue delivery acting method into a more film acting of expression.
Stanley Perera managed upto a certain extent to change himself. But
quite unfortunately he was not accessed by the new generation of film
makers who were more concentrating on the film media. So Stanley Perera
till his death was occupied with “Popular formula film”. As a turning
point Sanath Gunatilaka was luckily captured by Tissa Abeysekara from
“popular formula film acting” to “Cinema of serious film acting” to
prove my opinion.
Stanley Perera was a “he-actor” in his generation. As a young film
buff I still remember Stanley’s free style of acting in T. Somasekaran’s
“Saradam”.
Joe Abeywickrama was also introduced to cinema acting with “Saradam”.
It was a character of a carefree youngster – (Unfortunately
Somasekaran’s all films are destroyed.) He was block buster director of
Seda Sulang too.
So four things come not back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, time
past, the neglected opportunity – anonymous
So dear Stanley, our generation of the fiftees, sixtees including
seventees upto a certain extent will remember you and your fellow
actors, writers, producers and directors till our death. We were film
buffs! And will be till our death.
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