Basil Sydney
Known For
Acting
Born
1894-04-23 in Essex, England, UK
Died
1968-01-10
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.
Most Known For
No Hiding Place
Around the World in 80 Days
as Reform Club Member
Romance
Drama 61-67
as Mourtzinos
Treasure Island
as Captain Smollett
Ivanhoe
as Waldemar Fitzurse
Hamlet
as Claudius - The King
The Dam Busters
as Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris G.C.B., O.B.E., A.F.C.
Silent Evidence
Sea Wife
as Bulldog
Caesar and Cleopatra
as Rufio
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
as Emperor of Lilliput
John Paul Jones
as Sir William Young
The Tunnel
as Mostyn
The Amateur Gentleman
as Louis Chichester
The Devil's Disciple
as Lawyer Hawkins
Went the Day Well?
as Major Hammond / Kommandant Orlter
Salome
as Pontius Pilate
Island in the Sun
as Julian Fleury
The Magic Box
as William Fox-Talbot