Ian Keith

Ian Keith (born Keith Ross, February 27, 1899 – March 26, 1960) was an American actor.

For the Scottish peer, see Ian Keith, 12th Earl of Kintore.
Ian Keith
Born
Keith Ross

(1899-02-27)February 27, 1899
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMarch 26, 1960(1960-03-26) (aged 61)
New York City, U.S.
Years active1924-1959
Spouse(s)
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(m. 1922; div. 1926)​

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(m. 1928; div. 1931)​

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(m. 1932; div. 1934)​

Hildegarde Pabst
(m. 19??; his death 1960)

Early years

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Keith grew up in Chicago. He was educated at the Francis Parker School there and played Hamlet in a school production at age 16.[1]

Career

Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s.

In 1919, as Keith Ross, he acted with the Copley Repertory Theatre in Boston.[2] On Broadway, as Ian Keith, he performed in The Andersonville Trial (1959), Edwin Booth (1958), Saint Joan (1956), Touchstone (1953), The Leading Lady (1948), A Woman's a Fool - to Be Clever (1938), Robin Landing (1937), King Richard II (1937), Best Sellers (1933), Hangman's Whip (1933), Firebird (1932), Queen Bee (1929), The Command Performance (1928), The Master of the Inn (1925), Laugh, Clown, Laugh! (1923), As You Like It (1923), The Czarina (1922), and The Silver Fox (1921).[3]

He played John Wilkes Booth in D. W. Griffith's first sound film, Abraham Lincoln. Keith had a major role as a gambler in director Raoul Walsh's 1930 widescreen western The Big Trail starring John Wayne. In 1932, Cecil B. DeMille cast him in The Sign of the Cross. This established him as a dependable supporting player, and he went on to play dozens of roles—including Octavian (Augustus) in Cleopatra—in major and minor screen fare for the next three decades.

Keith's 6' 2" tall frame, dark, handsome, usually clean-shaven features, and his resonant voice served him well. He became one of DeMille's favorites, appearing in many of the producer's epic films. He portrayed Count de Rochefort in both the 1935 version and the 1948 remake of The Three Musketeers. In the 1940s he became even busier, working primarily in "B" features and westerns and alternating between playing good guys (a chief of detectives in The Payoff, a friendly hypnotist in Mr. Hex, a blowhard politician in She Gets Her Man) and bad guys (a murder suspect in The Chinese Cat, a crooked lawyer in Bowery Champs, a swindler in Singing on the Trail). He appeared in a supporting role to Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley (1947) as a former vaudevillian turned carny who has succumbed to alcoholism. He also had a definite flair for comedy, and his florid portrayal of the comic-strip ham actor "Vitamin Flintheart" in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball was so amusing that he repeated the role in two more films.

He played tough-guy military roles, such as Admiral Burns in Robert Gordon's sci-fi epic, It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955).

He also appeared on many television episodes in the 1950s. In 1955, he was seen on screen in his only Shakespeare role, when he made a cameo appearance as the Ghost opposite Richard Burton's Hamlet in a sequence from the Edwin Booth biopic Prince of Players. Cecil B. DeMille brought him back to the big screen for The Ten Commandments (1956); Keith played Ramses I.

Keith played Emmett Dayton in the radio soap opera Girl Alone.[4]

Keith died in Medical Arts Hospital in New York on March 26, 1960,[5] and was cremated in Hartsdale, New York.[6]

Marriages
  • Blanche Yurka[7] (1922 - 1926)
  • Ethel Clayton[6] (1928 - 1931)
  • Fern Andra[6] (m. in 1932 and again in 1934, when the legality of the first ceremony was questioned; divorced; in 1938 Andra married again)
  • Hildegarde Pabst[6] (? - 1960)

Partial filmography

References
  1. "Ian Keith as guest star". The Kansas City Star. Missouri, Kansas City. November 11, 1928. p. 68. Retrieved June 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Two Shaw plays at the Copley". The Boston Globe. Massachusetts, Boston. November 11, 1919. p. 4. Retrieved June 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Ian Keith". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  4. Fairfax, Arthur (December 28, 1940). "Mr. Fairfax Replies" (PDF). Movie Radio Guide. 10 (12): 43. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  5. "Actor Ian Keith, 61, Dies in New York". The Tennessean. Tennessee, Nashville. March 27, 1960. p. 67. Retrieved June 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2599-7. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  7. "Ian Keith Ross Pleads Divorce From His Wife". The Sacramento Bee. California, Sacramento. Associated Press. July 8, 1925. p. 14. Retrieved June 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
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