Sydney Greenstreet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (born December 27, 1879 in Sandwich , England , † January 18, 1954 in Hollywood , California ) was a British actor . He became famous for his roles alongside Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre in The Falcon's Trail and Casablanca .

Life

Early life and theater career

Sydney Greenstreet was born in England as one of seven children of leather merchant John Jack Greenstreet and his wife Ann. As a young man he tried his hand at growing tea in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), but a persistent drought destroyed his business. He returned to England, ran a brewery and took acting classes out of boredom. In 1902 he made his stage debut in a Sherlock Holmes performance in the role of murderer. Over the next few years he traveled through England with Ben Greet's Shakespeare troupe, among others. After he first played in The Merchant of Venice on Broadway in 1907 , he appeared there in around two dozen pieces by 1940. Although he received many film offers, Greenstreet initially turned them all down.

Film career

After Greenstreet had spent most of his career as a commuting theater actor between England and the United States, he made a spectacular film debut in 1941 at the age of 62: In John Huston's crime classic The Trail of the Falcon , he played alongside Humphrey Bogart , Mary Astor and Peter Lorre played the central role of the mysterious criminal Kasper Gutman and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In the following years, the white-haired, 150-pound character actor appeared in numerous film noirs and played shady men who pulled the strings in the background. Greenstreet made nine films with Peter Lorre, who functioned as his perfect counterpart in terms of both body and character. In addition to the massive, stoic-looking Greenstreet, the skinny Lorre usually played nervous, devious types who could not be trusted.

Both actors were seen together in 1942 in the cult film Casablanca , where Greenstreet played one of his relatively more likeable roles as Signor Ferrari, the manager of the restaurant "Blue Parrot". In some films in the mid-1940s, Greenstreet could even be seen as the leading actor, which was rather unusual for an actor of his age and appearance and underlined his great fame during the 1940s. After 23 films in eight years, the Warner Bros. contracted Greenstreet retired from the acting business in 1949. He died in 1954 at the age of 74 from complications from his diabetes. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. He was married to his wife Dorothy Marie Odgen from 1918 until his death and they had a son.

Later, Greenstreet served, among other things, partly as an inspiration for Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Sydney Greenstreet  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data from Sydney Greenstreet in: The New York Times
  2. ↑ Book with reference to John Jack Greenstreet
  3. ↑ http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=67672
personal data
SURNAME Greenstreet, Sydney
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greenstreet, Sydney Hughes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Sandwich , England
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1954
Place of death Hollywood , California