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Ian Keith
Actor
Born February 27, 1899 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Ian Keith became a well regarded fixture on the Broadway stage during the 1920s, but from 1924 through the remainder of the decade he expanded his acting into a string of silent movies as well. To begin the next decade, he appeared in the cast of Abraham Lincoln (1930), one of the later movies of D.W. Griffith. His forte was perhaps already becoming obvious -- his role was that of John Wilkes Booth. Keith had a sly look, and there was an irritated but deadpan demeanor and a side-of-the-mouth delivery to his speech that marked him as a great villain. And he played many -- including a surprising number in historic costume. There was never any emotional nuance, but his straight delivery was always completely effective. He figured prominently in some of the most ambitious of the early sound epics: The Sign of the Cross (1932), Cleopatra (1934), and The Crusades (1935) of Cecil B. DeMille, and in the latter Keith was -- a sort of good guy -- the great Sultan Saladin (surely a strange miscast but DeMille obviously liked him -- he showed up in the much later The Ten Commandments (1956) as well). He was the nemesis of John Gilbert in Queen Christina (1933) and of a similar cast in Mary of Scotland (1936), the early John Ford classic with Katharine Hepburn. He also portrayed an odd twist in the first sound The Three Musketeers (1935). Counter to the book, his Rochefort is the plotting genius, not Cardinal Richelieu, as it should be. Incidentally, he reprised Rochefort, but more in keeping with the original character, in The Three Musketeers (1948) version for Gene Kelly. In between those years were a lot of B level movies of everything from the comics to murder mysteries to mark a downturn said to be the result of too much nightlife. He still did Broadway intermittently throughout his career amid early TV theater and episodic fare from the late 1940s through the 1950s. The stage remained his first choice. At the time of his death he was appearing in "The Andersonville Trial" (1960) on Broadway.
Imdb
Top titles
Arrow
Arrow
Queen Christina
The Ten Commandments
The Crusades
Captain Midnight
Dragnet Christmas Episode - The Big Little Jesus
Suspense
All This, And Heaven Too
Five Graves to Cairo
The Big Trail
New York Confidential
The Three Musketeers (1948)
The Star and the Story
Cleopatra (1934)
Arrow
Arrow
Filmography
Latest
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Arrow
Arrow
1956
The Ten Commandments
1955
The Star and the Story
I Spy
New York Confidential
It Came from Beneath the Sea (Colorized)
1954
Captain Midnight
The Black Shield of Falworth
1953
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
1951
Dragnet Christmas Episode - The Big Little Jesus
1949
Suspense
1948
The Three Musketeers (1948)
1947
Dick Tracy's Dilemma
Border Feud
1946
Dick Tracy vs. Cueball
The Strange Woman
1945
Northwest Trail
Identity Unknown
Fog Island
The Spanish Main
Under Western Skies
1944
Murder in the Funhouse
Arizona Whirlwind
1943
Corregidor
Five Graves to Cairo
I Escaped from the Gestapo (1943)
Adventures of the Flying Cadets
The Last Three: Classic Comedy
Wild Horse Stampede
1942
The Payoff
1940
The Sea Hawk
All This, And Heaven Too
1938
The Buccaneer
1936
Mary of Scotland
1935
The Crusades
1934
Cleopatra (1934)
1933
Queen Christina
1930
Abraham Lincoln
The Big Trail
1927
Love of Sunya, The
Arrow
Arrow
Connections
Greta Garbo
Robert Barrat
Alan Hale
Genres
Suspense
Action
Comedy
Horror
Music Videos and Concerts
Western
Military and War
Fantasy
Drama
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