 |
Sydney GreenstreetEnglish film actor
Date of Birth: 27.12.1879
Country:  Great Britain |
Content:
Early Life
Sidney Greenstreet was born in Sandwich, Kent, England, into a leather merchant family. At 18, he ventured to Ceylon, intending to become a tea planter. However, a drought forced him to return to his homeland. Back in England, Greenstreet worked odd jobs while studying acting in the evenings under renowned actor Ben Greet.
Theatre Career: 1902-1940
Greenstreet made his British stage debut in 1902, playing a murderer in a Sherlock Holmes play. Two years later, he toured the US with Greet's Shakespearean company.
From 1907 onward, Greenstreet became a Broadway mainstay, performing in more than 30 plays, "moving easily from musical comedy to Shakespeare." For three decades, Greenstreet remained an exclusively theatrical actor, appearing in numerous stage productions in both Britain and America.
Film Career: 1941-1949
While on tour in Los Angeles in 1940 with the play "Night Must Fall" by Robert Sherwood, Greenstreet "met with film director John Huston, who offered him the role of the ruthless Kasper Gutman in the film noir 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941), based on Dashiell Hammett's novel."
Greenstreet's film debut occurred at the age of 62, weighing 300 pounds. A heavy, imposing man, Greenstreet was the perfect fit for the role of the corpulent yet oddly suave Gutman, a decadent dandy who was the embodiment of evil. In the film, Greenstreet "emerged with two actors to whom he would forever be linked—star Humphrey Bogart and fellow character actor Peter Lorre." His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Greenstreet's acclaimed performance in "The Maltese Falcon" led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros. His second film was the historical Civil War drama "They Died with Their Boots On" (1942), in which he played Lieutenant General Winfield Scott. He then reunited with Bogart in the espionage film "Across the Pacific" (1942), portraying the charming Professor Lorenz, a Japanese agent operating in World War II.
In the iconic "Casablanca" (1942), Greenstreet had a small but memorable role as the disreputable nightclub owner, once again acting alongside Bogart and Lorre. Finally, in the wartime spy thriller "Background to Danger" (1943), Greenstreet played the head of enemy intelligence in Turkey, with Lorre in an uncharacteristic positive role as a Russian spy working with the American agent (George Raft).
In 1944, Greenstreet and Lorre teamed up again in several more films, including "Passage to Marseille" (again with Bogart), "The Mask of Dimitrios," "The Conspirators," and "Hollywood Canteen" (a musical-comedy fundraiser featuring Hollywood stars performing in a variety show).
Made as a sort of "Casablanca" sequel, "Passage to Marseille" follows the escape of a pro-French journalist (Bogart) from Devil's Island, a prison colony off the coast of French Guiana. Along the way, he encounters a French ship captained by the pro-fascist Major Duval (Greenstreet). However, his efforts are successfully undermined by the ship's patriotic crew members, led by Bogart. In the noir thriller "The Mask of Dimitrios," Lorre plays a mystery writer who investigates a mysterious criminal and adventurer, while Greenstreet portrays one of the adventurer's wronged business partners who aids in the investigation. Set in wartime Lisbon, the spy drama "The Conspirators" again drew from the "Casablanca" formula, with Greenstreet as the leader of an underground group and Lorre as one of his members.
In the fantasy-drama "Between Two Worlds" (1944), a young couple decides to commit suicide by gas after a failed attempt to escape Nazi Germany, finding themselves in limbo between Heaven and Hell, where Reverend Tim Thompson (Greenstreet) must determine their fate.
Greenstreet's desire to play comedy was fulfilled in "Pillow to Post" (1945), where he co-starred with Ida Lupino as the commander to whom the male lead reports in this wartime romantic tale. In the whimsical romantic comedy "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945), Greenstreet's publisher schemes with his homemaking editor (Barbara Stanwyck) to stage a cozy "publicity Christmas" for a war hero.
Simultaneously, Greenstreet continued his noir output, starring in three consecutive films—"Conflict" (1945), "Three Strangers" (1946), and "The Verdict" (1946). "Conflict" "was unique among the Bogart-Greenstreet films in casting Bogart, not Greenstreet, as the villain or corrupt figure," who murders his wife, while Greenstreet plays the doctor and family friend who solves the crime. In the noir "Three Strangers" (1946), Greenstreet portrays an outwardly respectable lawyer who becomes entangled in financial schemes that drive him to murder. Set in the 1890s, the noir "The Verdict" (1946) features a dismissed Scotland Yard inspector (Greenstreet) who solves a murder he staged to discredit his inexperienced successor with the help of his friend, a book illustrator (Lorre). This was the last of nine collaborations between Greenstreet and Lorre.
The biopic "Devotion" (1946) dramatized the lives of the Brontë sisters, played by Ida Lupino and Olivia de Havilland. Greenstreet appeared as author William Makepeace Thackeray. In the satirical "The Hucksters" (1947), an advertising executive (Clark Gable) must endure the eccentricities of his biggest client, a cosmetics tycoon who is an egotistical tyrant, played by Greenstreet.
In the noir thriller "The Velvet Touch" (1948), Greenstreet's astute police detective investigates the murder of a Broadway theater producer. The noir "Ruthless" (1948) charts the rise and fall of an unscrupulous financier, one of whose business associates, and subsequent victims, is played by Greenstreet. In the gothic melodrama-thriller "The Woman in White" (1948), Greenstreet plays "the diabolical Count Fosco," who schemes to acquire the inheritance of a murdered aristocrat, "using impersonation, marriage of convenience, blackmail, long-lost relatives, and the suppression of dark family secrets." In the noir drama "Flamingo Road" (1949), a waitress in a small town (Joan Crawford) romances a young local politician. His backer, the town's de facto ruler Sheriff Titus Semple (Greenstreet), decides to eliminate her from the picture and imprisons her on a trumped-up charge. However, after her release, she embarks on a brutal revenge spree against her tormentors. Greenstreet's final film role was in the wartime adventure thriller "Malaya" (1949) with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart.
In all, Greenstreet appeared in 24 films during his eight years in Hollywood.
From 1950-51, Greenstreet took on the role of Nero Wolfe in "The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe," a radio program aired by NBC.
Later Life and Death
In 1952, Greenstreet announced his retirement. Greenstreet had suffered from diabetes and kidney disease for many years. He died in Hollywood on January 13, 1954.
