Basil Sydney
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.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.308 |
Birthday | 1894-04-23 |
Place of Birth | Essex, England, UK |
Also Known As |
1942
Went the Day Well?
7.2/66
The quiet village of Bramley End is taken over by German troops posing as Royal Engineers. Their task is to disrupt England's radar network in prepara...
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Went the Day Well?
1950
Treasure Island
6.5/204
Enchanted by the idea of locating treasure buried by Captain Flint, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey and Jim Hawkins charter a sailing voyage to a Caribb...
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Treasure Island
1945
Caesar and Cleopatra
6.1/56
The aging Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen. Adapted by George Bernard Shaw from his own play.
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Caesar and Cleopatra
1952
Ivanhoe
6.781/178
Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of Kin...
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Ivanhoe
1953
Salome
5.8/42
In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but H...
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Salome
1947
Meet Me at Dawn
7/1
A young man makes his living in Paris in 1900 by fighting duels on behalf of other parties. He is hired to injure a leading politician and starts to g...
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Meet Me at Dawn
1922
Red Hot Romance
0/0
After his father's death, Roland Stone learns that his will stipulates that he must go to the South American country of Bunkonia and sell life insuran...
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Red Hot Romance
1960
The Hands of Orlac
4.3/7
Famed concert pianist Stephen Orlac survives a plane crash, but his hands are permanently destroyed. Helpful surgeon Volcheff grafts a pair of new han...
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The Hands of Orlac
1955
Simba
6.5/13
A European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-...
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Simba
1940
Bits of Our Aircraft are Missing
6/1
British Air Ministry short film highlighting the need for the public to stay clear of aircraft wreckage during World War II.
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Bits of Our Aircraft are Missing
1957
Sea Wife
5.4/12
In 1942, a cargo ship jammed with British evacuees from Singapore is sunk by a Japanese sub. A small lifeboat carries a beautiful woman, an army offic...
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Sea Wife
1954
Hell Below Zero
6/2
Duncan Craig signs on a whaling ship, partly because his own business deal has fallen through, partly to help Judie Nordhall find her father. Rumor ha...
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Hell Below Zero
1936
Accused
0/0
Tony and his dance partner/wife Gaby headline a Paris musical. Tony becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Yvette. She is later...
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Accused
1942
The Black Sheep of Whitehall
7.2/4
A professor teaching at a correspondence school discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and Sout...
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The Black Sheep of Whitehall
1960
A Story of David
4.2/4
Directed by Bob McNaught. King Saul of Israel is jealous of the fame and adoration of David, who long ago slew Goliath and brought victory to Saul's a...
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A Story of David
1957
Mayerling
5.5/6
Mayerling is the name of a notorious Austrian village linked to a romantic tragedy. At a royal hunting lodge there, in 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf--desp...
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Mayerling
1935
The Riverside Murder
5/9
This is a great rainy day/night murder mystery in a mansion that all whodunit lovers will appreciate. A woman reporter helps an inspector solve the d...
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The Riverside Murder
1947
Jassy
5.4/10
In 19th century England, Jassy is a young Gypsy girl blessed with the gift of second sight. Pursued by superstitious villagers, she is rescued by the...
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Jassy
1950
The Angel with the Trumpet
6.3/3
Sad tale of a woman who marries the man her family wishes her to wed, not Wooland, the man she truly loves. Years after her lover's suicide, Herlie jo...
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The Angel with the Trumpet
1934
Dirty Work
0/0
Staff in a jewellery store hatch a plan to catch a thief.
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Dirty Work
1955
The Dam Busters
6.9/143
The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 S...
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The Dam Busters
1960
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
6.6/73
Doctor Gulliver is poor, so nothing - not even his charming fiancée Elisabeth - keeps him in the town he lives. He signs on to a ship to India, but in...
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The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
1936
The Amateur Gentleman
4/1
A former boxing champion, now an innkeeper, is accused of stealing a watch from a party of guests at his inn, who happen to be members of English roya...
