name	Paul Frees
birth name	Solomon Hersh Frees
birth date	June 22, 1920
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
death date	November 02, 1986
death place	Tiburon, California, U.S.
occupation	Character actor, voice actor
years active	1942–1986 }}

Paul Frees (June 22, 1920 – November 2, 1986) was an American voice actor and character actor.

Biography

He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago. Frees had an unusually wide four-octave voice range that would enable him to voice everything from the thundering basso profundo of the unseen "Ghost Host" in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland to the squeaky voice of the Little Green Sprout in Green Giant vegetable commercials. He began his acting career in 1942 and remained active for over 40 years. During that time, he was involved in more than 250 films, cartoons and TV appearances; like many voice actors, his appearances were often uncredited.

Frees' early radio career was cut short when he was drafted into World War II where he fought at Normandy, France on D-Day. He was wounded in action and was returned to the United States for a year of recuperation. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute under the G.I. Bill. When his first wife's health failed, he decided to drop out and return to radio work. He appeared frequently on Hollywood radio series, including ''Escape'', playing lead roles and alternating with William Conrad as the opening announcer of ''Suspense'' in the late 1940s, and parts on ''Gunsmoke'', (doing a passable impersonation of Howard McNear as Doc Adams for at least one episode, "The Cast"), and ''Crime Classics''. One of his few starring roles in this medium was as Jethro Dumont in the 1949 series ''The Green Lama'', as well as a syndicated anthology series ''The Player'', in which Frees narrated and played all of the parts.

Frees was often called upon in the 1950s and 1960s to "re-loop" the dialogue of other actors, often to correct for foreign accents, lack of English proficiency, or poor line readings by non-professionals. These dubs extended from a few lines to entire roles. This can be noticed rather clearly in the film ''Midway'' where Frees reads for Toshirō Mifune's performance as Admiral Yamamoto; or in the film ''Some Like It Hot'', in which Frees provides the voice of funeral director Mozzarella. Frees also dubbed the entire role of Eddie in the Disney film ''The Ugly Dachshund'', replacing actor Dick Wessel, who had died of a sudden heart attack after completion of principal photography. Frees also reportedly dubbed for Humphrey Bogart in his final film ''The Harder They Fall''. Bogart was suffering at the time from what would be diagnosed as esphageal cancer and thus could barely be heard in some takes, hence the need for Frees to dub in his voice.

Unlike many voice actors who did most of their work for one studio, Frees worked extensively with at least nine of the major animation production companies of the 20th century: Walt Disney Studios, Walter Lantz Studios, UPA, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Jay Ward Productions and Rankin/Bass.

Frees was active until his sudden death at the age of 66 from heart failure on November 2, 1986. He was living in Tiburon, California at the time. Frees was cremated and his ashes were scattered upon the Pacific Ocean.

There have been homages to Frees by fellow voice actor Corey Burton, who happens to have matched the voices Frees used for some of his characters. Burton has re-recorded introductions for some Disneyland attractions that were originally recorded by Frees. In some cases, the original Frees introductions were simply worn out due to overuse. In other cases, the introductions were changed slightly to reflect updated safety standards and thus necessitated a re-recording.

Career highlights

Disney

Some of Paul Frees' most memorable voices were for various Disney projects. Frees voiced Disney's Professor Ludwig Von Drake in eighteen episodes of the Disney anthology television series, beginning with the first episode of the newly-renamed ''Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color'' on September 24, 1961. The character also appeared on many Disneyland Records. Von Drake's introductory cartoon, ''An Adventure in Color'', featured ''The Spectrum Song'', sung by Frees as Von Drake. A different Frees recording of this song appeared on a children's record, and was later reissued on CD.

Frees narrated a number of Disney cartoons, including the Disney educational short film ''Donald in Mathmagic Land''. This short originally aired in the same television episode as Von Drake's first appearance.

Frees also provided voices for numerous characters at Disney parks, including the unseen "Ghost Host" in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and several audio-animatronic pirates, including the Auctioneer, in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney eventually issued limited edition compact discs commemorating the two rides, featuring outtakes and unused audio tracks by Frees and others. Frees also provided narration for the Tomorrowland attraction Adventure Thru Inner Space (1967–1985). Audio clips from the attractions in Frees' distinctive voice have even appeared in fireworks shows at Disneyland. A computer-animated singing bust in Frees' likeness appeared in the 2003 film ''The Haunted Mansion'' as an homage. Similarly, audio recordings of Frees from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction can be heard in ''Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'' in a homage to the ride. Frees also had a small live action role for Disney in the 1959 film ''The Shaggy Dog'', playing Dr. Galvin, a military psychiatrist who attempts to understand why Mr. Daniels believes a shaggy dog can uncover a spy ring.

His other Disney credits, most of them narration for segments of the Disney anthology television series, include the following:

The "Man in Space" series of shows (TV, 1954)

''From Aesop to Hans Christian Andersen'' (TV, 1955)

''The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca'' (TV miniseries, 1958)

''Tales of Texas John Slaughter'' (TV miniseries, 1958)

''The Shaggy Dog'' (film, 1959)

''The Absent-Minded Professor'' (film, 1961)

''Moochie of Pop Warner Football'' (TV, 1960)

''The Monkey's Uncle'' (film, 1965)

For his contributions to the Disney legacy, Frees was honored posthumously as a Disney Legend on October 9, 2006.

Jay Ward Productions

Frees was a regular presence in Jay Ward cartoons, providing the voices of Boris Badenov, Inspector Fenwick (from ''Dudley Do-Right)''. Ape in ''George of the Jungle'', and the ''Hoppity Hooper'' narrator, among numerous others.

Rankin/Bass

Frees is well-remembered for many characters in Rankin/Bass cartoons and stop-motion animated TV specials, including the central villain Burgermeister Meisterburger and his assistant Grimsby in ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'' (1970). He was also the traffic cop, ticket-taker, and Santa Claus in ''Frosty the Snowman'' in 1969. He was several voices, including Eon the Terrible, in ''Rudolph's Shiny New Year'' in 1976. In 1968, he appeared as Captain Jones in the Thanksgiving special ''The Mouse on the Mayflower'', and that Christmas he appeared as the father of the Drummer Boy, Ali, and as the three Wise Men in ''The Little Drummer Boy''. He provided the voices for several J. R. R. Tolkien characters (most notably the dwarf Bombur) in Rankin/Bass animated versions of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Return of the King''. He also voiced King Haggard's wizard Mabruk in ''The Last Unicorn'' and provided several voices for the Jackson Five cartoon series between 1971 and 1973.

The following Rankin Bass TV specials or films played by Paul Frees including:

''The Little Drummer Boy'' (1968) Voice of Aaron's Father and The Three Wise Men

''Frosty the Snowman'' (1969) Voice of Policeman, Ticketman, and Santa Claus

''The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians'' (1970) Voice of Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, and W.C Fields (uncredited)

''Santa Claus is Comin' to Town'' (1970) Voice of Burgermeister Meisterburger and Grimsby

''Here Comes Peter Cottontail'' (1971) Voice of Colonel Wellington Bunny's assistant, Man at Thanksgiving Table, and Santa Claus

''Frosty's Winter Wonderland'' (1976) Voice of Jack Frost

''Rudolph's Shiny New Year'' (1976) Voice of 1776, Santa Claus, General Ticker, and Aeon

''The Hobbit'' (1977) Voice of Bombur and Troll #1

''Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey'' (1977) Voice of Olaf and Donkey Dealer

''Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July'' (1979) Voice of Jack Frost, Policeman, and Winterbolt

''Jack Frost'' (1979) Voice of Father Winter and Kubla Kraus

''The Return of the King'' (1980) Voice of Orc, Uruk-hai, and Elrond

''The Last Unicorn'' (1982) Voice of Mabruk

Other voice work

Frees voiced all characters, except the lead role, in the US versions of Belvision's ''The Adventures of Tintin'' cartoons, based on the books by Hergé. In the 1956 Cinemascope Tom and Jerry cartoon, ''Blue Cat Blues'', he was Jerry's voice who narrated the short; he had also voiced Jerry's cousin Muscles in ''Jerry's Cousin'' five years earlier. His most famous role(s) were the cannibals in the banned Tom and Jerry episode "His Mouse Friday" where he said lines like "Mmmmm, barbequed cat!" and "Mmmmm, barbequed mouse!"

For the 1962 Christmas special ''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'', produced by UPA, Paul Frees voiced several characters, including Fezziwig, the Charity Man, two of the opportunists who steal from the dead man (Eyepatch Man and Tall Tophat Man) and Mister Magoo's Broadway theatre director. He subsequently provided numerous voices for further cartoons in the series that followed, ''The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo''.

Frees provided the voices of both John Lennon and George Harrison in the 1965 ''The Beatles'' cartoon series, the narrator, Big D and Fluid Man in the 1966 cartoon series, ''Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles'' and of The Thing in the 1967 series ''Fantastic Four'', as well as President James Norcross in the 1967 cartoon series ''Super President''. He played several roles—narrator, Chief of State, the judges and the bailiff—in the George Lucas / John Korty animated film, ''Twice Upon a Time''.

Frees provided the voice-over for the trailer to the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller, ''Play Misty for Me''.

