Basil Sydney: Movies & Box Office

Basil Sydney (23 April 1894 – 10 January 1968) was a versatile English actor whose career spanned nearly half a century on both stage and screen. He first attracted attention in 1915 when he appeared in Edward Sheldon’s popular London drama Romance alongside the celebrated Broadway star Doris Keane, and the two later co‑starred in the 1920 silent film adaptation of the same work. Their professional partnership quickly turned personal, and they married in 1918, a union that lasted until their divorce in 1925. Sydney’s Broadway debut came in 1921 when Keane revived Romance in New York, and over the next decade he built a formidable reputation for classical and contemporary roles, playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (1922), the title role in Hamlet (1923), Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part I (1926) and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (1927). After returning to England he shifted his focus toward film, appearing in more than fifty screen productions; his most memorable cinematic performance was as Claudius in Laurence Olivier’s 1948 adaptation of Hamlet. Other notable films include Treasure Island (1950) as Captain Smollett, Ivanhoe (1952) as Waldemar Fitzurse, and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) where he played a Reform Club member. In the West End he continued to shine, starring in the murder mystery Blondie White (1937) and sharing the stage with Flora Robson in A Man About the House (1946). Sydney married actress Mary Ellis in 1929 and later English film actress Joyce Howard in 1946, with whom he had three children. A heavy smoker, he succumbed to pleurisy in 1968 at the age of 73, leaving behind a legacy of distinguished performances across two continents.