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The Amateur Gentleman
1936
Blind Man's Bluff
0/0
A formerly blind scientist continues to feign his condition in order to thwart his philandering wife's romantic plans.
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Blind Man's Bluff
1932
The Midshipmaid
0/0
Sir Percy Newbiggin visits the fleet to find ways to economize Naval expenditures. Daughter Celia tags along and organizes a morale-boosting show util...
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The Midshipmaid
1939
The Four Just Men
6.2/4
The Four Men of the title are British WWI veterans who decide to work secretly against enemies of the country. They aren't above a bit of murder or sa...
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The Four Just Men
1935
The Tunnel
5.3/22
An engineer leads the building of a trans-Atlantic tunnel linking Britain and the United States.
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The Tunnel
1948
Hamlet
7.397/263
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Sha...
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Hamlet
1953
Three's Company
0/0
Compilation of 3 episodes of the TV series "Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents ...". "The Surgeon", "Take A Number" and "The Scream".
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Three's Company
1934
The Third Clue
3/2
Set in an Old Dark House, a man is murdered in his study. With his dying breath, he tells his brother of two clues to finding hidden Eastern Indian je...
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The Third Clue
1936
Rhodes of Africa
6/1
Rhodes of Africa is a 1936 British biographical film charting the life of Cecil Rhodes. It was directed by Berthold Viertel and starred Walter Huston,...
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Rhodes of Africa
1941
Spring Meeting
4.8/5
Tiny Fox-Collier and her son, Tony, are broke. A cheery and handsome young man about town, Tony knows he can rely on his mother for a brainwave to sav...
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Spring Meeting
1941
Ships with Wings
4/2
Before the war, a Fleet Air Arm pilot is dismissed for causing the death of a colleague. Working for a small Greek airline when the Germans invade Gre...
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Ships with Wings
1942
The Next of Kin
5/6
Lots of slogans such as "Be like Dad, Keep Mum" and "Keep it under your Hat" are visible on the walls in various scenes to reinforce the plot of this...
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The Next of Kin
1941
The Farmer's Wife
6/1
Eden Philpotts' "provincial" comic novel and play The Farmer's Wife was first filmed in the silent era by Alfred Hitchcock. The 1940 talkie version wa...
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The Farmer's Wife
1956
Around the World in Eighty Days
6.6/521
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a ve...
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Around the World in Eighty Days
1954
Star of India
4.3/4
Squire Pierre St. Laurent returns from wars in India to 17th-century provincial France to find his estate confiscated by governor Narbonne, for back t...
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Star of India
1952
The Magic Box
6.3/20
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to i...
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The Magic Box
1936
Crime Over London
6/1
With the police on their tail, a gang of New York criminals decided to relocate to London where they plan a major robbery on a department store.
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Crime Over London
1959
The Devil's Disciple
6.5/33
In a small New England town during the American War of Independence, Dick Dudgeon, a revolutionary American Puritan, is mistaken for local minister Re...
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The Devil's Disciple
1936
Talk of the Devil
0/0
A ruthless businessman tries to steal his brother's successful shipping company. He hires a gifted mimic to date one of his brother's daughters to get...
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Talk of the Devil
1959
John Paul Jones
6.1/11
The career of Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones, from his youth in Scotland through his service to Catherine the Great of Russia.
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John Paul Jones
1920
Romance
9/1
A young man planning to marry receives a cautionary tale from his bishop based on the sad tale of the bishop's own early romance.
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Romance
1957
Island in the Sun
6.5/17
A scandalous tale of politics, social inequality, interracial romance, and murder set on a fictitious British-owned Caribbean island.
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Island in the Sun
1947
The Man Within
5.7/3
A man goes on the run from hardened smugglers.
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The Man Within
1958
A Question of Adultery
4/2
Mark Loring is madly jealous of his wife, Mary, former American cabaret singer. Due to an automobile accident, she loses her unborn child, and Mark be...
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