Ronald Ernest McMurtry (3 February 1906, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia – 8 August 1993, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 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 and was also a recording artist in a career spanning over 70 years.
[citation needed] 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.
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.
Shand subsequently found his widest audiences through his portrayal of hen-pecked Herbert Evans, husband to shrill gossip Dorrie (Pat McDonald), in the phenomenally successful sex-comedy soap opera Number 96.
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.