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BRIAN KEITH
Born: Bayonne, New Jersey on 11/14/1921
Died: Malibu, California
on 7/24/97
This sturdy American actor spent many years as an underused player, generally cast as kindly uncles
and Western second leads, before turning to gruff, cranky character parts in features and on TV. Brian Keith may be best recalled
as the architect Bill Davis who takes in his two orphaned nieces and a nephew on "Family Affair" (CBS, 1966-71),
but his work as Theodore Roosevelt in "The Wind and the Lion" (1975), Dr. Alexei Dubov in "Meteor" (1979)
and Mauritz Stiller in "Moviola" (NBC, 1980) has proven him to be a capable and strong actor.
The son
of Broadway star, silent screen actor and talkie character player Robert Keith and his actress wife, Brian Keith made his
first film appearance at age three in "Pied Piper Malone" (1924). After high school, he joined the Marines as an
aerial gunner (serving from 1942-45). Upon his discharge, Keith headed to the theater and made his stage debut in "Heyday"
in New Haven in 1946. He made his Broadway debut as Mannion in the renowned production of "Mister Roberts" (1948)
and played Ilyich in "Darkness at Noon" (1951).
Later, after years of film and TV work, he returned
to Broadway, replacing Barnard Hughes in the title role of "Da". Keith made his adult film debut as an army officer
who is rescued by an Apache-hating scout (Charlton Heston) in "Arrowhead" (1953), a role that set the tone for many
of his early roles. Keith was usually the stalwart, fair-minded, relatively sexless second lead. In his second film, "Alaska
Seas" (1954), Keith was again the best friend of the hero (Robert Ryan) who nevertheless tries to muscle Keith's character
out of the salmon business. And so it was in film after film in the 50s.
Keith rarely lost his life in these Westerns
and war sagas, but he never got the medal or the girl either. In the 60s, he went to work for Disney, playing a trapper who
wants to make a sanctuary for geese in "Those Calloways" (1964). Keith was also in Norman Jewison's "The Russians
Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" (1966), as the sheriff of a coastal community who eventually helps to lead an armada
guiding a Russian submarine to safety. Keith finally broke the mold with "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (1967),
in which he played an army colonel and lover to Elizabeth Taylor, who in turn is married to latent homosexual Marlon Brando.
Perhaps because he is a devout Roman Catholic and "Reflections" was condemned by the church, Keith teamed with Doris
Day for the innocuous "With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968), as a widower and widow trying to blend families.
In 1969, he was in the actioner "Krakatoa, East of Java". He had one of his best shots playing the macho wannabe
President Teddy Roosevelt in John Milius' "The Wind and the Lion" and joined Natalie Wood speaking Russian in "Meteor".
He also played the colorful Buckshot Roberts in "Young Guns" (1988) and Kris Kristofferson's father, who has lived
to see his long-lost son return, in "Welcome Home" (1989). In 1996, Keith played a Roman Catholic cardinal dealing
with a radical church activist in "Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story".
While Keith has had
steady work in feature films and actually been in a position to pick and choose his roles, TV has always managed to provide
steady work. He began making guest appearances in the medium in 1949, and by 1955 had his own series, "The Crusader"
(CBS), a man who helped people escape Communist countries. As "The Westerner" (NBC, 1960), he was championing causes
along the Southwest border. "Family Affair" (CBS, 1966-71) proved to be Keith's biggest hit, although he sometimes
seemed uncomfortable playing the role of the caring, nurturing uncle. He also refused to pose for Christmas publicity shots
connected with the family-oriented show, insisting they were exploitative of the holiday. Yet, he followed "Family Affair"
with the even more sugary "The Little People/The Brian Keith Show" (NBC, 1972-74), in which he was a Hawaii-based
pediatrician to a bunch of munchkins from Shirley Temple-land.
He returned to series TV as a detective in "Archer"
(NBC, 1975), as a sleuth who used his wits and analytical strengths, not his muscle. The show quickly left the airwaves, but
Keith was back in 1977 on ABC's miniseries "How the West Was Won". When he had another go at the series grind, it
was as macho Judge Milton C. Hardcastle in "Hardcastle & McCormick" (ABC, 1983-86).
He returned
to sitcoms in 1987 as the somewhat curmudgeonly historian and professor Roland G Duncan in "Pursuit of Happiness"
(ABC), a Midwestern version of Archie Bunker on the short-lived "Heartland" (CBS, 1989) and as the curmudgeonly
husband of Cloris Leachman in "Walter & Emily" (NBC, 1991-92). TV longforms have also offered Keith a wide
range of roles.
