Ralph Stephan; Opened Santa Monica’s Galley Restaurant

Ralph Stephan, 89, founder in 1934 of The Galley, believed the oldest restaurant in Santa Monica and one of the oldest in Los Angeles County. Stephan’s steak and seafood restaurant became a gathering place for many film stars of the 1930s and ‘40s, among them Carole Lombard, Errol Flynn, Edward G. Robinson, Tyrone Power and Charles Laughton. Part of the restaurant’s decor came from the film “Mutiny on the Bounty,” which starred Laughton. Stephan sold the Main Street eatery last year and retired. In Santa Monica on Thursday of the complications of age.