Basil Sydney
Known for: Acting
Basil Sydney (23 April 1894 – 10 January 1968) was an English stage and screen actor. Sydney made his name in 1915 in the London stage hit Romance by Edward Sheldon, with Broadway star Doris Keane, and he costarred with Keane in the 1920 silent film of the play. The couple married in 1918, and when Keane revived Romance in New York City in 1921, Sydney made his Broadway debut in the parts. He stayed in New York for over a decade playing classical roles such as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (1922), Richard Dudgeon in The Devil's Disciple (1923), the title role in Hamlet (1923), Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part I (1926), and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew (1927).[citation needed] In 1937 he starred in the murder mystery Blondie White in the West End. He made over 50 screen appearances, most memorably as Claudius in Laurence Olivier's 1948 film of Hamlet. He also appeared in classic films like Treasure Island (1950), Ivanhoe (1952), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), but the focus of his career was the stage on both sides of the Atlantic.
Filmography
Thursday Theatre
Sir Norman Tullis
1964
Series
No Hiding Place
1959
Film
Around the World in 80 Days
Reform Club Member
1956
Drama 61-67
Mourtzinos
1961
Film
Treasure Island
Captain Smollett
1950
Film
Ivanhoe
Waldemar Fitzurse
1952
Silent Evidence
1962
Film
Hamlet
Claudius - The King
1948
Film
The Dam Busters
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris G.C.B., O.B.E., A.F.C.
1955
Film
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
Emperor of Lilliput
1960
Film
Caesar and Cleopatra
Rufio
1945
Film
The Devil's Disciple
Lawyer Hawkins
1959
Film
John Paul Jones
Sir William Young
1959
Film
Salome
Pontius Pilate
1953
Film
Hell Below Zero
Bland
1954
Series
Armchair Theatre
Pastor Manders
1956
Film
The Magic Box
William Fox-Talbot
1952
Film
The Hands of Orlac
Maurice Seidelman
1960
Film
Island in the Sun
Julian Fleury
1957
Film
Romance
1920
Film
Star of India
King Louis XIV
1954
Film
Jassy
Nick Helmar
1947
Film
The Man Within
Sir Henry Merriman
1947
Film
Went the Day Well?
Major Hammond / Kommandant Orlter
1942
Film
The Amateur Gentleman
Louis Chichester
1936
Film
Sea Wife
Bulldog
1957
Film
Meet Me at Dawn
Georges Vermorel
1947
Film
Talk of the Devil
1936
Film
The Black Sheep of Whitehall
Costello
1942
Film
The Riverside Murder
Inspector Philip Winton
1935
Film
Ships with Wings
Capt. Fairfax
1941
Film
A Story of David
King Saul
1960
Film
The Next of Kin
Naval captain
1942
Film
Accused
Eugene Roget
1936
Film
The Angel with the Trumpet
Francis Alt
1950
Film
Crime Over London
'Joker' Finnigan
1936
Film
Red Hot Romance
Rowland Stone
1922
Film
The Four Just Men
Frank Snell
1939
Film
The Farmer's Wife
Samuel Sweetland
1941
Film
Dirty Work
Hugh Stafford
1934
Three's Company
Dr. Graham
1953
Film
A Question of Adultery
Sir John Loring
1958
Film
The Tunnel
Mostyn
1935
Film
Simba
Mr Crawford
1955
Film
The Midshipmaid
Cmdr. Fosberry
1932
Film
Mayerling
The Emperor Franz Joseph
1957
Film
Spring Meeting
James
1941
Film
Rhodes of Africa
Dr. Jim Jameson
1936
Bits of Our Aircraft Are Missing
(uncredited)
1940
Film
The Third Clue
Reinhardt Conway
1934
Blind Man's Bluff
Dr. Peter Fairfax
1936