| Brian Keith | |
|---|---|
in the trailer for the 1955 film 5 Against the House |
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| Born | Robert Alba Keith November 14, 1921 Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | June 24, 1997 (aged 75) Malibu, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Robert Keith, Jr. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse | Frances Helm (m. 1948–1954) Judy Landon (m. 1954–1969) Victoria Young (m. 1970–1997) |
Brian Keith (November 14, 1921 – June 24, 1997) was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and the Lion, in which he portrayed Theodore Roosevelt.
On television, two of his best known roles were that of a widowed uncle turned bachelor: Bill Davis, in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair, and a tough judge in the 1980s drama Hardcastle and McCormick. He also starred in the The Brian Keith Show that aired on NBC from 1972 to 1974 where he portrayed a pediatrician who operated a free clinic on Oahu as well as in the short-lived TV comedy Heartland (CBS, 1989).
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Keith was born Robert Alba Keith[1] in Newark's suburb of Bayonne, New Jersey, to actor Robert Keith and stage actress Helena Shipman, a native of Aberdeen, Washington. Some sources also list his full name as Brian Robert Keith.[2] He was raised Roman Catholic.[3] His parents divorced, and he moved to Hollywood and started his acting career, at the age of 2. He made his acting debut in the silent film Pied Piper Malone (1924) at the age of 3. His mother continued to perform on stage and radio, while Robert's grandmother Apker helped to raise him on Long Island, New York, just 37 miles east of where he was born.[1] She taught young Brian to read books over his age level. Prior to learning to read, he spent a lot of hours back stage while his parents performed, being quiet for hours. Helena fondly recalled keeping little Brian in the dressing room in one of her dressing room drawers. He remained calm and was quiet and would sleep through the entire show. From 1927 through 1929, Keith's stepmother was Peg Entwistle, a well-known Broadway actress who committed suicide by jumping from the "H" of the famous Hollywood Sign in 1932.
After graduation from East Rockaway High School in 1939, in East Rockaway, New York, he joined the United States Marine Corps (1942–1945). He served during World War II as an air gunner (he was a Radio-Gunner in the rear cockpit of a two-man Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bomber in a U.S. Marine squadron), and received an Air Medal.
After the war, Keith became a stage actor, branching out into films and then television. In 1952, he made his debut on three episodes of Tales of Tomorrow. These three episodes had led him to other roles such as Police Story, a 1950s anthology show, Eye Witness, The United States Steel Hour, Robert Montgomery Presents, The Motorola Television Hour, Campbell Playhouse, The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, The Elgin Hour, The Adventures of Ellery Queen, and Jane Wyman Presents: The Fireside Theatre. In 1955, Keith starred in his own series, Crusader, as the fictional journalist Matt Anders, who tries to free captive peoples from communist countries.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Keith also had guest roles on The Ford Television Theatre, Wire Service, Climax!, Zane Grey Theater, Rawhide, Laramie, The Untouchables, The Americans, Outlaws, The Virginian, The Fugitive, two episodes of Wagon Train, five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, among many others.
In 1960, he won acclaim for his starring role in Sam Peckinpah's short-lived series The Westerner (1960). The following year, Keith appeared as the father of twins in the 1961 film The Parent Trap, co-starring Hayley Mills and Maureen O'Hara. In 1966, Keith co-starred with Steve McQueen as traveling gunsmith Jonas Cord in the western Nevada Smith.
Also in 1966, Keith landed the role of Uncle Bill Davis on CBS's popular television situation comedy Family Affair. This role earned him three Emmy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.[4] The show made him a household name. It was also the answer to such successful 1960s and 1970s sitcoms that dealt with widowhood and/or many single parent issues such as: The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Here's Lucy, Julia, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family and Sanford And Son. During its first season in 1966, the show was an immediate hit, ranking #15 in the Nielsen ratings.[5]
By the end of its fifth season in 1971, Family Affair still had high ratings, but was canceled after 138 episodes.
Keith went on to star as the pediatrician Dr. Sean Jamison in the NBC sitcom The Brian Keith Show, filmed in Hawaii on an estate at the foot of Diamond Head and also known as The Little People. The series was canceled after two seasons in 1974.
Keith once again returned to series television in 1983 with, Hardcastle and McCormick, the latter in the role of a cranky retired judge named Milton C. Hardcastle. Daniel Hugh Kelly co-starred as ex-con Mark McCormick in the ABC crime drama with elements of comedy. The chemistry of Keith & Kelly were both a hit and the series lasted three years until its cancellation in 1986.[2]
Keith also starred in the role of Steven "The Fox" Halliday in the six-part television miniseries, The Zoo Gang, about a group of former underground freedom fighters from World War II. The show also starred Sir John Mills, Lilli Palmer, and Barry Morse.