In television commercials, he was the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7-Up bird Fresh-Up Freddie, Froot Loops spokesbird Toucan Sam (previously voiced by Mel Blanc, later voiced by Maurice LaMarche), Boo-Berry in the series of monster cereal commercials, and the Little Green Sprout, who called out to the Jolly Green Giant, "Hey, Green Giant, what's new besides ho-ho-ho?"

Frees narrated many live action films and television series, including ''Naked City'' (1958–1963). Frees also provided the voice of the eccentric billionaire John Beresford Tipton, always seated in his chair with his back to the viewer while talking to his employee Michael Anthony (fellow voice-artist Marvin Miller), on the dramatic series ''The Millionaire''. He was the narrator at the beginning of the film ''The Disorderly Orderly'' starring Jerry Lewis. He also "looped" an actor's voice in the film ''The Ladies Man'' also starring Jerry Lewis.

Frees had a wide range of other roles, usually heard but not seen, and frequently without screen credit. The resonance of his natural voice was similar to that of Orson Welles, and he performed a Welles impression several times. Some highlights of his voice work are as follows:

Narrated sixteen episodes of the NBC science fiction television series ''Steve Canyon'', starring Dean Fredericks (1958–1959)

Narrated the documentary about J. Robert Oppenheimer, ''The Day After Trinity''

The Peter Lorre voice in the Spike Jones version of the song ''My Old Flame''. When talking softly, the voice sounds much like Lorre. When the character segués into a manic rant for a few lines, the voice anticipates the Ludwig von Drake characterization.

The Orson Welles soundalike narrator in ''Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America Vol. 1''. When Vol. 2 came out after his death, he was replaced by Corey Burton.

Another Orson Welles sound-alike as the voice of the aliens in ''Earth vs. the Flying Saucers''

Yet again, as an Orson Welles soundalike narrator in the 1967 film ''The St. Valentine's Day Massacre''.

The uncredited voice of the sentient supercomputer Colossus in the film ''Colossus: The Forbin Project''.

Narrator of the pre-show for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at the Illinois Pavilion of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. The exhibit was produced by Disney, and later moved to Disneyland.

The shrouded figure of "Death" (another near-Welles characterization) in the Woody Allen film ''Love and Death''.

The narration for the spoof short film ''Hardware Wars'' (1977), which was styled as a mock film trailer, specifically parodying Orson Welles' narration of the original ''Star Wars'' trailer.

Voice of KARR in "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." - a 3rd season episode of ''Knight Rider''.

Voice of "Josephine" (the female persona of Tony Curtis' character Joe) in the Billy Wilder film ''Some Like It Hot''.

The voice of Dr. Hu in the English language version of ''King Kong Escapes''.

The voices of "Antoine" and "Alecto" in the English language version of ''Atoll K'' (aka ''Utopia'').

The voice of the hermit crab "Crusty" in ''The Incredible Mr. Limpet'', a Warner Bros. feature that mixed live action with animation.

Intro voice for ''Mister Terrific'' (TV series), a sitcom of 17 episodes in 1967 with Stephen Strimpell.

Intro voice for ''Bradbury 13'', a series of thirteen radio dramas featuring Ray Bradbury short stories, originally produced for National Public Radio by Michael McDonough at Brigham Young University, 1984.

Credited with singing "Dark Town Strutters Ball" in the 1971 film ''The Abominable Dr. Phibes''.

Voice of the title character in the 1957 film ''The Cyclops''.

Narrator of extended "recap" title sequence in early first season episodes of ''I Dream of Jeannie'' in 1965 (and the show's "sponsor I.D." announcer during season one).

Recorded with Spike Jones in 1959 on the album "Spike Jones in Hi-Fi, A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound" in recordings Poisen to Poisen, My Old Flame, Everything Happens to Me and This is your Death doing the vocal and voices. Tammy: vocal by Paul Frees, Two Heads are Better than One: vocal by George Rock and Paul Frees.

Other credits

Although Frees is primarily known for his voice work (like Mel Blanc, he was known in the industry as "The Man of a Thousand Voices"), he was also a songwriter and screenwriter, his major work being the little-seen 1960 film ''The Beatniks'', a screed against the then-rising Beat counterculture in the vein of ''Reefer Madness''. In 1992, the film was "riffed" on an episode of ''Mystery Science Theatre 3000''. On rare occasions, Frees appeared on camera in minor roles. He played a scientist in ''The Thing from Another World'', a death-row priest in ''A Place in the Sun'', and French fur trader McMasters in ''The Big Sky''. In 1955, he appeared as an irate husband suing his wife, played by Ann Doran, for alimony in an episode of CBS's sitcom ''The Ray Milland Show''. In ''Jet Pilot'', Frees plays a menacing Soviet officer whose job is to watchdog pilot Janet Leigh, but instead manages to eject himself out of a parked jet, enabling Leigh to rescue John Wayne and fly back to the West. He also had an un-credited role as a war correspondent interviewing George C. Scott as ''Patton'' and also as a member of Patton's staff, and also did various voice-overs for other actors, including the voice for the sheik hosting a troop review for Patton, as well as several others.

More significantly, he played the Orson Welles sound-alike radio reporter in ''The War of the Worlds'', where he is seen dictating into a tape recorder as the military prepares the atomic bomb for use against the invading Martians. Memorably, Frees' character says that the recording is being made for "future history...if any." Frees also provided the opening narration on man's war escalation in the film prior to Sir Cedric Hardwicke's reciting of the H. G. Wells novel. ''The War of the Worlds'' producer George Pal put Frees to work again in the 1960 fantasy film ''Atlantis, the Lost Continent'' and doing the opening voice-over narration for his 1975 ''Doc Savage'' film. Frees provided the apocalyptic voices of the "talking rings" in George Pal's 1960 film ''The Time Machine'', in which he explains the ultimate fate of humanity and the origin of the Morlocks and Eloi. Frees' voice appears in ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' as the English language voice of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States. He also does the final ending narration after the destruction of the Earth in the first sequel to ''The Planet of the Apes'', ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes''.

References

Further reading

Frees, Paul, ''The Writings of Paul Frees.'' (2004) (Albany: BearManor Media) ISBN 1-59393-011-9

Frees, Paul, ''You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To: The Letters of Paul “Buddy” Frees and Annelle Frees.'' (2011) (Albany: BearManor Media) ISBN 1-59393-646-X

Ohmart, Ben. ''Welcome ... Foolish Mortals - The Life & Voices of Paul Frees.'' (2004) (Albany: BearManor Media) ISBN 1-59393-004-6. Filled with rare photos & interviews.

External links

What a Character! page on Paul Frees

Voice Chasers "voiceography"

Disney Legends profile

Paul Frees interview where he does several of his best known character voices

Category:1920 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:American film actors Category:American radio actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California

es:Paul Frees fr:Paul Frees ja:ポール・フリーズ fi:Paul Frees

name	Peter Lorre
birth name	László Löwenstein
birth date	June 26, 1904
birth place	Rózsahegy (now Ružomberok), Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia)
death date	March 23, 1964
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
occupation	Actor
years active	1929–64
spouse	Celia Lovsky''(1934–45)''Kaaren Verne''(1945–50)'' Anne Marie Brenning''(1953–64)'' 1 child
website	}}

Peter Lorre (26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.

He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film ''M''. Later he became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries, notably alongside Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and as the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.

Biography

Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy (Hungarian), Rosenberg (German), Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia. His parents were Alois Loewenstein and Elvira Freischberger. When he was a child his family moved to Vienna where Lorre attended school. He began acting on stage in Vienna at the age of 17, where he worked with Richard Teschner, then moved to Breslau, and Zürich. In the late 1920s, the young actor moved to Berlin where he worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, most notably in his ''Mann ist Mann''. He also appeared as Dr. Nakamura in the musical ''Happy End'' by Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, alongside Brecht's wife Helene Weigel and co-stars Carola Neher, Oskar Homolka and Kurt Gerron.

The German-speaking actor became famous when Fritz Lang cast him as a child killer in his 1931 film ''M''. In 1932 he appeared alongside Hans Albers in the science fiction film ''F.P.1 antwortet nicht'' about an artificial island in the mid-Atlantic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Lorre took refuge first in Paris and then London, where he was noticed by Ivor Montagu, Alfred Hitchcock's associate producer for ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1934), who reminded the director about Lorre's performance in ''M''. They first considered him to play the assassin in the film, but wanted to use him in a larger role, despite his limited command of English, which Lorre overcame by learning much of his part phonetically. He also was featured in Hitchcock's ''Secret Agent'', in 1935.

Eventually, Lorre went to Hollywood, where he specialized in playing sinister foreigners, beginning with ''Mad Love'' (1935), directed by Karl Freund. He starred in a series of ''Mr. Moto'' movies, a parallel to the better known ''Charlie Chan'' series, in which he played John P. Marquand's seminal character, a Japanese detective and spy. He did not enjoy these films — and twisted his shoulder during a stunt in ''Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation'' — but they were lucrative for the studio and gained Lorre many new fans. In 1939, he was picked to play the role that would eventually go to Basil Rathbone in ''Son of Frankenstein''; Lorre had to decline the part due to illness.

In 1940, Lorre co-starred with fellow horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the Kay Kyser movie ''You'll Find Out''. Lorre enjoyed considerable popularity as a featured player in Warner Bros. suspense and adventure films. Lorre played the role of Joel Cairo in ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) and portrayed the character Ugarte in the film classic ''Casablanca'' (1942). Lorre branched out into comedy with the role of Dr. Einstein in ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' (filmed in 1941, released 1944). In 1946 he starred with Sydney Greenstreet and Geraldine Fitzgerald in ''Three Strangers'', a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket.

