Basil Sydney
Acting
Born: 1894-04-23 in Essex, England, UK
Biography
Basil Sydney (23 April 1894 – 10 January 1968) was an English stage and screen actor. Sydney made his name in 1915 in the London stage hit Romance by Edward Sheldon, with Broadway star Doris Keane, and he costarred with Keane in the 1920 silent film of the play. The couple married in 1918, and when Keane revived Romance in New York City in 1921, Sydney made his Broadway debut in the parts. He stayed in New York for over a decade playing classical roles such as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (1922), Richard Dudgeon in The Devil's Disciple (1923), the title role in Hamlet (1923), Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part I (1926), and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew (1927).[citation needed] In 1937 he starred in the murder mystery Blondie White in the West End. He made over 50 screen appearances, most memorably as Claudius in Laurence Olivier's 1948 film of Hamlet. He also appeared in classic films like Treasure Island (1950), Ivanhoe (1952), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), but the focus of his career was the stage on both sides of the Atlantic.
Known For
No Hiding Place
Around the World in 80 Days
Reform Club Member
Treasure Island
Captain Smollett
Ivanhoe
Waldemar Fitzurse
Hamlet
Claudius - The King
Caesar and Cleopatra
Rufio
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
Emperor of Lilliput
Silent Evidence
The Dam Busters
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris G.C.B., O.B.E., A.F.C.
John Paul Jones
Sir William Young
The Devil's Disciple
Lawyer Hawkins
Salome
Pontius Pilate
Armchair Theatre
Pastor Manders
Hell Below Zero
Bland
Sea Wife
Bulldog
Went the Day Well?
Major Hammond / Kommandant Orlter
Romance
Simba
Mr Crawford
The Hands of Orlac
Maurice Seidelman
The Magic Box
William Fox-Talbot
Star of India
King Louis XIV
Island in the Sun
Julian Fleury
Ships with Wings
Capt. Fairfax
Meet Me at Dawn
Georges Vermorel
The Man Within
Sir Henry Merriman
The Amateur Gentleman
Louis Chichester
Talk of the Devil
Jassy
Nick Helmar
The Farmer's Wife
Samuel Sweetland
The Midshipmaid
Cmdr. Fosberry
Red Hot Romance
Rowland Stone
The Tunnel
Mostyn
Mayerling
The Emperor Franz Joseph
Spring Meeting
James
The Four Just Men
Frank Snell
A Story of David
King Saul
Crime Over London
'Joker' Finnigan