09.17.09 | Gary Cahall | Scene StealersPrint this Post
It's a rare accomplishment for an actor or actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for their very first film appearance. It's even more rare for that first appearance to come at the rather advanced (for Hollywood) age of 61! But that's just what happened to Sydney Greenstreet, whose, shall we say, imposing presence and air of sophisticated menace served him well in a relatively brief nine-year career packed with memorable characters.
A native of (no jokes, please) Sandwich, Kent, England, Greenstreet was born in December, 1879. A fine student and amateur athlete, he left England in 1899 to try his hands at the tea plantations of colonial Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), but returned home two years later. When the acting bug bit Sydney in 1902, it was the start of an acclaimed four-decade stage run that would see him performing around the world, including Broadway, and with stars ranging from Lunt and Fontanne to Bob Hope.
It was during a performance in Los Angeles that Greenstreet caught the eye of neophyte director John Huston, who cast him as Kasper Gutman, the sinister "Fat Man," in his 1941 filming of Dashiell Hammett's thriller The Maltese Falcon. Shot by floor-level cameras aiming up to emphasize his 285-pound girth, Greenstreet's outwardly jovial demeanor and erudite manner ("By gad, sir, you are a character!") were a perfect counterpoint to the streetwise toughness of private eye Humphrey Bogart, and garnered the veteran thespian his sole Oscar nomination. The noir classic also featured Sydney's wonderful chemistry with twitchy co-star Peter Lorre, which Warner Bros. took advantage of by putting them in seven more pictures together, including such suspense films as The Mask of Dimitrios and Three Strangers.
A string of supporting roles followed: 19th-century military hero Gen. Winfield Scott in the Errol Flynn frontier drama They Died with Their Boots On; opposite Bogart again in Casablanca (Article) as the fly-swatting black marketeer Ferrari, and as a pro-Vichy French naval officer in Passage to Marseille; a rare comedic turn as magazine writer Barbara Stanwyck's publisher in Christmas in Connecticut; and as a corrupt sheriff making life miserable forJoan Crawford in Flamingo Road.
Health problems stemming from diabetes and Bright's disease forced Greenstreet to step away from the cameras after starring with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart in 1949's Malaya, while he continued to work on radio as the voice of corpulent crime-solver Nero Wolfe for two years. His trademark guttural laugh was silenced in January, 1954.
Nice article -- but a couple corrections. The correct title is "The Mask of Dimitrios", not "The Mask of Demitrios". And Sydney made a total of 9 films with Peter Lorre, not 8: "The Maltese Falcon", "Casablanca", "Background to Danger", "Passage to Marseille", "The Mask of Dimitrios", "The Conspirators", "Hollywood Canteen", "Three Strangers", and "The Verdict". You can read more about the on-screen partnership of Lorre and Greenstreet in the authorized Lorre biography "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre" (University Press, 2005), by Stephen D. Youngkin.
Another error I believe.....
You mentioned Sydney Greenstreet performing with
Lunt and Fonatine. I believe the correct spelling is Fontanne.
To borrow one of Mr. Greenstreet's best-known exclamations,"by gad," but my spelling was off. Thanks, Cheryl and June, for the corrections. I didn't include Hollywood Canteen in the Greenstreet-Lorre collaborations because they have only cameos as themselves. The Lorre book you mention, Cheryl, sounds interesting.
Cahill's short article on Sidney Greenstreet was very informative. I was unaware that he had such a short career. As an avid fan of the thirties, forties and fifties movies I probibly should have known that fact. Anyway, I believe Mr. Greenstreet was one of the top rankers during his short time in the movies!
sydney greenstreet thought that liposuction would help alleviate his diabetic condition even though it was at that time a new and risky procedure. after the succesful operation he wound up with a very bad infectionand succumed a few days after that.
Glad to help out, Gary! Although Peter and Sydney's part in "Hollywood Canteen" was small, it's significant in that they wrote the scene themselves. They were asked what they would like to do, and they decided to play off on their screen image as menaces. Many consider their cameo a highlight of the film. I hope you get a chance to take a look at "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre", too. You can find out more about it from the book's official website -- http://www.PeterLorreBook.com. In the FAQ section of the website, you'll find some information about a supposed "10th" Lorre and Greenstreet film, "In This Our Life".
While working on a Playhouse 90 set in Hollywood circa 1961 I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Lorrie who by then was starting to but on weight do to heavy medication as a result of an accident. We had many mutual interest and both shared a loathing for what Jerry Lewis found humorous.
Anyone remember Sydney Greenstreet in "Flamingo Road" with Joan Crawford??????
Background To Danger(1943)