In 1941, Peter Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States. After World War II, Lorre's acting career in Hollywood experienced a downturn, whereupon he concentrated on radio and stage work. In Germany he co-wrote, directed and starred in ''Der Verlorene'' (''The Lost One'') (1951), a critically acclaimed art film in the film noir style. He then returned to the United States where he appeared as a character actor in television and feature films, often spoofing his "creepy" image.

In 1954, he had the distinction of becoming the first actor to play a James Bond villain when he portrayed Le Chiffre in a television adaptation of ''Casino Royale'', opposite Barry Nelson as an American James Bond. (In the spoof-film version of ''Casino Royale'', Ronnie Corbett comments that SMERSH includes among its agents not only Le Chiffre, but also "Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi".) Also in 1954, Lorre starred alongside Kirk Douglas and James Mason in ''20,000 Leagues under the Sea''.

A famous story is told in Hollywood that in 1956, both Lorre and Vincent Price attended Bela Lugosi's funeral. According to Price, Lorre asked him "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?" However, according to Lugosi biographers Arthur Lennig and Gary Don Rhodes, neither actor attended Lugosi's funeral.

In 1959, Lorre appeared in NBC's espionage drama ''Five Fingers'', starring David Hedison, in the episode "Thin Ice". In the early 1960s he worked with Roger Corman on several low-budgeted, tongue-in-cheek, and very popular films. He appeared in a supporting role in the 1961 film, ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea''. In 1961, he was interviewed on the NBC program ''Here's Hollywood''.

Marriages and family

He was married three times: Celia Lovsky (1934 – 13 March 1945, divorced); Kaaren Verne (25 May 1945 – 1950, divorced) and Anne Marie Brenning (21 July 1953 – 23 March 1964, his death). In 1953, Anne Marie bore his only child, Catharine. His daughter Catharine made headlines after ''Hillside Strangler'' serial killer Kenneth Bianchi confessed to police investigators after his arrest that he and his cousin and partner in crime Angelo Buono had stopped Catharine Lorre disguised as police officers with the intent of abducting and murdering her in 1977, but after learning that she was the daughter of Peter Lorre, the pair let her go. It was only after Bianchi was arrested that Catharine Lorre realized whom she had met. Catharine died in 1985 of complications arising from diabetes.

In 1963 an actor named Eugene Weingand, who was unrelated to Lorre, attempted to trade on his slight resemblance to the actor by changing his name to "Peter Lorie", but his petition was rejected by the courts. After Lorre's death, however, he referred to himself as Lorre's son.

Health and death

Lorre had suffered for years from chronic gallbladder troubles, for which doctors had prescribed morphine. Lorre became trapped between the constant pain and addiction to morphine to ease the problem. It was during the period of the Moto films that Lorre struggled and overcame his addiction.

Overweight and never fully recovered from his addiction to morphine, Lorre suffered many personal and career disappointments in his later years. He died in 1964 of a stroke. Lorre's body was cremated and his ashes interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. Vincent Price read the eulogy at his funeral.

Legacy and mimicry

Lorre has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6619 Hollywood Boulevard.

Lorre's distinctive accent and large-eyed face became a favorite target of comedians and cartoonists. For example, several Warner Bros. cartoons used a caricature of Lorre's face with an impression by Mel Blanc, including ''Birth of a Notion'', ''Hair-Raising Hare'' and ''Racketeer Rabbit''.

Books and comics

In the early 1940s, the adventures of ''Batman and Robin'' appeared in daily newspapers. One story, ''The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills'', drawn by Batman co-creator Bob Kane, featured a hitman called Jojo who was, according to writer Al Schwartz, made to look like Lorre.

Films, television, and music

Musician and filker Tom Smith won a Pegasus award for Best Classic Filk Song in 2006 entitled "I Want to be Peter Lorre" which appears on his filk album "Homecoming: MarCon 2005", which includes his vocal impersonation of the actor.

The Jazz Butcher's song "Peter Lorre" was first featured on the group's ''Conspiracy'' album, which was released in May 1986.

The stop motion film ''Corpse Bride'' features "The Maggot", a small green worm who lives inside the title's character head. His features and voice (provided by Enn Reitel) are caricatures of Peter Lorre. "From the very beginning Tim wanted the Maggot to be a Peter Lorre-esque character, and we had a good time working with that and it went through various design changes," said co-director Mike Johnson in the book ''Tim Burton's Corpse Bride: An Invitation to the Wedding''.

On September 11, 2007 Brooklyn-based punk band The World/Inferno Friendship Society released a full-length album about Lorre called ''Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century'', which traces Lorre's film career, drug addiction, and death. It has been performed at the Famous Spiegeltent. The album was subsequently adapted into a multi-media stage production directed by Jay Scheib, which premiered at Webster Hall in New York City on January 9, 2009, and went on to play major arts festivals around the world, including Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, SC), Luminato Festival (Toronto), Noorderzon Festival (Groningen, Holland) and Theaterformen (Hanover, Germany).

Filmography

''Die Verschwundene Frau'' (1929) (uncredited)

''Der weiße Teufel'' (1930) aka ''The White Devil''

''Mann ist Mann'' (1931) aka ''A Man's a Man''

''M'' (1931)

''Bomben auf Monte Carlo'' (1931) aka ''Bombs Over Monte Carlo''

''Die Koffer des Herrn O.F.'' (1931)

''Fünf von der Jazzband'' (1932)

''Schuß im Morgengrauen'' (1932)

''Der weiße Dämon'' (1932) aka ''Dope''

''Stupéfiants'' (1932)

''F.P.1 antwortet nicht'' (1932)

''Les Requins du pétrole'' (1933)

''Du haut en bas'' (1933)

''Was Frauen träumen'' (1933)

''Unsichtbare Gegner'' (1933)

''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1934)

''Mad Love'' (1935)

''Crime and Punishment'' (1935)

''Secret Agent'' (1936)

''Crack-Up'' (1936)

''Nancy Steele Is Missing!'' (1937)

''Think Fast, Mr. Moto'' (1937)

''Lancer Spy'' (1937)

''Thank You, Mr. Moto'' (1937)

''Mr. Moto's Gamble'' (1938)

''Mr. Moto Takes a Chance'' (1938)

''I'll Give a Million'' (1938)

''Mysterious Mr. Moto'' (1938)

''Mr. Moto's Last Warning'' (1939)

''Mr. Moto in Danger Island'' (1939)

''Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation'' (1939)

''Strange Cargo'' (1940)

''I Was an Adventuress'' (1940)

''Island of Doomed Men'' (1940)

''Stranger on the Third Floor'' (1940)

''You'll Find Out'' (1940)

''Der Ewige Jude'' (1940) (archive footage)

''The Face Behind the Mask'' (1941)

''Mr. District Attorney'' (1941)

''They Met in Bombay'' (1941)

''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941)

''All Through the Night'' (1941)

''Invisible Agent'' (1942)

''The Boogie Man Will Get You'' (1942)

''Casablanca'' (1942)

''The Constant Nymph'' (1943)

''Background to Danger'' (1943)

''The Cross of Lorraine'' (1943)

''Passage to Marseille'' (1944)

''The Mask of Dimitrios'' (1944)

''Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944)

''The Conspirators'' (1944)

''Hollywood Canteen'' (1944)

''Hotel Berlin'' (1945)

''Confidential Agent'' (1945)

''Three Strangers'' (1946)

''Black Angel'' (1946)

''The Chase'' (1946)

''The Verdict'' (1946)

''The Beast with Five Fingers'' (1946)

''My Favorite Brunette'' (1947)

''Casbah'' (1948)

''Rope of Sand'' (1949)

''Quicksand'' (1950)

''Double Confession'' (1950)

''Der Verlorene'' (1951) (also wrote and directed)

''Beat the Devil'' (1953)

''Casino Royale'', a episode of the television series ''Climax!''

