Basil Sydney
Basil Sydney ( born April 23 1894 in St Osyth, Essex, England; † January 10, 1968 in London) was a British theater and film actor.
Life
15 years old Basil Sydney appeared as an actor on the theaters of England. His breakthrough came in 1915 in a London production of Edward Sheldon's play Romance on the side of Doris Keane, whom he married in 1918 after his military service in World War I and with which he made his feature film debut in an American silent film version of the play in 1920. 1921 were Sydney and Keane in Romance also on Broadway, where Sydney was often seen during the 1920s in Shakespeare plays, including as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, in the title role of Hamlet or as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew.
In 1925 he was divorced from Keane. After 1929, the actress Mary Ellis married, he focused more on his movie career. Over the years he has appeared in nearly 50 movies, including as Claudius in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet ( 1948), as Waldemar Fitzurse in Ivanhoe - The Black Knight ( Ivanhoe, 1952) opposite Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor, as Pontius Pilate in Salome (1953 ) with Rita Hayworth and Stewart Granger or in the star-studded film in 80 days around the world ( around the World in Eighty days, 1956).
After his second marriage to Mary Ellis failed, Sydney joined with actress Joyce Howard down the aisle. Together they had three children. However, even this connection ended with a divorce. Basil Sydney died in 1968 at the age of 73 years in London to pleurisy.