Basil Sydney
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1894-04-23
Day of Death
1968-01-10 (73 years old)
Place of Birth
Essex, England, UK
Basil Sydney
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
Acting
(1960)
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
as Emperor of Lilliput
(1960)
A Story of David
as King Saul
(1960)
The Hands of Orlac
as Maurice Seidelman
(1959)
The Devil's Disciple
as Lawyer Hawkins
(1959)
John Paul Jones
as Sir William Young
(1958)
A Question of Adultery
as Sir John Loring
(1957)
Mayerling
as The Emperor Franz Joseph
(1957)
Island in the Sun
as Julian Fleury
(1957)
Sea Wife
as Bulldog
(1956)
Around the World in Eighty Days
as Reform Club Member
(1955)
The Dam Busters
as Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris G.C.B., O.B.E., A.F.C.
(1955)
Simba
as Mr Crawford
(1954)
Star of India
as King Louis XIV
(1954)
Hell Below Zero
as Bland
(1953)
Salome
as Pontius Pilate
(1953)
Three's Company
as Dr. Graham
(1952)
Ivanhoe
as Waldemar Fitzurse
(1952)
The Magic Box
as William Fox-Talbot
(1950)
Treasure Island
as Captain Smollett
(1950)
The Angel with the Trumpet
as Francis Alt
(1948)
Hamlet
as Claudius - The King
(1947)
Jassy
as Nick Helmar
(1947)
The Man Within
as Sir Henry Merriman
(1947)
Meet Me at Dawn
as Georges Vermorel
(1945)
Caesar and Cleopatra
as Rufio
(1942)
Went the Day Well?
as Major Hammond / Kommandant Orlter
(1942)
The Next of Kin
as Naval captain
(1942)
The Black Sheep of Whitehall
as Costello
(1941)
Ships with Wings
as Capt. Fairfax
(1941)
Spring Meeting
as James
(1941)
The Farmer's Wife
as Samuel Sweetland
(1940)
Bits of Our Aircraft are Missing
as (uncredited)
(1939)
The Four Just Men
as Frank Snell
(1936)
The Amateur Gentleman
as Louis Chichester
(1936)
Crime Over London
as 'Joker' Finnigan
(1936)
Accused
as Eugene Roget
(1936)
(1936)
Rhodes of Africa
as Dr. Jim Jameson
(1936)
Blind Man's Bluff
as Dr. Peter Fairfax
(1935)
The Tunnel
as Mostyn
(1935)
The Riverside Murder
as Inspector Philip Winton
(1934)
Dirty Work
as Hugh Stafford
(1934)
The Third Clue
as Reinhardt Conway
(1932)
The Midshipmaid
as Cmdr. Fosberry
(1922)
Red Hot Romance
as Rowland Stone
(1920)