Keith David
David in June 2010
Born	Keith David Williams (1956-06-04) June 4, 1956 (age 56) Harlem, New York, U.S.
Education	Juilliard (BFA 1979)
Occupation	actor, singer
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Dionne Lea Williams (actress/singer)

Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956), better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, voice actor, and singer. He is perhaps most known for his live-action roles in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop and Men at Work. He has also had memorable roles in numerous cult favorites, including John Carpenter's films The Thing (as Childs) and They Live (as Armitage), the Riddick films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick (as the Imam), the General in Armageddon, King in Oliver Stone's Platoon, and Big Tim in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream.

David is also well known for his voice-over career, primarily his Emmy winning work as the narrator of numerous Ken Burns films. Characters that he has voiced include Goliath on the Disney series Gargoyles, Spawn/Al Simmons on Todd McFarlane's "Spawn: The Animated Series" which aired on HBO, the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3, David Anderson in the Mass Effect series, the Decepticon Barricade in Transformers: The Game, Julius Little in Saints Row and Saints Row 2, Sgt. Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, the Flame King in Adventure Time, and Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

Early life and education[link]

David was born in Harlem, New York City, and raised in Corona, Queens, New York, the son of Delores (née Dickenson) and Lester Williams.^[1] He first knew he was going to become an actor after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and went on to study at Manhattan's School of Performing Arts. He attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division (1975-1979, Group 8)^[2] where he graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 1979.^[3]

Film and television acting[link]

In 1980–81, David honed his craft touring the country with John Houseman's The Acting Company in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. Less than two years later he went on to star as Childs, opposite Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's The Thing, and his lengthy on-screen career had begun. In the '80s run of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he portrayed Keith the Southwood Carpenter in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments. He also played Keith, the game coin collector in an episode where Rogers and a small child learn to play the arcade game Donkey Kong.

He went on to appear in films such as Oliver Stone's Platoon, They Live (reuniting with The Thing director, John Carpenter), Road House, Men at Work, Marked for Death, and Stars and Bars. He played the character of Kirby, the one legged war veteran, in the acclaimed 1995 Hughes Brothers film Dead Presidents, and he appeared in the 1995 Spike Lee's film Clockers, and followed this up with roles in big films such as Volcano, Armageddon, There's Something About Mary, Pitch Black, Barbershop, Agent Cody Banks, The Chronicles of Riddick, Crash, ATL, Delta Farce, and First Sunday. He also portrayed "Father" in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. At the same time he has appeared in numerous independent films including the critically acclaimed Requiem for a Dream, playing the role of Big Tim. He has also appeared extensively in TV productions since the 1980s and as a regular character Lieutenant Williams on the short-lived TV series The Job. He was a regular on another shoot made for ABC entitled The Big House in 2004. David played the male lead role in Deon Taylor's slasher flick Chain Letter.^[4]

Recently, he played Max Malini on the NBC TV Show The Cape. On April 18, 2011, Keith appeared in the 21st episode of season one of Hawaii Five-0 as criminal tycoon Jimmy Cannon.

Voice acting[link]

Although recognized for his roles in film and television, he remains in great demand for vocal work because of his deep, resonant voice. He is known most notably as the voice behind Goliath from Gargoyles and the title character in the Spawn animated series. In the English dub of Princess Mononoke, David played the narrator and Okkoto. He also played the small roll of Mama in the English dub of 3x3 Eyes. Additionally, he provided the voice for the character Decker in the role-playing video game Fallout and the voice for the character Vhailor in Planescape: Torment. David provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game Halo 2, released in 2004; later, he reprised that role in the Xbox 360 follow-up, Halo 3. He played the role of Captain David Anderson in BioWare's Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3. David also did voice work in the Xbox 360 title Saint's Row playing gang leader Julius, who also appeared at the end of Saints Row 2. David can be heard on the intro of several Ice Cube projects, including Westside Connection's 2003 release, Terrorist Threats, Cube's 2008 solo album Raw Footage, Cube's 2010 solo album I Am The West, and he narrated the documentary Beef II, which also featured Ice Cube. The two have worked together in live action films like Barbershop and First Sunday.

