- published: 15 Mar 2010
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Andrew Keir (3 April 1926 – 5 October 1997) was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s. He is most remembered for starring as Professor Bernard Quatermass in Hammer's film version of Quatermass and the Pit (1967). He also originated the role of Thomas Cromwell in Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons in 1960.
His obituary in The Times newspaper described him as possessing "considerable range and undeniable distinction."
Keir was born Andrew Buggy in Shotts, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the son of a coalminer, and had five brothers and one sister. When he was fourteen years old he left school and began working down the coal mine alongside his father. He began acting by chance, when he went to meet a friend at the Miners' Welfare Hall, and one member of the cast of an amateur dramatics production being performed at the Hall had failed to turn up. Keir was persuaded to take the minor role of a farmer in the play, and enjoyed the experience so much that he became a regular in the group's performances.
Frozen streams and vapours gray,
cold and waste the landscape lay...
Then a hale of wind.
Hither-Whirling, Thither-Swilrling,
Spin the fog and spin the mist...
Still we walked on through woods and wintry gray,
home through woods where winter lay - Cold and dark...
(Waiting for a change in the weather.
Waiting for a shift in the air.
Could we get there together, ever?
Waiting for our late, late return)