''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' (1954)

''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (1956)

''Meet Me in Las Vegas'' (1956) (uncredited)

''Congo Crossing'' (1956)

''The Buster Keaton Story'' (1957)

''Silk Stockings'' (1957)

''The Story of Mankind'' (1957)

''The Sad Sack'' (1957)

''Hell Ship Mutiny'' (1957)

''The Big Circus'' (1959)

''Scent of Mystery'' (1960)

''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' (1961)

''Tales of Terror'' (1962)

''Five Weeks in a Balloon'' (1962)

''The Raven'' (1963)

''The Comedy of Terrors'' (1964)

''Muscle Beach Party'' (1964)

''The Patsy'' (1964)

References

Further reading

External links

Watch Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang's M

The Lorre Library of Sound

The Peter Lorre Companion

Photographs of Peter Lorre

The Lodger on Mystery in the Air, 1947, starring Peter Lorre and Agnes Moorehead

Listen to Jack Benny Show 1941-03-09 (402) Guest Peter Lorre - Murder at the Racquet Club

Listen to Jack Benny Podcast 1946-03-24 (579) Guest Peter Lorre - I Stand Condemned

Mystery in the Air (1947)

Category:1904 births Category:1964 deaths Category:20th-century American people Category:20th-century Austrian people Category:20th-century Hungarian people Category:20th-century actors Category:Jewish actors Category:American film actors Category:Austrian film actors Category:Hungarian film actors Category:Hungarian Jews Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Category:People from Ružomberok Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

ar:بيتر لور ast:Peter Lorre ca:Peter Lorre da:Peter Lorre de:Peter Lorre es:Peter Lorre eu:Peter Lorre fr:Peter Lorre gl:Peter Lorre id:Peter Lorre it:Peter Lorre he:פיטר לורה hu:Peter Lorre nl:Peter Lorre ja:ピーター・ローレ no:Peter Lorre pl:Peter Lorre pt:Peter Lorre ru:Петер Лорре simple:Peter Lorre sk:Peter Lorre sh:Peter Lorre fi:Peter Lorre sv:Peter Lorre tr:Peter Lorre

name	Boris Karloff
birth name	William Henry Pratt
birth date	November 23, 1887
birth place	East Dulwich, London, England, UK
death date	February 02, 1969
death place	Midhurst, Sussex, England, UK
years active	1909–69
occupation	Actor
spouse	Grace Harding (1910-1913; divorced)Olive de Wilton (1915; divorced)Helene Vivian Soule (1924-1928; divorced)Dorothy Stine (1928-1946; divorced)Evelyn Hope Helmore (1946-1969; his death) }}

Boris Karloff (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), whose real name was William Henry Pratt, was an English actor.

Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in ''Frankenstein'' (1931), ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935), and ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939). His popularity following ''Frankenstein'' was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or "Karloff the Uncanny". His best-known non-horror role is as the Grinch, as well as the narrator, in the animated television special of Dr. Seuss’s ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (1966).

Early years

Karloff was born at 36 Forest Hill Road, East Dulwich, London, England, where a blue plaque can now be seen. His parents were Edward John Pratt, Jr. and Eliza Sarah Millard. His paternal grandparents were Edward John Pratt, an Anglo-Indian, and Eliza Julia (Edwards) Pratt, a sister of Anna Leonowens (whose tales about life in the royal court of Siam (now Thailand) were the basis of the musical ''The King and I.'') The two sisters were also of Anglo-Indian heritage.

Karloff was brought up in Enfield. He was the youngest of nine children, and following his mother's death was raised by his elder siblings. He later attended Enfield Grammar School before moving to Uppingham School and Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, and went on to attend King's College London where he studied to go into the consular service. He dropped out in 1909 and worked as a farm labourer and did various odd jobs until he happened into acting. His brother, Sir John Thomas Pratt, became a distinguished British diplomat. Karloff was bow-legged, had a lisp, and stuttered as a young boy. He conquered his stutter, but not his lisp, which was noticeable all through his career.

Career

In 1909, Pratt travelled to Canada and began appearing in stage shows throughout the country; and some time later changed his professional name to "Boris Karloff". Some have theorized that he took the stage name from a mad scientist character in the novel ''The Drums of Jeopardy'' called "Boris Karlov". However, the novel was not published until 1920, at least eight years after Karloff had been using the name on stage and in silent films (Warner Oland played "Boris Karlov" in a movie version in 1931). Another possible influence was thought to be a character in the Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel ''H.R.H. The Rider'' which features a "Prince Boris of Karlova", but as the novel was not published until 1915, the influence may be backward, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play and adapted the name for the character. Karloff always claimed he chose the first name "Boris" because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was a family name. However, his daughter Sara Karloff publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears, "Karloff" or otherwise. One reason for the name change was to prevent embarrassment to his family. Whether or not his brothers (all dignified members of the British foreign service) actually considered young William the "black sheep of the family" for having become an actor, Karloff himself apparently worried they did feel that way. He did not reunite with his family until 1933, when he went back to England to make ''The Ghoul,'' extremely worried that his siblings would disapprove of his new, macabre claim to world fame. Instead, his elder brothers jostled for position around their "baby" brother and happily posed for publicity photographs with him.

Karloff joined the Jeanne Russell Co. in 1911 and performed in towns like Kamloops, BC and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. After the devastating Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina Cyclone of 30 June 1912, Karloff and other performers helped with cleanup efforts. He later took a job as a railway baggage handler and joined the Harry St. Clair Co., that performed in Minot, North Dakota, for a year, in an opera house above a hardware store.

Due to the years of difficult manual labour in Canada and the U.S. while trying to establish his acting career, he suffered back problems for the rest of his life. Because of his health, he did not fight in World War I.

Hollywood

Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labor such as digging ditches and driving a cement truck to earn a living. A number of his early major roles were in movie serials, such as ''The Masked Rider'' (1919), in Chapter 2 of which he can be glimpsed onscreen for the first time, ''The Hope Diamond Mystery'' (1920) and ''King of the Wild'' (1930). In these early roles he was often cast as an exotic Arabian or Indian villain. A key film which brought Karloff recognition was ''The Criminal Code'' (1931), a prison drama in which he reprised a dramatic part he had played on stage.

Stardom

But it was his role as Frankenstein's monster in ''Frankenstein'' (1931) which made him a star. The bulky costume with four inch platform boots made it an arduous role but the costume and torturously administered make-up produced the classic image. Boris was lucky to get the part, not least as it had supposedly been offered it to Bela Lugosi, who declined it. A year later, Karloff played another iconic character, Imhotep in ''The Mummy.'' Also quickly followed ''The Old Dark House'' with Charles Laughton and the star role in ''The Mask of Fu Manchu''. These films all very much confirmed his newfound stardom.

The 5'11" (1.8 m) brown-eyed Karloff played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He was memorably gunned down in a bowling alley in the 1932 film ''Scarface.'' He played a religious World War I soldier in the 1934 John Ford epic ''The Lost Patrol.'' Karloff gave a string of lauded performances in 1930s Universal horror movies, including several with his main rival for heir to Lon Chaney, Sr.'s horror throne, Béla Lugosi. Karloff was cast for the role of The Monster in ''Frankenstein'' after Bela Lugosi refused to play the part, making his subsequent career possible. Karloff played Frankenstein's monster in two other films, ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935) and ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939), with the latter also featuring Lugosi. Karloff would revisit the Frankenstein mythos in film several times afterward. The first would be as the villainous Dr. Niemann in ''House of Frankenstein'' (1944), where Karloff would be contrasted with Glenn Strange's portrayal of The Monster.

Karloff returned to the role of the "mad scientist" in 1958's ''Frankenstein 1970,'' as Baron Victor von Frankenstein II, the grandson of the original inventor. The finale reveals that the crippled Baron has given his own face (i.e. Karloff's) to The Monster. The actor appeared at a celebrity baseball game as The Monster in 1940, hitting a gag home run and making catcher Buster Keaton fall into an acrobatic dead faint as The Monster stomped into home plate. Norman Z. McLeod filmed a sequence in ''The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' with Karloff in The Monster make-up, but it was deleted. Karloff donned the headpiece and neck bolts for the final time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV series ''Route 66,'' but he was playing "Boris Karloff," who, within the story, was playing "The Monster."

While the long, creative partnership between Karloff and Lugosi never led to a close mutual friendship, it produced some of the actors' most revered and enduring productions, beginning with ''The Black Cat.'' Follow-ups included ''Gift of Gab'' (1934), ''The Raven'' (1935), ''The Invisible Ray'' (1936), ''Black Friday'' (1940), ''You'll Find Out'' (also 1940), and ''The Body Snatcher'' (1945). During this period, he also starred with Basil Rathbone in ''Tower of London'' (1939).

From 1945 to 1946, Karloff appeared in three films for RKO produced by Val Lewton: ''Isle of the Dead'', ''The Body Snatcher'', and ''Bedlam''. In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the ''Los Angeles Times'', Karloff discussed his three-picture deal with RKO, his reasons for leaving Universal Pictures and working with producer Lewton. Karloff left Universal because he thought the Frankenstein franchise had run its course. The latest installment was what he called a "'monster clambake,' with everything thrown in — Frankenstein, Dracula, a hunchback and a 'man-beast' that howled in the night. It was too much. Karloff thought it was ridiculous and said so." Berg continues, "Mr. Karloff has great love and respect for Mr. Lewton as the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul."

During this period, Karloff was also a frequent guest on radio programs, whether it was starring in Arch Oboler's Chicago-based ''Lights Out'' productions (most notably the episode "Cat Wife") or spoofing his horror image with Fred Allen or Jack Benny.

An enthusiastic performer, he returned to the Broadway stage in the original production of ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Although Frank Capra cast Raymond Massey in the 1944 film, which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was still appearing in the role on Broadway, Karloff reprised the role on television with Tony Randall and Tom Bosley in a 1962 production on the ''Hallmark Hall of Fame''. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play ''The Linden Tree''. He also appeared as Captain Hook in the play ''Peter Pan'' with Jean Arthur. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in ''The Lark,'' by the French playwright Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc, which was also reprised on ''Hallmark Hall of Fame''.

In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably ''Thriller'', ''Out of This World'', and ''The Veil'', the last of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including ''The Comedy of Terrors,'' ''The Raven'', and ''The Terror''. the latter two directed by Roger Corman, and ''Die, Monster, Die!''. He also featured in Michael Reeves' second feature film ''The Sorcerers'' (1966).

During the 1950s Karloff appeared on British TV in the series ''Colonel March of Scotland Yard'', in which he portrayed John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes.