Keith David also provides the voice for the UPS "What Can Brown Do for You" commercials. His voice can be heard in the Justice League cartoons. He has also done voice work for early "Adult Swim" commercials for "Inuyasha".^[5]

He has worked with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns several times, narrating Burns's Jazz, Mark Twain, The War, and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. David won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work in the latter two films. He performs the narration duties in the BBC documentary, World War II: Behind Closed Doors.^[6] The 2005 History Channel documentary Crusades: Crescent & the Cross focusing on the medieval Crusades was also narrated by him. David parodied his documentary work by narrating the 2012 episode of the NBC sitcom Community "Pillows and Blankets", a mockumentary revolving around a pillow fight between rival blanket forts.

David is popular in advertising, particularly in United States Navy recruitment commercials. He has done voice-over work for many other documentaries including several for National Geographic and the documentary Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked for the History Channel. He replaced Paul Winfield as narrator for the popular A&E show City Confidential. taking over after Winfield's death in 2004. He voiced the trailer for the movie Primeval, which was released in the U.S. on January 12, 2007.

Additionally, David provided the voice of police detective Alex Cross for the audiobook versions of three novels by James Patterson: Cat and Mouse (1997), Pop Goes the Weasel (1999), and Roses are Red (2000).

Other voice roles include Bebe Proud Clone from The Proud Family Movie, Atlas from the Teen Titans animated series, the lone renegade male gorilla "Tublat" in The Legend of Tarzan, and the Decepticon Barricade in Transformers: The Game,

He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's "Hip-Hop Literacy" campaign. David has done voiceovers for promos on the Versus Network, particularly for college football. He also recorded the narration for the opening of the World Wrestling Federation's (now Entertainment) WrestleMania 2000 pay-per-view.

Recently, David did the voices of the Black Cat in Coraline, Sgt. Foley in Modern Warfare 2, and Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog. David voiced Tombstone for only one episode from The Spectacular Spider-Man, "Survival of the Fittest".

On Sunday, May 25, 2008, David narrated Kansas City's Celebration at the Station, a Memorial Day service held annually at the World War I Memorial across from Union Station. During the ceremony, he announced the attendance of Frank W. Buckles, the last living veteran of World War I.

He was also the voice of Frederick Douglass in the third episode of the PBS documentary "God in America: How Religious Liberty Shaped America" in 2010.

On April 1, 2012, David performed the voiceover for the intro to WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII.

Stage acting[link]

In 1992, David received a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his performance in Jelly's Last Jam. David received raves for his Shakespeare work on stage in Central Park, New York City.

In 1995, David played the lead as Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton in August Wilson's Seven Guitars on Broadway.

In May 2006, he appeared in the musical Hot Feet on Broadway in New York.

Filmography[link]

Films and Television[link]

• Disco Godfather (1979) (uncredited)
• The Thing (1982)
• Terror in the Aisles (1984)
• Platoon (1986)
• Hot Pursuit (1987)
• Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)
• Off Limits (1988)
• Stars and Bars (1988)
• Bird (1988)
• They Live (1988)
• Road House (1989)
• Always (1989)
• Men at Work (1990)
• Marked for Death (1990)
• Final Analysis (1992)
• Article 99 (1992)
• Nails (1992)
• The Last Outlaw (1993)
• There Are No Children Here (1993)
• Reality Bites (1994)
• The Puppet Masters (1994)
• Clockers (1995)
• Dead Presidents (1995)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• Blue in the Face (1995)
• Loose Women (1996) (cameo)
• The Grave (1996)
• Eye for an Eye (1996)
• Larger Than Life (1996)
• Never Met Picasso (1996)
• Johns (1996)
• Vanishing Point (1997)
• Flipping (1997)
• Volcano (1997)
• Executive Target (1997)
• Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest (1997)
• Don King: Only in America (1997)
• The Tiger Woods Story (1998)
• Armageddon (1998)
• There's Something About Mary (1998)
• A.T.F. (1999)
• Dark Summer (a.k.a. Innocents) (2000)
• Pitch Black (2000)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)
• Where the Heart Is (2000)
• The Replacements (2000)
• Semper Fi (2001)
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
• Novocaine (2001)
• Pretty When You Cry (2001)
• 29 Palms (2002)
• Barbershop (2002)
• Agent Cody Banks (2003)
• Head of State (2003)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003)
• Hollywood Homicide (2003)
• Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
• The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
• Crash (2004)
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
• Transporter 2 (2005)
• Dirty (2005)
• The Oh in Ohio (2006)
• Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil (2006)
• ATL (2006)
• If I Had Known I Was a Genius (2007)
• Delta Farce (2007)
• The Last Sentinel (2007)
• Beautiful Loser (2008)
• First Sunday (2008)
• Superhero Movie (2008)
• Chasing 3000 (2008)
• My Mom's New Boyfriend (2008)
• The Fifth Commandment (2008)
• No Bad Days (2008)
• The Sensei (2008)
• Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (2009)
• Against the Dark (2009)
• Charlie Valentine (2009)
• Don McKay (2009)
• Coraline (2009)
• The Butcher (2009)
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)
• Gamer (2009)
• All About Steve (2009)
• Pastor Brown (2010)
• Death at a Funeral (2010)
• Lottery Ticket (2010)
• Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming (2010)
• Chain Letter (2010)
• The Cape (2010)
• Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
• Meet Monica Velour (2010)
• Spork (2010)
• The Book of Matthew (2011)
• The Inheritance (2011)
• Cloud Atlas (2012)
• Smiley (2012)