He made his first TV-movie in 1972: "Second Chance" (ABC) portraying a stockbroker who
buys a ghost town in Nebraska and turns it into a community for people who never really had a shot in life. Keith was the
father of a comatose young woman in the based-on-real-life "In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan" (NBC, 1977).
In 1980, he played a low-key, fatherly Mauritz Stiller overseeing Greta Garbo at MGM even as his own career falters in "Moviola:
The Silent Lovers" (NBC) and he was a Davy Crockett with some warts in "The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory"
(NBC, 1987). His miniseries credits include colorful roles in "Centennial" (NBC, 1978), and "The Chisholms"
(CBS, 1979). Brian Keith's extensive filmography can be seen here: Brian
Keith Filmography
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DANIEL HUGH-KELLYBorn:
8/10/52 Elizabeth, New Jersey
Also known as Daniel Hugh-Kelly is an American film and television
actor. He is best known for his role on the 1980s ABC TV series Hardcastle and McCormick from 1983-1986 as ex-con Mark "Skid"
McCormick.
Kelly has starred in other tv shows like the short lived 1987-1988 sitcom I Married Dora as architect Peter
Farrell, the short lived 1982 series Chicago Story as Det. Frank Wajorski, the short-lived 1990s TV series Second Noah as
Noah Beckett, and another 1990s TV series, Ponderosa, as Ben Cartwright.
He also is a soap opera actor who has starred
on Ryan's Hope as Councilman/Senator Francis Zavier Daniel Michael 'Frank' Ryan from 1978-1981, and All My Children as Travis
Montgomery from 1993-1994.
Kelly film roles include the 1983 film Cujo and the 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection as
Sojef, a member of an alien race called the Ba'ku.
He has made guest appearances on TV shows ranging from Law & Order
and its spinoff Special Victim Unit, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Las Vegas.
FILMOGRAPHY
Once Not Far from
Home (2005) .... The Father
Joe and Max (2002) (TV) .... Jack Dempsey
"Ponderosa" (2001) TV Series .... Ben
Cartwright (2001-2002)
"Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot" (2001) (mini) TV Series .... John F. Kennedy
...
aka Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Kennedy Women (USA: video title)
The In Crowd (2000) .... Dr. Henry Thompson
Growing
Up Brady (2000) (TV) .... Robert Reed
Guardian (2000) .... Agent Taylor
Chill Factor (1999) .... Colonel Leo
Vitelli
Passing Glory (1999) (TV) .... Mike Malone Sr.
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) .... Sojef
Labor
of Love (1998) (TV) .... Gordon Connell
"From the Earth to the Moon" (1998) (mini) TV Series .... Astronaut Eugene
Cernan
Bad As I Wanna Be: The Dennis Rodman Story (1998) (TV) .... Lonn Reisman
Atomic Dog (1998) (TV) ....
Brook Yates
Five Desperate Hours (1997) (TV) .... Jim Ballard
Stranger in My Home (1997) (TV) .... Doug Martin
No Greater Love (1996) (TV) .... Ben Jones
Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story (1995) (TV) .... Steve Sohmer
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) (TV) .... Col. Rogers
Bad Company (1995/I) .... Les Goodwin
A Child's Cry
for Help (1994) (TV) .... Donald Prescott
Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception (1994) (TV) ....
Dr. Brian
Allen... aka Moment of Truth: Cult Rescue (UK)
MacShayne: The Final Roll of the Dice (1994) (TV) .... Franklin Carter
"All My Children" (1970) TV Series .... Travis Montgomery #2 (1993-1994)
The Good Son (1993) .... Wallace Evans
Citizen Cohn (1992) (TV) .... Congressman Neil Gallagher
Black Jack Savage (TV) ....Barry Tarberry
Someone
to Watch Over Me (1987) .... Scotty
"I Married Dora" (1987) TV Series .... Peter Farrell
Night of Courage
(1987) (TV) .... Paul Forrest
Nowhere to Hide (1987) .... Rob Cutter
"Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder"
(1987) (mini) TV Series .... Mike George
"Hardcastle and McCormick" (1983) TV Series .... Mark "Skid" McCormick (1983-1986)
Cujo (1983) (as Daniel Hugh-Kelly) .... Vic Trenton
"Chicago Story" (1982) TV Series .... Det. Frank Wajorski
Thin Ice (1981) (TV) .... Jack
"Ryan's Hope" (1975) TV Series (as Daniel Hugh-Kelly) .... Councilman/Senator
Francis Xavier Daniel Michael 'Frank' Ryan #3 (1978-1981)
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