Karloff, along with H. V. Kaltenborn, was a regular panelist on the NBC game show, ''Who Said That?'', which aired between 1948 and 1955. Later, as a guest on NBC's ''The Gisele MacKenzie Show'', Karloff sang "Those Were the Good Old Days" from ''Damn Yankees'', while Gisele MacKenzie performed the solo, "Give Me the Simple Life". On ''The Red Skelton Show,'' Karloff guest starred along with horror actor Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein, with Red Skelton as the monster "Klem Kadiddle Monster." In 1966, Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series ''The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.,'' in the episode "The Mother Muffin Affair." Karloff performed in drag as the titular Mother Muffin. That same year he also played an Indian Maharajah on the adventure series ''The Wild Wild West'' ("The Night of the Golden Cobra"). In 1967, he played an eccentric Spanish professor who thinks he's Don Quixote in a whimsical episode of ''I Spy'' ("Mainly on the Plains").

In the mid-1960s, Karloff gained a late-career surge of American popularity when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss' ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas,'' and also provided the voice of the Grinch, although the song, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung by American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft. Karloff later received a Grammy Award in the spoken word category after the story was released as a record. (Because Ravenscroft was uncredited for his contribution to ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'', his performance of the song was often mistakenly attributed to Karloff.)

In 1968 he starred in ''Targets'', a movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich about a young man who embarks on a spree of killings carried out with handguns and high powered rifles. The movie starred Karloff as retired horror film actor, Byron Orlok, a thinly disguised version of himself—facing an end of life crisis, resolved through a confrontation with the shooter.

Karloff ended his career by appearing in four low-budget Mexican horror films: ''The Snake People'', ''The Incredible Invasion'', ''The Fear Chamber'', and ''House of Evil''. This was a package deal with Mexican producer Luis Vergara. Karloff's scenes were directed by Jack Hill and shot back to back in Los Angeles in the spring of 1968. The films were then completed in Mexico. All four were released posthumously, with the last, ''The Incredible Invasion'', not released until 1971, two years after Karloff's death.

''Cauldron of Blood'', shot in Spain in 1967 and starring Karloff and Viveca Lindfors, was also released after Karloff's death.

Spoken word

Karloff recorded the title role of Shakespeare's Cymbeline for the Shakespeare Recording Society (Caedmon Audio). The recording was originally published in 1962. It is very rare today, although a download of it is available from audible.com.

Records Karloff made for the children's market included ''Three Little Pigs and Other Fairy Stories'', ''Tales of the Frightened'' (volume 1 and 2), Rudyard Kipling's ''Just So Stories'' and, with Cyril Ritchard and Celeste Holm, ''Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes'', and Lewis Carroll's ''The Hunting of the Snark''.

Personal life

In contrast to the sinister characters he played on screen, Karloff was known in real life as a very kind gentleman who gave generously, especially to children's charities. Beginning in 1940, Karloff dressed up as Santa Claus every Christmas to hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.

Karloff was genuinely superstitious - once, he refused to appear on the radio program ''Information Please'' because the episode would be broadcast on Friday the 13th.

Despite living and working in the United States for many years, Karloff never became a naturalized American citizen, and he never legally changed his name to "Boris Karloff." He signed official documents "William H. Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff."

Karloff was also a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was especially outspoken regarding working conditions on sets that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s, some of which were extremely hazardous. He married six times and had one child, daughter Sara Karloff, by his fifth wife.

In 1931, Boris Karloff took out insurance against premature aging that might be caused by his fright make-up.

Death

Boris Karloff lived out his final years at his cottage, 'Roundabout,' in the Hampshire village of Bramshott. After a long battle with arthritis and emphysema, he contracted pneumonia, succumbing to it in King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex, England, on 2 February 1969. He was cremated, following a requested low-key service, at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, where he is commemorated by a plaque in the Garden of Remembrance. A memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), London, where there is also a plaque.

However, even death could not put an immediate halt to Karloff's media career. Four Mexican films for which Karloff shot his scenes in Los Angeles were released over a two-year period after he had died. They were dismissed, by critics and fans alike as undistinguished efforts. Also, during the run of ''Thriller'', Karloff lent his name and likeness to a comic book for Gold Key Comics based upon the series. After ''Thriller'' was cancelled, the comic was retitled ''Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery.'' An illustrated likeness of Karloff continued to introduce each issue of this publication for nearly a decade after the real Karloff died; the comic lasted until the early 1980s.

Legacy

For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street for motion pictures, and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard for television.

Karloff was featured by the U.S. Postal Service as Frankenstein's Monster and the Mummy in its series "Classic Monster Movie Stamps" issued in September 1997.

In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Sara Karloff about her father's career for his BBC documentary series ''A History of Horror''.

On 24 January 2011 a new, authorised, biography – ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'' by Stephen Jacobs – was published in the UK by Tomahawk Press. The book was published in Canada and the U.S. on 14 March 2011.

Filmography

References

External links

Karloff's birthplace

Vertlieb's Views: Boris Karloff

Literature on Boris Karloff

Category:1887 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:English expatriates in Canada Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English film actors Category:English people of Indian descent Category:English silent film actors Category:English stage actors Category:People educated at Enfield Grammar School Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Old Merchant Taylors Category:Old Uppinghamians Category:People from East Hampshire (district) Category:People from Enfield Category:People from Peckham Category:People from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Category:People of Anglo-Indian descent

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name	Dusty Springfield
background	solo_singer
birth name	Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien
born	April 16, 1939West Hampstead, London, England
died	March 02, 1999Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England
origin	Ealing, London, England
instrument	Voice, guitar, piano, percussion
genre	Pop, soul
occupation	Singer, arranger
years active	1958–1995
label	Philips, Atlantic
associated acts	Lana Sisters, Springfields, Sweet Inspirations, Pet Shop Boys
notable instruments	}}

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien OBE (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time.

Born in North London to an Irish Catholic family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. She joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, in 1958, then formed the pop-folk vocal trio The Springfields in 1960 with her brother Dion.

Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, "I Only Want To Be With You" (1963). Among the hits that followed were "Wishin' and Hopin'" (1964), "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (1964), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966), and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968). A fan of American pop music, she was the first public figure to bring little-known soul singers to a wider British audience, when she created and hosted the first British performances of the top-selling Motown artists in 1965. By 1966, she was the best selling female singer in the world, and topped a number of popularity polls, including ''Melody Maker'''s Best International Vocalist. She was the first British singer to top the ''New Musical Express'' readers' poll for Female Singer. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.

The marked changes in pop music in the mid-1960s left many female pop singers out of fashion. To boost her credibility as a soul artist, Springfield went to Memphis, Tennessee, to record an album of pop and soul music with the Atlantic Records main production team. Released in 1969, ''Dusty in Memphis'' has been ranked among the greatest albums of all time by ''Rolling Stone'' and VH1 artists, ''New Musical Express'' readers, and the Channel 4 viewers polls. The album was also awarded a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

After this, however, Springfield's success dipped for eighteen years. She returned to the Top 20 of the British and American charts in collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys on the songs "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private". Interest in Springfield's early output was revived in 1994 due to the inclusion of "Son of a Preacher Man" on the soundtrack of the movie ''Pulp Fiction''.

Early life (1939–1957)

Dusty Springfield was born as Mary O'Brien in West Hampstead, North London, England, on 16 April 1939, the second child of Gerard and Kay O'Brien. Her brother Dion, later to become Tom Springfield, had been born five years earlier on 2 July 1934. Her father, Gerard O'Brien, who had been raised in the British Raj, was neat and precise by nature, and worked as a tax accountant and consultant. Her mother Kay came from a family in County Kerry, Ireland, which included a number of journalists.

Springfield was raised in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, until the early 1950s and later lived in the West London borough of Ealing. She received her education at a traditional all-girls Catholic school (St Anne's Convent School, Little Ealing Lane, Northfields). The comfortable middle class upbringing was disturbed by dysfunctional tendencies in the family; her father's perfectionism, and her mother's frustrations would sometimes spill out in food-throwing incidents. Springfield and Dion both engaged in food-throwing throughout the rest of their lives. She was something of a tomboy in her early years, and was given the nickname "Dusty" because she played football with boys in the street.

Springfield was raised in a music-loving family. Her father would tap out rhythms on the back of her hand and encourage Dusty to guess the musical piece. She listened to a wide range of music including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller, among others. She was a fan of American jazz and the vocalists Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford, and wished to sound like them. She made a recording of herself singing the Irving Berlin song "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam" at a local record shop in Ealing when she was twelve.

Career

Early career (1958–66)

After finishing school in 1958, Mary O'Brien responded to an advertisement to join The Lana Sisters, an "established sister act". With this vocal group, she developed skills in harmonising and microphone technique, recorded, did some television performances, and played at live shows in the U.K. and at U.S. Air Force bases.

In 1960, Springfield left the band and formed a pop-folk trio with her brother Dion O'Brien and Reshad Feild (who was later replaced by Mike Hurst). They chose The Springfields as the trio's name while rehearsing in a field in Somerset in the springtime, and took the stage names of Dusty, Tom, and Tim Springfield. Intending to make an authentic American album, the group travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, to record the album ''Folk Songs from the Hills''. The American pop tunes that she heard during this visit helped turn Springfield's choice of music from folk and country towards pop music rooted in rhythm and blues. The band was voted the "Top British Vocal Group" by the New Musical Express poll in 1961 and 1962. During the spring of 1963, the Springfields recorded their last British Top 5 hit, "Say I Won't Be There". Dusty Springfield left the band after their last concert in October 1963.

