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Basil Sydney

Known for: Acting

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.

Filmography 17

Hamlet 1948Movie as Claudius - The King
Treasure Island 1950Movie as Captain Smollett
Ivanhoe 1952Movie as Waldemar Fitzurse
The Dam Busters 1955Movie as Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris G.C.B., O.B.E., A.F.C.
Went the Day Well? 1942Movie as Major Hammond / Kommandant Orlter
Salome 1953Movie as Pontius Pilate
John Paul Jones 1959Movie as Sir William Young
The Hands of Orlac 1960Movie as Maurice Seidelman
Mayerling 1957Movie as The Emperor Franz Joseph
Star of India 1954Movie as King Louis XIV