Stanley 'Stan' Bolander is a fictional character in the American crime drama / police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street.

In the fourth-season episode "Scene of the Crime", Munch explains to Mike Kellerman that the nickname has to do with aspects other than Bolander's weight: "He is in all senses a man of magnitude – enormously fair, tremendously honest, and a whale of a detective."

In the infrequent occasions after his divorce when he is in love, he displays a remarkable joy and lust for life that not even the investigation into a suicide can dampen.

The more intellectual, liberal Munch is usually guaranteed to rub his surly, taciturn partner up the wrong way with his various eccentricities, philosophies and conspiracy theories.

In Season 3, Bolander and fellow detectives Kay Howard and Beau Felton were shot while trying to serve an arrest warrant on a suspect.

When Bolander's suspension ended, he chose not to return to work and instead retired with his pension – a decision that greatly upset Munch, who was looking forward to meeting him at the Waterfront Bar.