Dusty Springfield's first single, "I Only Want to Be with You", written and arranged by Ivor Raymonde, was released in November 1963. It was produced by Johnny Franz in a manner similar to Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound", and included rhythm and blues features such as horn sections, backing singers and double-tracked vocals, along with pop music strings, in the style of girl bands that Springfield admired, such as The Shirelles. The song rose to No.4 on the British charts, leading to its nomination as a "Sure Shot" pick of records not yet charted in the U.S. by New York disc jockey "Dandy" Dan Daniel of WMCA radio in December 1963, preceding Beatlemania. It remained on the American Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks, peaking at No.12. The release finished as No.48 on New York's WABC radio Top 100 for 1964. The song was the first record played on BBC-TV's ''Top of the Pops'' programme on 1 January 1964. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc in the U.K.

Springfield's debut album ''A Girl Called Dusty'' included mostly covers of her favourite songs. Among the tracks were "Mama Said", "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", "You Don't Own Me" and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". The album reached #6 in the U.K. in May 1964. The chart hits "Stay Awhile", "All Cried Out" and "Losing You" followed the same year. In 1964, Springfield recorded two Burt Bacharach songs: "Wishin' and Hopin'—an American Top 10 hit— and the emotional "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", which reached #3 on the British chart. The latter song set the standard for much of her later material.

Springfield's tour of South Africa was interrupted in December 1964, and she was deported, after she performed before an integrated audience at a theatre near Cape Town, which was against the South African government's segregation policy. In the same year, she was voted the Top Female British Artist of the year in the ''New Musical Express'' poll, topping Lulu, Sandie Shaw, and Cilla Black. Springfield received the award again the following three years.

In 1965, Springfield took part in the Italian Song Festival in San Remo, and failed to qualify for the final with two songs. During the competition, she heard the song "Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te)". Its English version, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", featured lyrics written by Springfield's friend, Vicki Wickham, and her future manager, Simon Napier-Bell. It reached No.1 in the UK in May 1966 and reached No.4 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, where it was also No.35 on the Billboard Top 100 for 1966. The song, which Springfield called "good old schmaltz", was voted among the ''All Time Top 100 Songs'' by the listeners of BBC Radio 2 in 1999.

In 1965, Springfield released three more British Top 40 hits: "Your Hurtin' Kinda Love", "In the Middle of Nowhere", and Carole King's "Some of Your Lovin'". These were not included on the album ''Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty'', which featured songs by Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, Rod Argent and Randy Newman, and a cover of the traditional Mexican song, "La Bamba". This album peaked at #6 in the U.K.

Springfield was instrumental in introducing Motown to a wider British audience, both with her covers of Motown songs, and in facilitating the first British TV appearance for The Temptations, The Supremes, The Miracles, and Stevie Wonder on a special edition of the ''Ready Steady Go!'' show, called ''The Sound Of Motown''. The show was broadcast on 28 April 1965 by Rediffusion TV, with Springfield opening each half of the show accompanied by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Motown's in-house band The Funk Brothers.

Springfield released three additional U.K. Top 20 hits in 1966: "Little By Little" and two dramatic ballads by Carole King: "Goin' Back" and "All I See Is You", which also reached the US Top 20. In August and September 1966, she hosted ''Dusty'', a series of six BBC TV music and talk shows. A compilation of her singles, ''Golden Hits'', released in November 1966, reached #2 in the U.K.

Late 1960s (1967–69)

The Bacharach-David composition "The Look of Love" was designed as the centrepiece for the James Bond parody ''Casino Royale''. For one of the slowest-tempo hits of the sixties, Bacharach created a sultry feel by the use of minor-seventh and major-seventh chord changes, while Hal David's lyrics epitomised longing and lust. This song was recorded in two versions at the Philips Studios of London. The soundtrack version was recorded on 29 January and the single release version was done in April. "The Look of Love" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song of 1967. The song was a Top 10 radio hit on KGB-AM, San Diego, CA and KHJ-AM, Los Angeles radio stations in the western United States, and earned her highest place in the year's music charts at #22.

The second season of the BBC's ''Dusty'' TV shows, featuring performances of "Get Ready" and the U.K. #13 hit "I'll Try Anything", attracted a healthy audience but the show did not keep up with changes in the pop music market. The comparatively progressive album'' Where Am I Going?'' attempted to redress this by containing songs such as a "jazzy", orchestrated version of "Sunny" and Jacques Brel's "If You Go Away". Though it was appreciated critically, it did not sell well. In 1968, a similar fate befell ''Dusty... Definitely''. On this album, her choice of material ranged from the rolling "Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone" to the aching emotion of "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today". In that same year, Springfield had a British #4 hit, "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten", written by Clive Westlake. Its flipside, "No Stranger am I", was written by Norma Tanega.

In 1969 Springfield was at her commercial and creative height; she was performing for £1,000 a night on sold-out tours, had her own TV shows, ''It Must Be Dusty'' on ITV, and ''Decidedly Dusty'' on BBC, and released the album ''Dusty in Memphis'' and the single "Son of a Preacher Man".

Dusty in Memphis (1968–1969)

In 1968, Carole King, one of Springfield's songwriters, embarked on a singing career of her own, while the chart-peaking Bacharach-David partnership was foundering. Springfield's status in the music industry was further complicated by the progressive music revolution and the uncomfortable split between what was underground and "fashionable" and what was pop and "unfashionable". In addition, her performing career was becoming limited to the British touring circuit, which at that time largely consisted of working men's clubs and the hotels and cabarets circuit. Hoping to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility, Springfield signed with Atlantic Records, the record label of one of her idols, Aretha Franklin. The Memphis sessions at the American Sound Studio were recorded by the A-team of Atlantic Records: producers Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, and Arif Mardin; the back-up vocal band Sweet Inspirations; and the instrumental band Memphis Cats, led by guitarist Reggie Young and bass guitar player Tommy Cogbill. The producers were the first to recognise that Springfield's natural soul voice should be placed at the forefront, rather than competing with full string arrangements. At first, Springfield felt anxious about being compared with the soul greats who had recorded in the same studios. Springfield later stated that she had never before worked with just a rhythm track, and that it was the first time she had worked with outside producers, as she had self-produced her previous recordings (although she never took credit for it). Due to what Wexler called a "gigantic inferiority complex" and Ms. Springfield's pursuit of perfection, her vocals were recorded later in New York. During the Memphis sessions in November 1968, Dusty suggested that the heads of Atlantic Records should sign the newly-formed band Led Zeppelin. She knew the band's bass player, John Paul Jones. Without having ever seen them and largely on Dusty's advice, the record company signed a $200,000 deal with them. That was the biggest contract of its kind for a new band up until that time.

The album ''Dusty in Memphis'' received excellent reviews on its initial releases both in the U.S. and the U.K. Greil Marcus of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine wrote:"... most of the songs... have a great deal of depth while presenting extremely direct and simple statements about love.... Dusty sings around her material, creating music that's evocative rather than overwhelming... Dusty is not searching—she just shows up, and she, and we, are better for it." The sales numbers failed to match the critical success; the album did not crack the British Top 15 and peaked at #99 on the American Billboard Top 200 with sales of 100,000 copies. However, ''Dusty in Memphis'' earned Springfield a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1970, and by 2001, the album had received the Grammy Hall of Fame award, and was listed among the greatest albums of all time by ''Rolling Stone'' and VH1 artists, ''New Musical Express'' readers, and the Channel 4 viewers polls.

The main song on the album, "Son of a Preacher Man", was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. It reached #10 on the British, American and international music charts. Its best results in continental Europe were #10 on the Austrian charts and #3 on the Swiss charts. The song was the 96th most popular song of 1969 in the United States. The writers of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine placed Springfield's release at #77 among 'The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years' in 1987. The record was placed at #43 of the 'Greatest Singles of All Time' by the writers of ''New Musical Express'' in 2002. In 2004, the song made the ''Rolling Stone'' list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at #240. In 1994 the song was featured in a scene of the film ''Pulp Fiction'', and the soundtrack reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, and at the time, went platinum (100,000 units) in Canada alone. "Son of a Preacher Man" helped the album sell over 2 million copies in the U.S., and it reached #6 on the charts.

Later years (1970–1999)

At the start of the 1970s Springfield was a major star, though her record sales were declining. Her intimate companion Norma Tanega had returned to America after their relationship had become stressful, and she was spending more and more time in America herself. In 1971 her second and final album on Atlantic Records, ''A Brand New Me'' (''From Dusty... With Love'' in the UK), with songs written and produced by Gamble and Huff, was released. The album and related singles only sold moderately, and Springfield was unhappy with both her management and record company. She recorded some songs with producer Jeff Barry in early 1971, which were intended for an album to be released by Atlantic Records; however, her new manager Alan Bernard managed to get her out of the Atlantic contract, and some of the songs were used on the UK-only album ''See All Her Faces'', and the 1999 release ''Dusty In Memphis-Deluxe Edition''. In 1972, Springfield signed a contract with ABC Dunhill Records and ''Cameo'' was released in 1973 to respectable reviews, though poor sales.

