Keir Dullea
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Keir Dullea (IPA: [kɪr duˈleɪ]) (born May 30, 1936) is a U.S. actor best known as astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and in 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact
[edit] Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he was raised in the Greenwich Village section of New York City where his parents ran a bookstore. He graduated from George School in Pennsylvania. He made his film debut in 1961's The Hoodlum Priest, in which he played a juvenile delinquent, though he had an earlier role as the German pilot in a 1960 television adaptation of Mrs. Miniver. He played a number of emotionally disturbed youths in films such as David and Lisa (1962) and Bunny Lake is Missing (1965), as well as on television in shows such as Naked City. He appeared with John Huston in the movie De Sade (1969), playing the title role (the Marquis de Sade). He also appeared with Anne Heywood and Sandy Dennis in the 1967 film The Fox. On stage, he starred in the 1975 Broadway play, P. S. Your Cat Is Dead!.
Since the great success of 2001, Dullea has had difficulty reproducing a similar success on film, though he has had a long and successful career on stage in New York City and in regional theaters. Recently, Dullea has been signed on for Robert De Niro's next directorial project The Good Shepherd. Dullea's role in this film is said to be that of a "major influence and mentor" to the protagonist, played by Matt Damon.
Dullea's other notable roles include Devon in the short-lived 1973 science fiction series The Starlost, Clayton Anderson Jr. in Madame X, Paul Renfield in The Fox, and Thomas Grambell in Brave New World. He also appeared in The Audrey Hepburn Story (starring Jennifer Love Hewitt), as Hepburn's father Joseph.
[edit] Trivia
In 1965, Noel Coward, on the set of Bunny Lake is Missing, quipped, "Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow."
Dullea, along with his wife, founded the Theater Artists Workshop of Westport in 1983.
