Brian Keith
Born
Nov. 14, 1921
in Bayonne, NJ
Died
June 24, 1997
of suicide by gunshot in Malibu, CA
Brian Keith, who debuted in show business at 3, forged a varied career for himself, starring in comedies, dramas and westerns and picking up plum roles in film and on television. He costarred in the 1961 Disney movie "The Parent Trap" and during his long career played opposite many legendary leading ladies, including Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers and Elizabeth Taylor. All told, he made more than 80 films. Refreshingly blunt — like many of the characters he played— Keith never hesitated to say what he thought about his various show business projects. He boasted of telling CBS executives "to go fly a kite" when they suggested toning down his series "The Westerner" to make it appropriate for children. He once complained that "all TV seems to want is tripe." Throughout his career, Keith delighted in creating gruff, rough characters — but he preferred them realistic. In fact, he disdained some of his most famous work, as Matt Anders in the 1955-56 television drama "Crusader," because he thought the character was too much a souped-up action hero, not enough a regular guy. "He was always charging around and always a winner. Who can win every time?" Keith complained in an interview with The Times a few years after the show ended. "Besides, people thought [the character] was for real. I still get letters, pathetic letters, from people asking me to help relatives stuck in an Iron Curtain country or something. It's embarrassing. I'm not an avenging angel." Much more to Keith's taste was his role as the rumpled, plain-spoken cowboy in "The Westerner" — a character so down-to-earth that he was known to fall off a horse on occasion. But much as he relished his work in westerns, Keith did not achieve national celebrity until he took the role of Uncle Bill — the reluctant guardian of Buffy, Jody and Cissy — in the CBS sitcom "Family Affair," which ran from 1966 to 1971. Blending his trademark gruffness with a hint of tenderness, Keith played Uncle Bill as a swinging bachelor whose life was thrown into chaos when he was forced to raise his orphaned nieces and nephew with help from his English butler, Mr. French. For a generation of television viewers, reluctant family man Uncle Bill was to be Keith's signature role. Keith came by his talent naturally. His mother, Helena Shipman, was an actress. His father, Robert Keith, appeared in dozens of films, plays and television shows. Keith was married three times, lastly to actress Victoria Young. He fathered four children and adopted three others. At 75 years old, Keith was found shot dead in an apparent suicide. He had been suffering from emphysema and lung cancer, and it was just a few weeks after his daughter Daisy had also committed suicide.
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Two thoughts about Brian Keith
I had the honor of submitting Mr. Keith's name to the selection committee and his widow, Victoria Young Keith, asked that his star be placed near to that of Walt Disney. The committee graciously complied and now these two good friends have stars next to each other.
A short biography:
Well-known fixture of American stage, television, and screen, Brian was born Robert Alba Keith on November 14, 1921 in Bayonne, New Jersey. His parents were vaudevillians Robert Keith and Helena Shipman.
Brian had an early exposure to stage life, as well as an appearance, at age three, in the silent film, "Pied Piper Malone". After that his budding acting career was mostly shelved for over twenty years.
At age nineteen, in the summer of 1941, he joined the Marine Corps, serving throughout the duration of World War II, with two years in combat as a tail gunner. He was discharged in 1945 and subsequently awarded the Air Medal for his service in the Solomon Islands Campaign, as well as the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal with three bronze stars.
After his discharge, Mr. Keith took up the family trade, settling in New York as a stage actor. He performed in many Broadway productions, including "Mr. Roberts" and "The Moon is Blue". He also appeared in innumerable programs in the pioneering medium of television, credited as Robert Keith, Jr.
In 1953 he was cast with Charlton Heston and Jack Palance in the Paramount picture, "The Arrowhead". From then on, he managed parallel movie and television careers that spanned five decades. Among his most memorable movie roles was that of Teddy Roosevelt in "The Wind and the Lion", but he played a myriad of parts, from a Russian scientist in "Meteor", to a beleaguered family man in "With Six You Get Egg Roll". He is perhaps most fondly remembered for his role as the father of twins in the 1961 film "The Parent Trap", co-starring Hayley Mills and Maureen O'Hara.
In television he was equally versatile, from his early days in such playhouse productions as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", through nine series of his own, including Sam Peckinpah’s groundbreaking program, "The Westerner", and Stephen Cannell’s "Hardcastle and McCormick". It was his role as Uncle Bill, in "Family Affair" that was his best-known. He garnered three Emmy nominations during the five-year run of that series.
In his last film, "Rough Riders", in1997, Mr. Keith played President William McKinley. Director John Milius dedicated Rough Riders to 'Brian Keith, Actor, Marine, Raconteur.'
He was a man of courage and honor, a hard-working professional, and, to his many fans, a beloved entertainer over a long and diverse career. We remember him fondly.
Big fan of brian keith enjoyed him in Disney movies and Burt Reynolds films also his tv work . Sad when I heard of his passing .god bless brian
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