Ben S. Mears

Benjamin Stannard Mears, known professionally as Ben S. Mears and sometimes as Stannard Mears, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in August 1871, the son of Thomas Yeoman Mears and Sarah "Sadie" Isabelle Stannard. An American stage actor, vaudeville performer, and playwright, Mears built a career spanning several decades that encompassed Broadway performance, national touring productions, and dramatic authorship. He died on January 27, 1952, in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, at the age of 80.

Mears began working as an actor in 1890 and gained his first significant recognition through William W. Young's Ben-Hur, a production mounted by Klaw and Erlanger. He joined the play's 1902 national tour in the role of Sanballat, and when the production transferred to the New York Theatre for its 1903 Broadway revival, Mears continued with the company. He later returned to the long-running work in the separate role of Simonides.

In 1906, Mears originated the leading role of Tom Wilson, a Philadelphia lawyer, in the musical Around the Clock, with music by Lee Orean Smith. The production was headed by Scottish comedian Billie Ritchie and launched its tour in Syracuse before traveling across the United States and Europe. Mears was still playing Tom Wilson when the tour reached Broadway's American Theatre in October 1906. He returned to Broadway in 1913 to appear in Carina Jordan's play Rachel at the Knickerbocker Theatre.

Beyond performing, Mears collaborated with playwright Hugh Stanislaus Stange on two works that reached Broadway in 1918. The first was Seventeen, a stage adaptation of Booth Tarkington's 1916 novel of the same name, which premiered at the Booth Theatre on January 22, 1918, and was later adapted into the 1926 musical Hello, Lola. The second was the musical You Know Me Al!, for which Mears and Stange wrote the book together; it premiered at Broadway's Lexington Theatre on April 11, 1918.