Brian Keith

The face of the tough guy with a heart of gold

Brian Keith never needed to raise his voice to dominate a scene. His presence relied on an economy of gestures that unsettled directors used to the theatrics of the era. He had a stern face that concealed a strange tenderness, almost awkward for the Hollywood of the 1950s.

The son of actors, he learned the craft through sheer exposure to the industry before serving as a gunner with the Marines during World War II. That wartime experience gave him a grounded realism that many of his co-stars simply could not imitate.

He was an actor of pure instinct.

In 1953, he made his film debut in Hondo, but his relationship with Disney is what permanently changed the course of his career. He played the father of the twins in The Parent Trap during 1961, and that role of a sturdy yet vulnerable man won over American audiences. That is how he moved away from villain or tough-soldier roles and embraced a much friendlier image.

But Keith never felt comfortable with industry labels. He preferred spending time on his boat or reading scripts that didn't demand too much publicity fuss.

A Refuge on the Small Screen

Television gave him the financial security that movies denied him at times. In 1966, he accepted the role of Uncle Bill in Family Affair, a series that stayed on the air for five seasons and earned him three consecutive Emmy nominations.

Keith hated being tied down by long contracts. For him, acting was a job, not a religion. So he negotiated terms that allowed him to shoot his scenes in short blocks of time so he could leave the studios as soon as possible.

Television was his real gold mine.

Despite the commercial success of his family comedies, the actor always sought refuge in westerns and action films. In 1975, he shot The Wind and the Lion under the direction of John Milius. He played a Theodore Roosevelt that many critics consider the definitive version of the historical figure.

The shoot on Spanish locations was a tough one, and it was there, far from the spotlight of Los Angeles, that Keith felt especially at ease.

An ending with no Hollywood script

The 1980s brought him a new peak in popularity thanks to Hardcastle and McCormick. Between 1983 and 1986, he played a retired judge who chased criminals, a role that made the most of his gravelly voice and his reputation as a difficult man on movie sets.

But Keith's personal reality was far darker than the characters he played. In 1997, life hit him with a force he could not handle. He was suffering from advanced lung cancer and faced serious financial problems after decades of excessive living.

His daughter Daisy's suicide that June, later that same year, was the final trigger.

Just ten weeks after the loss of his daughter, Brian Keith was found dead at his home in Malibu with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He left no farewell note for the press or his fans.

He was 75 years old.