Stanley “Stan” Weiman was a singer first, an actor second and a painter some other number down the line.
Weiman was a man of many talents, but all you need to know is that “he was creative down to his marrow,” said his wife, Martha Weiman. That was true from the time he was a boy growing up in Southwest Baltimore, to the 30-plus years he spent as a resident actor at Everyman Theatre, to the day he died in Towson.
“I would describe his performances, for the most part, as a warm hug — a really smart, caring, thoughtful performance, perfectly modulated,” said Vincent Lancisi, the founder and artistic director of Everyman Theatre. “You always knew what his character was thinking and feeling, and you had empathy with him. It was easy to go on a journey of his.”
Weiman, a fixture of the Baltimore theater community who accumulated a dedicated following through his years on stage, died Jan. 8 of heart failure. He was 90.
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Weiman was born March 13, 1934, in Washington, D.C., the eldest of three children. He started performing at a young age, joining theater and glee clubs at school.
He was always a good student, even as he picked up extracurricular activities and side gigs. As a teenager, he worked for a taxicab company, his wife said. He also ushered at the now-closed Ford’s Grand Opera House, founded by the same man who owned the infamous Ford’s Theatre in D.C., his daughters said.
After high school, he enrolled at Baltimore City Community College, where he met then-Martha Meier. She thought he was cute. They were just 18 years old, but they quickly fell in love.
Martha Weiman still remembers receiving Stanley Weiman’s nervous call asking her to “go steady.” It was a Monday night right in the middle of “I Love Lucy,” and she was upset that he interrupted the show. They postponed the call by a half-hour, and when they finally connected, he could hardly get the words out.
Thankfully, her answer was yes.
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They married in 1953 at 19 years old. Things moved quickly but naturally, Martha Weiman said. Weiman didn’t finish college, instead going to work for his mother-in-law’s company, Drapery Contractors Inc., a custom window treatment and bedding business.
“We had no prospects,” she said. “We had no money, but we were in love, and we had to figure it out.”
Though Weiman probably didn’t know what a drapery was at first, he quickly came to love the job. The window treatments and bedding were “custom and beautiful,” Martha Weiman said, another artistic outlet for her husband.
They began having children at 21. First came Robin, then Judy, and Carol made the family complete. All the while, Weiman continued working at Drapery Contractors and performed in his spare time.
“Growing up in the Weiman family was a great adventure,” said Robin Weiman, flanked by her sisters, during her father’s eulogy last week. “Who doesn’t want to have a father who could become the Tin Man in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ Geppetto in ‘Pinocchio,’ or Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’? His roles became the fabric of our family, no pun intended.”
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His family saw a different version than Weiman‘s stage persona. In private, he was soft-spoken, and he’d often just sit and observe and enjoy his family’s presence. But when he was performing, a different character came out entirely.
Over the years, Weiman amassed a loyal following, especially after joining Everyman as a founding company member in 1990. In the early days, he and Martha Weiman hosted board meetings in their kitchen. When Everyman moved to its current address, Lancisi, the founder of the theater, named “The Stan and Martha Weiman Mezzanine” in the couple’s honor.
Lancisi said Weiman would often stop by the box office ahead of performances. He’d look over the guest list, and he probably knew half the people there, Lancisi said.
“Most actors don’t want to know who’s in the audience, but Stan did,” Lancisi said. “He cared about them all. They were his friends.”
Weiman assumed all kinds of roles, but he was known best for playing patriarchs, Lancisi said. His favorite role was the lead, his daughters joked.
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Among his most memorable performances was his role as the titular character in “Visiting Mr. Green.” After the show closed, he and Martha Weiman went on vacation to Paris. While in the Louvre, someone walked up to him and said, “You’re Mr. Green,” said his daughter, Carol Noel.
He was thrilled to call himself an “internationally recognized actor,” Noel said.
In all seriousness, though, “he was impactful,” said his daughter, Judy Moseley. “We cannot believe how many people have come out of the woodwork and said that he changed their life and the way they looked at theater or music.”
Though theater consumed Weiman’s life, he was also an active member of Baltimore’s Jewish community. He was a Baltimore Hebrew congregant and, for more than 50 years, helped lead a meditation service on Yom Kippur, Noel said. He would do readings and sing — an especially wonderful experience, his wife and daughters said, because his voice was rich and expressive.
In his down time, after the kids were grown, Weiman and his wife would often travel. Their agendas usually included some sort of arts event or theater performance, and Weiman loved to find and eat incredible food. They often visited Europe — London was among their favorites, Martha Weiman said — or New York City.
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He also enjoyed being “Pop” or “Pop Stan” to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
About 12 years ago, Weiman had a serious fall and suffered from a traumatic brain injury. His personality changed a bit after the accident, which impacted the part of his brain responsible for expression and speech. He was left with aphasia, a disorder that hinders people’s ability to communicate — except through song.
Over the years, Weiman made significant progress on his speaking, and he never stopped singing. He also started painting, beautifully and prolifically, for the first time in his life, his daughters said.
While his family sat shiva after Weiman died, they put many of his paintings up on the walls and asked visitors to take home those they loved.
“It would be wonderful to know that his art is living all through the community,” Robin Weiman said.
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