Voice work[link]

• Ringing Bell (1978-1983) - Narrator (English version)
• Christmas in Tattertown (1988) - Saxophone / Additional Voices
• 3x3 Eyes (1991)
• Aladdin (1994) Minos (ep. Seems Like Old Crimes)
• Fantastic Four (1995) - Black Panther
• Gargoyles (1994–1997) - Goliath, Thailog, Officer Morgan
• Hercules (1997) - Apollo
• Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997) - Spawn/Al Simmons
• Fallout (1997) - Decker
• Hercules: The Animated Series (1998) - Apollo
• Planescape: Torment (1999) - Vhailor
• Princess Mononoke (1999) - Okkoto/Okkotonushi
• WrestleMania 2000 (2000) - Opening Video Voiceover
• The Legend of Tarzan (2001) - Tublat
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) - Council Member #1
• Jazz (2001) - Narrator
• House of Mouse (2001–2002) - Mufasa
• Lords of EverQuest (2003) - Lord Vekk
• Justice League (2003) - Despero
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003) - Agent Mosely
• Kaena: The Prophecy (2003) - Voxem
• Westside Connection:Terrorist Threats (intro) (2003) - feat. in "A Threat to the World", "Potential Victims", "Gangsta Nation"
• Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites (2003)
• Beef II (2004) - Narrator
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004) - Imam
• Teen Titans (2004) - Atlas (ep. "Only Human")
• Halo 2 (2004) - the Arbiter
• City Confidential (2004) - Narrator
• The Proud Family Movie (2005) - Bebe Proud Clone
• Saints Row (2006) - Julius
• Transformers: The Game (2007) - Barricade
• Halo 3 (2007) - the Arbiter
• Mass Effect (2007) - David Anderson
• The War (2007) - Narrator
• Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) - The Centre
• The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008) - Tombstone (1st Time)
• Ice Cube: Raw Footage (intro) (2008) - feat. in "What Is a Pyroclastic Flow?", "Hood Mentality", "Jack N the Box", "Get Use to It", "Take Me Away"
• Saints Row 2 (2008) - Julius
• Coraline (2009) - The cat
• World War II: Behind Closed Doors (2009) - Narrator
• The Princess and the Frog (2009) - Dr. Facilier
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) - Sergeant Foley
• Dissidia Final Fantasy (2009) - Chaos
• Mass Effect 2 (2010) - David Anderson
• Ken Burns' Baseball: The Tenth Inning (2010) - Narrator
• Ice Cube: I Am the West (2010) - feat. in "Too West Coast"
• Episode 3 (2010) - Frederick Douglass
• Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (2011) - Chaos
• WWE The True Story of WrestleMania (2011) - Narrator
• Allen Gregory (2011) - Carl Trent
• Adventure Time (2012) - Flame King
• Mass Effect 3 (2012) - David Anderson
• Young Justice (2012) - Despero
• WWE WrestleMania XXVIII (2012) - Narrator^[7]
• Community (2012) - Narrator

Further reading[link]

• Voisin, Scott. Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59393-342-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Keith David at the Internet Movie Database
• Keith David at the Internet Broadway Database