Keith spoke fluent Russian, which led to his casting as a Russian in two roles: the Soviet Premier in World War III with Rock Hudson; and as a Soviet scientist in Meteor with Natalie Wood. In The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, where he played the unexcitable police chief of an island where a Soviet submarine runs aground, however, his character had to have Russian translated to him by Alan Arkin's character.
In his last film, Keith played President William McKinley in Rough Riders (1997). Director John Milius dedicated Rough Riders to "Brian Keith, Actor, Marine, Raconteur."[6]
Keith married three times, first to Frances Helm; then, in 1954, to actress Judy Landon (who made a guest appearance on his show); and finally, in 1970, to Hawaiian actress Victoria Young (née Leialoha), who later appeared on The Brian Keith Show as Nurse Puni.[7]
Keith fathered four children with Judy Landon (Barbara, Betty, Mimi, and Rory) and together they adopted three others. Daisy Keith, one of his children with Victoria Young, became an actress and appeared with her father in the short-lived series Heartland in 1989.[8]
During the later part of his life, Keith suffered from emphysema and lung cancer despite having quit smoking ten years earlier (he appeared in an endorsement campaign for Camel cigarettes in 1955). On June 24, 1997, he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound[9] in Malibu, California, two months after his daughter Daisy committed suicide. It was also reported that he had financial problems and suffered from depression throughout his final days.[8] Keith's family was joined by many mourners at a private funeral, including Family Affair co-stars Johnny Whitaker and Kathy Garver, and Hardcastle & McCormick co-star Daniel Hugh Kelly.
His remains are buried next to those of his daughter Daisy at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
On June 26, 2008, Brian Keith received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[10]
Brian: “In other words...you can't be a misogynist and expect women to appreciate you.” (Source: Born-Today.com)
Brian: “It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. You like to see two teams compete like that, but you like to see your team execute better down the stretch. Give credit to Chapel Hill, they made a great 3-point shot to get us into overtime, and I wasn't sure how we were going to pull it out. We had people on both sides fouling out of the game, but we hung in there and somehow pulled this out.” (Source: QuoteDaddy.com)
Brian who said in 1968 about starring his own movies: "I've made I don't know how many pictures. Forty, I guess. I've seen only about a half dozen of them. We made Reflections in a Golden Eye in Rome last spring. I really enjoyed working with Liz and Brando and that great director, John Huston. But the kind of picture I enjoy seeing is something like The Parent Trap. That was a charming thing with Hayley Mills playing my twin daughters. I saw that four times. I even took my wife's parents to see it. I like it so much I forgot I was in it, as a matter of fact." (Source: PhotoplayMagazine.com)
Brian on trying to live a long life: "If I live to be a hundred--and I hope I do--I won't have time to read all the books I want to read, or talk to the people I want to know. Not party talk. That's a waste of time. Real talk." (Source: PhotoplayMagazine.com)
Brian on his handsomeness: “What for? I don't go to the Daisy or any of that. We don't give parties under a striped awning out over the lawn for two hundred people, four of whom we like." (Source: PhotoplayMagazine.com)
Brian who said in 1969 on playing the role of an on-screen uncle, as he played the role of a real-life father: "This is the type of show I love, because it reminds me of what happiness I have with my wife and our children." (Source: PhotoplayMagazine.com)
Keith who said in 1984 about leaving Family Affair, to spend time with his family in Hawaii, before casting as Hardcastle: "I get tired of sitting home and doin' nothing. If I'm doing something eight months of the year, I don't mind loafing the other four. But, lately, I've been finding fewer and fewer movies I'd like to do. And when that happens, I get hard to live with. Then this thing came along. I read it. I liked it. This character Hardcastle: I figured I could live with him for five years if I had to. There was something going on there. You don't get a helluva lot of character in series TV. They're more likely to star the car." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Brian who became very antsy about the car that was needed in every script: "I don't pay any attention. The stunt people take care of all that. All I do is get in and out of the Coyote [the car Skid drove, which required anyone riding in it to enter and exit through the window], which is no mean trick. You can't get into the S.O.B. without bending yourself into a pretzel. Me, I'd rather drive a pickup." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Brian on beating out 3 others actors for the role of Hardcastle: "I never heard of these guys. Of course, I can be talking to 40 Academy Award winners and never know the difference. People in Muncie, Indiana, probably know more about them than I do. But I figure what the hell, if they're smart enough to hire me, they must have something." (Source: TVGuide.com)
Brian: “The only attraction is the time. I work just 70 days a year on the show. I can still make two, three movies a year if I want to... If it were Bonanza , walking around the Ponderosa, tied up nearly all year, no-o-o chance. That's a fate worse than death." (Source: TVGuide.com)