Geoffrey Keen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was a British actor who appeared in supporting roles in many famous films.
Keen was born in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, the son of the actor Malcolm Keen. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School. He then joined the Little Repertory Theatre in Bristol for whom he made his stage debut in 1932. After a year in 'rep' he stayed for a year in Cannes before being accepted for a place at the London School of Economics. In a last minute change of mind, he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal after only one year. He had just joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1939 when the war started. Keen enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, though also managed to appear in an Army instructional film for Carol Reed. He made his full film debut in 1946 in Riders of the New Forest but soon appeared in better known films for Reed such as: Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. He quickly became one of the busiest character actors, typically doing five films a year.
Keen often portrayed balding, cold-hearted, sarcastic executives or lawyers. He played the role of Fredrick Gray, the Minister of Defence in six James Bond films between 1977 and 1987:
He also appeared in such notable films as Doctor Zhivago, Cromwell and Born Free and in numerous TV programmes (he was one of the leads in BBC TV's long-running drama about the oil industry, The Troubleshooters between 1965 and 1971); and he even appeared in a leading role in the Hammer Horror Film Taste the Blood of Dracula that starred Christopher Lee, playing a rather sarcastic Victorian\Edwardian gentleman who is one of a circle of 3 seeking wicked pleasures who betray Dracula. In all Keen had appeared in 100 films before he retired in 1991. He married three times and had a daughter.