In 1974, Springfield recorded the theme song for the TV series ''The Six Million Dollar Man''. Her second ABC Dunhill album was given the working title ''Elements'' and scheduled for release as ''Longing''. The sessions were soon abandoned. Part of the material, including tentative and incomplete vocals, was released on the 2001 compilation ''Beautiful Soul''. She put her career on hold in 1974 and lived reclusively in the United States to avoid scrutiny by British tabloids. During this time she sang background vocals for Anne Murray's album ''Together'' and Elton John's album ''Caribou'', and was heard on the single "The Bitch Is Back". Springfield released two albums on United Artists Records in the late 1970s. The first was 1978's ''It Begins Again'', produced by Roy Thomas Baker. The album charted only briefly in the U.K., though it was well received by critics. The 1979 album, ''Living Without Your Love'', did even worse, not charting at all. In autumn 1979, Springfield played club dates in New York City. In London, she recorded two singles with David Mackay for her British label, Mercury Records (formerly Philips Records). The first was the disco-influenced "Baby Blue", which reached #61 in Britain. The second, "Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees" (released in January 1980), was Springfield's final single for Mercury Records; she had been with them for nearly 20 years. On 3 December 1979, she performed a charity concert for a full house at the Royal Albert Hall, in the presence of Princess Margaret. In 1980 Springfield sang "Bits and Pieces", the theme song from the movie ''The Stunt Man''. She signed an American deal with 20th Century Records that year, which resulted in the single "It Goes Like It Goes", a cover of the Oscar-winning song from the film ''Norma Rae''. Springfield was uncharacteristically proud of her 1982 album ''White Heat'', which was influenced by New Wave music. She tried to revive her career in 1985 by returning to the United Kingdom and signing to Peter Stringfellow's Hippodrome Records label. This resulted in the single "Sometimes Like Butterflies" and an appearance on Terry Wogan's live television show. None of Springfield's recordings from 1971 to 1986 charted on the British or American Top 40s.

In 1987, she accepted an invitation from the Pet Shop Boys to sing with Neil Tennant on the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" and appeared on the promotional video. This record rose to #2 on both the British and American charts. The song appeared on the "Pet Shop Boys" album ''Actually'' and both of their greatest hits collections. Springfield sang lead vocals on the Richard Carpenter song "Something in Your Eyes", recorded for Carpenter's album ''Time''. Released as a single, it became a #12 adult contemporary hit in the United States. Springfield recorded a duet with B.J. Thomas, "As Long as We Got Each Other", which was used as the theme song for the American sitcom ''Growing Pains''.

A new compilation of Springfield's greatest hits, ''The Silver Collection'', was issued in 1988. Springfield returned to the studio with the Pet Shop Boys, who produced her recording of their song "Nothing Has Been Proved", commissioned for the soundtrack of the film ''Scandal''. Released as a single in early 1989, the song gave Springfield a U.K. Top 20 hit. So did its follow-up, the upbeat "In Private", written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys. She capitalised on this by recording the 1990 album ''Reputation'', another U.K. Top 20 success. The writing and production credits for half the album, which included the two recent hit singles, went to the Pet Shop Boys, while the album's other producers included Dan Hartman. Sometime before recording the ''Reputation'' album, Springfield decided to leave California for good, and by 1988 she had returned to Britain. In 1993, she was invited to record a duet with her former 1960s professional rival and friend, Cilla Black. The song "Heart and Soul" was released as a single and appeared on Black's ''Through the Years'' album. Provisionally titled ''Dusty in Nashville'', Springfield started recording the album ''A Very Fine Love'' in 1993 with producer Tom Shapiro. Though originally intended by Shapiro as a country music album, the song selection with Springfield pushed the album into pop music with an occasional country feel. The last song Springfield recorded in the studio was the George and Ira Gershwin song "Someone To Watch Over Me". The song was recorded in London in 1995 for an insurance company television advertisement. It was included on ''Simply Dusty'' (2000), the extensive anthology that Springfield had helped plan, but did not live to see released. Her final live performance was in ''The Christmas with Michael Ball'' in December 1995. She died of cancer on 2 March 1999.

Legacy

Dusty Springfield was one of the best-selling British singers of the 1960s. She was voted the Top British Female Artist by the readers of the ''New Musical Express'' in 1964–1967 and 1969. Of the female singers of the British Invasion, Springfield made one of the biggest impressions on the American market, scoring 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. The music press considers her as an iconic figure of the Swinging Sixties. Quentin Tarantino caused a revival of interest in her music in 1994 by including "Son of a Preacher Man" in the ''Pulp Fiction soundtrack'', which sold over three million copies. In that same year, in the documentary ''Dusty Springfield. Full Circle'', guests of her 1965 ''Sound of Motown'' show credited Springfield's efforts with popularising American soul music in the UK. She was known all over Europe, and performed at the Sanremo Music Festival. She released a number of singles in French, German and Italian.

Musical style

Influenced by American pop music, Dusty Springfield created a distinctive white soul sound. Most responses to her voice emphasise her breathy sensuality. Another powerful feature was the sense of longing, in songs such as "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and "Goin' Back". The uniqueness of Springfield's voice was described by Burt Bacharach when he said: "You could hear just three notes and you knew it was Dusty." Greil Marcus of ''Rolling Stone'' captured Springfield's technique as "a soft, sensual box (voice) that allowed her to combine syllables until they turned into pure cream." She had a finely tuned musical ear and extraordinary control of tone. She sang in a variety of styles, mostly pop, soul, folk, Latin and rock'n'roll. Being able to wrap her voice around difficult material, her repertoire included songs that their writers ordinarily would have offered to black vocalists. She performed as the only white singer on all-black bills on several occasions in the 1960s. Her soul orientation was so convincing that early in her solo career, U.S. listeners who had only heard her music on radio or records sometimes assumed that Springfield was African American. Later, a considerable number of observers have either thought she sounded black and American or made a point of saying she did not. Springfield constantly used her voice to upend commonly held beliefs on the expression of social identity through music. She did this by referencing a number of styles and singers, including Martha Reeves, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Peggy Lee, Astrud Gilberto, Mina, and many others.

Springfield implored her white British backup musicians to capture the spirit of the black American musicians and copy their instrumental playing styles. In the studio, she was a perfectionist. The fact that she could neither read nor write music made it hard for her to communicate with her session musicians. During her extensive vocal sessions, she repeatedly recorded short phrases and single words. She often produced her songs, but did not take credit for doing so.

Icon

Dusty Springfield is a camp icon. In public and on stage Springfield developed a joyful image supported by her peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up that included her much-copied "panda eye" mascara. Springfield borrowed elements of her look from blonde glamour queens of the 1950s, such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve, and pasted them together according to her own taste. Her ultra-glamorous look made her a camp icon and this, combined with her emotive vocal performances, won her a powerful and enduring following in the gay community. Besides the prototypical female drag queen, she was presented in the roles of the 'Great White Lady' of pop and soul and the 'Queen of Mods'.

Awards

Springfield is an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame. She was placed among the 25 female rock artists of all time by the readers of ''Mojo'' magazine (1999), editors of ''Q'' magazine (2002), and a panel of artists by VH1 TV channel (2007). In 2008, Dusty appeared at #35 on the ''Rolling Stone'''s "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Various films and stage musicals continue to commemorate her. Universal Pictures has scheduled a biographical film to be released in 2011 with Kristin Chenoweth playing Springfield.

In the 1960s she topped a number of popularity polls, including ''Melody Maker'''s Best International Vocalist for 1966; in 1965 she was the first British singer to top the ''New Musical Express'' readers' polls for Female Singer, and topped that poll again in 1966, 1967 and 1969 as well as gaining the most votes in the British Singer category from 1964 to 1966.

Her album ''Dusty in Memphis'' has been listed among the greatest albums of all time by ''Rolling Stone'' and VH1 artists, ''New Musical Express'' readers, and the Channel 4 viewers polls, and in 2001, received the Grammy Hall of Fame award.

Personal life

Springfield's biographers and journalists have suggested she had two personalities: shy, quiet, Mary O'Brien—and the public face she created in Dusty Springfield. In the 1970s and early 1980s, during a time when her career had slowed down, she succumbed to alcoholism and drug dependency (which she later battled successfully). She was hospitalised several times for self-harming (by cutting herself) and was diagnosed as suffering from manic depression. During this period of psychological and professional instability, Springfield's involvement in some intimate relationships influenced by addiction resulted in episodes of personal injury. An incident in early 1983 led to her brief hospitalisation at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where she was admitted under her real name and received medical attention from hospital staff who were unaware of who she was. In her early career, much of her odd behaviour was carried out more or less in fun and was treated as such (as, for example, her noted food fights and hurling a box of crockery down a flight of stairs). Springfield had a "wicked" sense of humour and a great love for animals (particularly cats). She was an advocate for several animal-protection groups. She enjoyed maps, and would intentionally get lost and navigate her way out.

The fact that Springfield was never reported to be in a relationship recognised by the public meant that the issue of her being "bisexual" was raised continually throughout her life. In 1970, Springfield told the ''Evening Standard'': By the standards of 1970, that was a very bold statement. Three years later, she explained to the ''Los Angeles Free Press'':

In the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield became involved in several romantic relationships with women in Canada and the US that were not kept secret from the gay and lesbian community. She had a love affair with singer-musician Carole Pope of the rock band Rough Trade.

