Keir Dullea | |
---|---|
Born | Cleveland, Ohio, United States |
May 30, 1936
Occupation | Actor |
Spouse | Margot Bennett (m. 1960-1968) Susan Lessons (m. 1969-1970) Susie Fuller (m. 1972-1998) Mia Dillon (m. 1999-present) |
Keir Dullea ( /ˈkɪər duːˈleɪ/; born May 30, 1936) is an American actor best known for the character of astronaut David Bowman, whom he portrayed in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey[1] and in 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact.[2] He has also played roles in films including Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) and Black Christmas (1974).[3]
Contents |
Life
Dullea was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Margaret (née Ruttan) and Robert Dullea.[4] Dullea was raised in the Greenwich Village section of New York City where his parents ran a bookstore. He graduated from George School in Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school he attended both Rutgers University and San Francisco State University before deciding to pursue acting.[5]
Dullea has been married four times. His first marriage was to stage and film actress Margot Bennett in 1960. Their marriage lasted until 1968. He was married the following year to Susan Lessons; however their marriage only lasted a year before they divorced in 1970. In 1972, Dullea married a third time to Susie Fuller, who had two daughters from a previous relationship. The couple had met during the London run of Butterflies Are Free. After their marriage, Dullea, Fuller and her children lived in London for several years. The marriage ended with her death in 1998. Dullea married the actress Mia Dillon in 1999. They split their time between an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Connecticut.
Career
Early career
Dullea made his film debut in 1961's Hoodlum Priest,[6] in which he played a juvenile delinquent, though he had an earlier role as the German pilot in a 1960 television adaptation of Mrs. Miniver starring Maureen O'Hara. In 1962, he starred with Janet Margolin in David and Lisa, a film based on the book by Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D.,a psychiatrist who treated the two adolescent schizophrenics portrayed in the film. He played a number of emotionally disturbed youths in films such as the first screen adaptation of James Jones' The Thin Red Line (1964), and Bunny Lake is Missing (1965), which co-starred Dullea with Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, and Noël Coward. Although they shared no scenes together in the film, when Coward initially met Dullea on the set, he uttered the often quoted line, 'Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow.'
Dullea also appeared on television in shows such as Naked City, a police drama about New York City, The Eleventh Hour, a medical drama about psychiatry, and Channing, a drama about life on a college campus starring Jason Evers and Henry Jones. In 1965 he guest-starred as Lieutenant Kurt Muller in episode 20, "To Heinie, With Love", of 12 O-Clock High (TV series). He appeared with John Huston in the movie De Sade (1969), playing the title role (the Marquis de Sade). He also appeared with Anne Heywood and Sandy Dennis in the 1967 film The Fox.
Later career
Since the great success of 2001, Dullea has had difficulty reproducing a similar success on film, although he was a regular vocal performer on CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which ran from 1974 to 1982. Dullea has also had a long and successful career on stage in New York City and in regional theaters. Dullea's other notable roles include Devon in the short-lived 1973 science fiction series The Starlost, Clayton Anderson Jr. in Madame X, Paul Renfield in The Fox, and Thomas Grambell in Brave New World (1981). In 2000, he appeared in The Audrey Hepburn Story as Hepburn's father Joseph. He had a major role in the 1974 cult classic Black Christmas.
In 2006, he had a role as a US Senator and a "major influence and mentor" to Matt Damon's character, in Robert De Niro's film The Good Shepherd.
Stage
Dullea has stated that despite being more recognized for his film work, he prefers the stage.[5] His first Broadway appearance was in 1967 in Dr. Cook's Garden with Burl Ives. Two years later he starred in the 1969 hit Broadway comedy, Butterflies Are Free alongside Blythe Danner. The play detailed a blind youth's desire to break free from his overprotective mother and pursue love with a free spirited girl. In the play, he introduced the title song written by Stephen Schwartz (later recording the tune on an album for Platypus Records). In 1974, he played Brick Pollitt in the Tennessee Williams classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production featured the now definitive rewrite of the play.[7] He also starred in the 1975 Broadway play, P. S. Your Cat Is Dead!. In 1983, he co-founded the Theater Artists Workshop of Westport alongside his wife Susie Fuller.[5]
In July 1984, Dullea was guest artist aboard the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2. On July 11, he performed Anton Chekov's one-act play "The Harmfulness of Tobacco" in the QE2 Theatre.
In December, 2004, for their annual birthday celebration to "The Master", The Noel Coward Society invited Dullea as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 105th birthday of Sir Noel. Around the same time, Sony Home Video released Bunny Lake Is Missing for the first time on DVD.
In April 2010, Dullea performed the role of Tom Garrison in the off-Broadway production of the Robert Anderson play, I Never Sang For My Father co-starring Oscar-nominated actress Marsha Mason (as Margaret Garrison) and film and stage actor Matt Servitto (as Gene Garrison).
Filmography
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1961 | Hoodlum Priest | Billy Lee Jackson | |
1962 | David and Lisa | David Clemens | |
1964 | Le Ore Nude | Aldo | |
Mail Order Bride | Lee Carey | ||
The Thin Red Line | Pvt. Doll | ||
1965 | Bunny Lake Is Missing | Stephen Lake | |
1966 | Madame X | Clayton Anderson Jr. | |
1967 | The Fox | Paul Grenfel | |
1968 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Commander Dave Bowman | |
1969 | De Sade | Louis Alphonse Donatien, Marquis de Sade | |
1972 | Devil in the Brain | Oscar Minno | |
Pope Joan | Dr. Stevens | Uncredited Role | |
1973 | Paperback Hero | Rick Dylan | |
1974 | Paul and Michelle | Garry | |
Black Christmas | Peter Smythe | ||
1977 | Three Dangerous Ladies | David | Segment: The Mannikin |
Welcome to Blood City | Lewis | ||
Full Circle | Magnus Lofting | ||
1978 | Leopard in the Snow | Dominic Lyall | |
1983 | Brainwaves | Julian Bedford | |
1984 | Blind Date | Dr. Steiger | |
The Next One | Glenn/The Next One | ||
2010 | Dr. David Bowman | ||
1992 | Oh, What a Night | Thorvald | Released Direct-to-Video |
2000 | The Divine Inspiration | Short film | |
2003 | Three Days of Rain | ||
Alien Hunter | Secretary Bayer | ||
2006 | The Day My Towers Fell | Harry Gold | Short film |
A Lonely Sky | Older Man | Short film | |
The Good Shepherd | Senator John Russell, Sr. | ||
2008 | The Accidental Husband | Karl Bollenbecker | |
2009 | Fortune | Jonah Pryce | awaiting release |
All Me, All theTime | Jake | post-production |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1960 | Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse | Tim Dryden | Episode: Cry Ruin |
Mrs. Miniver | German Pilot | CBS TV-Movie | |
1961 | Route 66 | Paul | Episode: Black November |
Hallmark Hall of Fame | Elisha | Episode: Give Us Barabbas! | |
Play of the Week | Episode: All Summer Long | ||
The New Breed | Frank | Episode: Prime Target | |
1961, 1962, 1963 | The United States Steel Hour | Donald 'Don' McCabe |
Episode: The Big Splash Episode: The Golden Thirty Episode: Far from the Shade Tree Episode: The Young Avengers |
Alcoa Premiere | Maples Linc Ketterman Tommy Miller Eric Green |
Episode: People Need People Episode: The Tiger Episode:Ordeal in Darkness Episode: The Broken Year |
|
1961, 1963 | Naked City | Joey Ross Les Gerard |
Episode: Murder Is a Face I Know Episode: The Apple Falls Not Far from the Tree |
1962 | Checkmate | Eddie Phillips | Episode: A Very Rough Sketch |
Cain's Hundred | Alec Benden | Episode: A Creature Lurks in Ambush | |
Kraft Mystery Theater | Episode: Cry Ruin | ||
The DuPont Show of the Week | Lieutenant | Episode: The Outpost | |
The Eleventh Hour | Jerry Bullock | Episode: Cry a Little for Mary Too | |
1963 | Empire | Skip Wade | Episode: Stopover on the Way to the Moon |
Bonanza | Bob Jolley | Episode: Elegy for a Hangman | |
Going My Way | Dennis Brady | Episode: One Small Unhappy Family | |
1964 | Channing | Episode: The Trouble with Girls | |
The Wednesday Play | Episode: Pale Horse, Pale Rider | ||
1965 | Twelve O'Clock High | Lt. Muller | Episode: To Heine - With Love |
1970 | Black Water Gold | Christofer Perdeger | ABC TV-Movie |
1971 | Montserrat | Montserrat | PBS TV-Movie |
1972 | McMillan & Wife | Buzz Simms | Episode: Blues for Sally M |
1973–1974 | The Starlost | Devon | |
1975 | Switch | Anthony Kirk | Episode: The James Caan Con |
1976 | Law and Order | Johnny Morrison | NBC TV-Movie |
1978 | Because He's My Friend | Eric | ABC TV-Movie |
1979 | The Legend of the Golden Gun | General Custer | NBC TV-Movie |
1980 | Brave New World | Thomas Grambell | NBC TV-Movie |
The Hostage Tower | Mr. Smith | CBS TV-Movie | |
1981 | No Place to Hide | Cliff Letterman | CBS TV-Movie |
1983 | Loving Friends and Perfect Couples | ||
1986 | Guiding Light | Dr. Mark Jarrett | |
1989 | Murder, She Wrote | Jason Reynard | Episode: Test of Wills |
2000 | The Audrey Hepburn Story | Joseph Hepburn | ABC TV-Movie |
Songs in Ordinary Time | Sam Fermoyle | CBS TV-Movie | |
2001 | Witchblade | Dr. Immo | Episode: Convergence |
2001, 2006 | Law & Order | Paul Lyman Andrew Keener |
Episode: Hubris Episode: Cost of Capital |
2002 | Ed | Robert Stanley | Episode: Nice Guys Finish Last |
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Judge Walt Thornburg | Episode: Justice | |
2009 | Castle | Jonathan Tisdale | Episode: Flowers for Your Grave |
Awards and nominations
- 1964: Nominated, "Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles" - David and Lisa
- 1964: Won, "Most Promising Male Newcomer"
Laurel Awards
- 1963: Nominated, "Top New Male Personality"
San Francisco International Film Festival
- 1962: Won, "Best Actor" - David and Lisa
Further reading
- Paul, Louis (2008). "Keir Dullea". Tales From the Cult Film Trenches; Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 68–74. ISBN 978-0-7864-2994-3.
References
- ^ New York Times
- ^ New York Times
- ^ Profile at The New York Times
- ^ "Keir Dullea Biography (1936-)". http://www.filmreference.com/. http://www.filmreference.com/film/55/Keir-Dullea.html. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
- ^ a b c Nash, Margo (2007-04-08). "After 50 Years in Acting, Fully Relaxed in His Craft". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/08ctpeople.html. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
- ^ New York Times
- ^ http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800011074/bio