While recording her final album, ''A Very Fine Love'', in January 1994 in Nashville, Tennessee, Springfield felt ill. When she returned to England a few months later, her physicians diagnosed breast cancer. She received months of radiation treatment, and for a time the cancer was in remission. In 1995, in apparent good health, Springfield set about promoting the album.

Cancer was detected again during the summer of 1996. In spite of vigorous treatments, she succumbed on 2 March 1999. She died in Henley-on-Thames on the day she had been scheduled to go to Buckingham Palace to receive her award of Officer, Order of the British Empire. Before her death, officials of Queen Elizabeth II had given permission for the medal to be collected by Springfield's manager, Vicki Wickham, and it was presented to the singer in the hospital in the company of a small party of friends and relatives. Her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, had been scheduled for 10 days after her death. Her friend Sir Elton John helped induct her into the Hall of Fame, stating:

Springfield's funeral service was attended by hundreds of fans and people from the music business, including Elvis Costello, Lulu and the Pet Shop Boys. It took place in Oxfordshire, at the ancient parish church of St Mary the Virgin, in Henley-on-Thames, the town where Springfield had lived during her last years. A marker dedicated to her memory was placed in the church graveyard. Some of Springfield's ashes were buried at Henley, while the rest were scattered by her brother, Tom Springfield, at the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland.

Discography

1964: ''A Girl Called Dusty''

1965: ''Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty''

1967: ''Where Am I Going?''

1968: ''Dusty... Definitely''

1969: ''Dusty in Memphis''

1970: ''A Brand New Me''

1972: ''See All Her Faces''

1973: ''Cameo''

1974: ''Longing'' (Unreleased)

1978: ''It Begins Again''

1979: ''Living Without Your Love''

1982: ''White Heat''

1990: ''Reputation''

1995: ''A Very Fine Love''

References

;Notes

;Bibliography

Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham, ''Dancing with Demons: The Authorised Biography of Dusty Springfield''. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, August 2000, ISBN 0340766735

Annie J. Randall, ''Dusty! Queen of the Postmods'', Oxford University Press, November 2008, ISBN 9780195329438

Lucy O'Brien, ''Dusty, The Classic Biography'', Sidgwick & Jackson, 1999, ISBN 0283063475

External links

The legacy of Dusty Springfield By Bob Stanley for The Times 3 April 2009

Category:1939 births Category:1999 deaths Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Bisexual musicians Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:British Invasion artists Category:Cancer deaths in England Category:Deaths from breast cancer Category:English female singers Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English pop singers Category:English Roman Catholics Category:English soul singers Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:LGBT people from England Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Ealing Category:People from West Hampstead Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:United Artists Records artists

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name	Sydney Greenstreet
birth name	Sydney Hughes Greenstreet
birth date	December 27, 1879
birth place	Sandwich, Kent, England, UK
death date	January 18, 1954
death place	Hollywood, California, U.S. Interred: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
occupation	Actor
years active	1902–1949
spouse	Dorothy Marie Ogden (1918-?) child: one son }}

Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (27 December 1879 – 18 January 1954) was an English actor. He is best known for his Warner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, which include ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) and ''Casablanca'' (1942).

Biography

Greenstreet was born in Sandwich, Kent, England, the son of a leather merchant, and had seven siblings. He left home at age 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought forced him out of business and back to England. He managed a brewery and, to escape boredom, took acting lessons. His stage debut was as a murderer called Craigen in a 1902 production of a Sherlock Holmes entry by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Marina Theatre in Ramsgate, Kent. He toured England with Ben Greet's Shakespearean company, and in 1905, he made his New York debut. Thereafter he appeared in such plays as a revival of ''As You Like It'' in 1916 with revered actress Margaret Anglin. Greenstreet appeared in numerous plays in England and America, working through most of the 1930s with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at the Theatre Guild. Throughout his stage career, his parts ranged from musical comedy to Shakespeare, and years of such versatile acting on two continents led to many offers to appear in films. He refused until he was 62.

In 1941, Greenstreet began working for Warner Bros. His debut film role was as Kasper Gutman ("The Fat Man") in ''The Maltese Falcon'', which co-starred Peter Lorre as the twitchy Joel Cairo, a pairing that would prove profitable and long-lasting for Warner Bros. The two men appeared in nine films together, including ''Casablanca'' as crooked club owner Signor Ferrari (for which he received a salary of $3,750 per week for seven weeks), as well as ''Background to Danger'' (1943, with George Raft), ''Passage to Marseille'' (1944, reteaming him with ''Casablanca'' stars Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains), ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' (1944, receiving top billing), ''The Conspirators'' (1944, with Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid), ''Hollywood Canteen'' (1944), ''Three Strangers'' (1946, receiving top billing), and ''The Verdict'' (1946, with top billing). The actor played roles in both dramatic movies, such as William Makepeace Thackeray in ''Devotion'' and witty performances on screwball - comedies, for instance Alexander Yardley in ''Christmas in Connecticut''.

After a mere eight years, in 1949, Greenstreet's film career ended with ''Malaya'', in which he was billed third, after Spencer Tracy and James Stewart. In those eight years, he worked with stars ranging from Clark Gable to Ava Gardner to Joan Crawford. Author Tennessee Williams wrote his one-act play ''The Last of My Solid Gold Watches'' with Greenstreet in mind, and dedicated it to him.

In 1950 and 1951, Greenstreet played Nero Wolfe on the NBC radio program ''The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe'', based loosely on the rotund detective genius created by Rex Stout.

Greenstreet suffered from diabetes and Bright's disease, a kidney disorder. Five years after leaving films, Greenstreet died in 1954 due to complications from diabetes. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California in the Utility Columbarium area of the Great Mausoleum, inaccessible to the public. He was survived by his only child, John Ogden Greenstreet, born out of Sydney's marriage to Dorothy Marie Ogden. John Ogden Greenstreet died 4 March 2004 at age 74.

Sydney is the great-uncle of actor Mark Greenstreet.

As a tribute to Greenstreet, the crime boss Hector Lemans in the computer game ''Grim Fandango'' was based on him. Jim Ward voiced the character, and even copied Greenstreet's unmistakable evil laugh. An episode of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' called "The Big Goodbye" has holographic villain called Cyrus Redblock, played by Lawrence Tierney, an apparent play on Greenstreet's character Kasper Gutman (The Fat Man) in ''The Maltese Falcon''.

Greenstreet was partially the inspiration for the Jabba the Hutt character in ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983). The Marvel Comics crime boss The Kingpin was based on Greenstreet's appearance.

Robert Serber stated in his memoirs that as the "Fat Man" atomic bomb was round and fat, he named it after Greenstreet's character of "Kasper Gutman" in ''The Maltese Falcon''.

Filmography

{| class=wikitable width=63% ! width=3%|Year ! width=20%|Title ! width=20%|Role ! width=20%|Director ! width=20%|Awards |- | rowspan=2|1941 | ''The Maltese Falcon'' | Kasper Gutman | John Huston | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor |- | ''They Died with Their Boots On'' | Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott | Raoul Walsh | |- | rowspan=2|1942 | ''Across the Pacific'' | Dr. Lorenz | John Huston | |- | ''Casablanca'' | Signor Ferrari | Michael Curtiz | |- | 1943 | ''Background to Danger'' | Colonel Robinson | Raoul Walsh | |- | 1944 | ''Passage to Marseille'' | Major Duval | Michael Curtiz | |- | rowspan=4|1944 | ''Between Two Worlds'' | Reverend Tim Thompson | Edward A. Blatt | |- | ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' | Mr. Peters | Jean Negulesco | |- | ''The Conspirators'' | Ricardo Quintanilla | Jean Negulesco | |- | ''Hollywood Canteen'' | Himself | Delmer Daves | |- | rowspan=3|1945 | ''Pillow to Post'' | Colonel Michael Otley | Vincent Sherman | |- | ''Conflict'' | Dr. Mark Hamilton | Curtis Bernhardt | |- | ''Christmas in Connecticut'' | Alexander Yardley | Peter Godfrey | |- | rowspan=3|1946 | ''Three Strangers'' | Jerome K. Arbutny | Jean Negalesco | |- | ''Devotion'' | William Makepeace Thackeray | Curtis Bernhardt | |- | ''The Verdict'' | Supt. George Edward Grodman | Don Siegel | |- | rowspan=2|1947 | ''That Way with Women'' | James P. Alden | Frederick De Cordova | |- | ''The Hucksters'' | Evan Llewellyn Evans | Jack Conway | |- | rowspan=3|1948 | ''The Velvet Touch'' | Capt. Danbury | Jack Gage | |- | ''Ruthless'' | Buck Mansfield | Edgar G. Ulmer | |- | ''The Woman in White'' | Count Alessandro Fosco | Peter Godfrey | |- | rowspan=2|1949 | ''Flamingo Road'' | Sheriff Titus Semple | Michael Curtiz | |- | ''Malaya'' | The Dutchman | Richard Thorpe | |}

References

Further reading

-- Contains a full chapter on the professional friendship between Greenstreet and classic film actor Peter Lorre.

External links

Sandwich People & History: Sydney Greenstreet

FreeOTRShows — The Adventures of Nero Wolfe

Literature on Sydney Greenstreet

Category:1879 births Category:1954 deaths Category:British film actors Category:British stage actors Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:People from Sandwich, Kent

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