Keith Andes
Encyclopedia
Keith Andes was an American film, radio, musical theatre, stage and television actor.
on July 12, 1920. By the age of 12, he was featured on the radio.
Andes found work on radio singing and acting throughout his years at Upper Darby High School
. He attended Oxford University and graduated from Temple University
in Philadelphia in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in education. He studied voice at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. He began his Broadway
career while serving in the Air Force during World War II
.
(1944), followed by a small role in the film The Farmer's Daughter, which starred Loretta Young
, and for which she won her Best Actress Oscar. In 1947, Keith Andes received a Theater World Award for his debut performance in The Chocolate Soldier, and later starred in Kiss Me, Kate
, taking over Alfred Drake's role of Fred Graham after first playing it on the show's national tour.
In 1952, he appeared as Marilyn Monroe
's sweetheart and Barbara Stanwyck
's brother in the cult film Clash by Night
(directed by Fritz Lang
and co-written by Clifford Odets
). He appeared with Robert Newton
in Blackbeard the Pirate
. In 1958, Andes starred as crusading former Louisiana
State Police
Superintendent Francis Grevemberg
in the film Damn Citizen. His co-stars were Margaret Hayes
as Dorothy Maguire Grevemberg and Gene Evans
as police Major Al Arthur.
On television, he appeared in the short-lived police show This Man Dawson
(1959–1960).
He played an amateur sleuth on the 1963 Desilu sitcom on CBS, Glynis
, starring Glynis Johns
as his wife. The next year, he guest-starred in Mickey Rooney
's short-lived Mickey
sitcom on ABC
.
Andes starred opposite Lucille Ball
in the Broadway musical Wildcat
in 1960, and later appeared on her 1960s sitcom, The Lucy Show
. He later toured as Cervantes/Quixote in "Man of La Mancha." In the later years of his nearly five decades as an actor, Andes appeared in episodes of Cannon
, Death Valley Days
, Daniel Boone
, I Spy, The Andy Griffith Show
,The Rifleman
, and Star Trek
(in the episode "The Apple"). His work included voice acting in the animated Birdman and the Galaxy Trio
(1967). Late in life, he appeared in films such as ...And Justice for All
and Tora! Tora! Tora!
(about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
). He also appeared as Prime Minister Darius in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
episode "Buck's Duel to the Death".
and other ailments and committed suicide
by asphyxiation, according to a report from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
(a musician
in such bands as Spirit
, Jo Jo Gunne
and Heart
) and Matt Andes (also a musician who had briefly played with Spirit), survive him.
Early life
John Charles Andes was born in Ocean City, New JerseyOcean City, New Jersey
Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. It is the principal city of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Cape May County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 11,701...
on July 12, 1920. By the age of 12, he was featured on the radio.
Andes found work on radio singing and acting throughout his years at Upper Darby High School
Upper Darby High School
Upper Darby High School is a four-year public high school located in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, United States, as part of the Upper Darby School District. UDHS is also the oldest high school in Delaware County, PA, having been established in 1895...
. He attended Oxford University and graduated from Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in Philadelphia in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in education. He studied voice at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. He began his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
career while serving in the Air Force during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Career
His first screen role was a minor part in the film Winged VictoryWinged Victory (play)
Winged Victory is a play and, later, a film by Moss Hart, originally created and produced by the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II as a morale booster and as a fundraiser for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. Upon recommendation of Lt. Col. Dudley S. Dean, who had been approached with the...
(1944), followed by a small role in the film The Farmer's Daughter, which starred Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
, and for which she won her Best Actress Oscar. In 1947, Keith Andes received a Theater World Award for his debut performance in The Chocolate Soldier, and later starred in Kiss Me, Kate
Kiss Me, Kate
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.Kiss...
, taking over Alfred Drake's role of Fred Graham after first playing it on the show's national tour.
In 1952, he appeared as Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
's sweetheart and Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
's brother in the cult film Clash by Night
Clash by Night
Clash by Night is a black-and-white drama with some film noir aspects, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Ryan. The movie was based on the play by Clifford Odets, adapted by writer Alfred Hayes...
(directed by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
and co-written by Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
). He appeared with Robert Newton
Robert Newton
Robert Newton was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys...
in Blackbeard the Pirate
Blackbeard the Pirate
Blackbeard the Pirate is a 1952 Technicolor adventure film made by RKO. The film was directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Edmund Grainger from a screenplay by Alan Le May based on the story by DeVallon Scott.-Plot:...
. In 1958, Andes starred as crusading former Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
State Police
State police
State police are a type of sub-national territorial police force, particularly in Australia and the United States. Some other countries have analogous police forces, such as the provincial police in some Canadian provinces, while in other places, the same responsibilities are held by national...
Superintendent Francis Grevemberg
Francis Grevemberg
Francis Carroll Grevemberg , was the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police from 1952 to 1955, best remembered for his fight against organized crime....
in the film Damn Citizen. His co-stars were Margaret Hayes
Margaret Hayes
Margaret Hayes was an American film and television actress.Born December 5, 1916 Florette Regina Ottenheimer in Baltimore, Maryland, she was often billed as Maggie Hayes in her film credits. She is perhaps best known for her role as Lois Judby Hammond in the film Blackboard Jungle...
as Dorothy Maguire Grevemberg and Gene Evans
Gene Evans
Gene Evans was an American actor.He was born in Holbrook, Arizona, but reared in Colton, California. His acting career began while he was serving in World War II. He performed with a theatrical troupe of GIs in Europe. Evans made his film debut in 1947 and appeared in dozens of movies and...
as police Major Al Arthur.
On television, he appeared in the short-lived police show This Man Dawson
This Man Dawson
This Man Dawson is a syndicated drama television series starring Keith Andes as a former United States Marine Corps colonel hired to clean up police corruption in an undisclosed American city. The thirty-three episodes, in which Andes portrayed Chief Frank Dawson, aired during the 1959-1960...
(1959–1960).
He played an amateur sleuth on the 1963 Desilu sitcom on CBS, Glynis
Glynis
Glynis is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September 25 to December 18, 1963.-Synopsis:The series stars Welsh actress Glynis Johns as Glynis Granville, a mystery writer. Keith Andes appeared as Keith Granville, Glynis' husband who works as a successful criminal defense attorney....
, starring Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns is a South African-born Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer . With a career spanning seven decades, Johns is often cited as the "complete actress", who happens to be a trained pianist and singer...
as his wife. The next year, he guest-starred in Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
's short-lived Mickey
Mickey (TV series)
Mickey is an American situation comedy that aired on ABC from September 1964 to January 1965. Created and produced by Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx, the series stars Mickey Rooney.-Synopsis:...
sitcom on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
Andes starred opposite Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
in the Broadway musical Wildcat
Wildcat (musical)
Wildcat is a musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, and music by Cy Coleman.The original production opened on Broadway in 1960, starring a 48-year-old Lucille Ball in her only Broadway show.-Background and production:...
in 1960, and later appeared on her 1960s sitcom, The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
. He later toured as Cervantes/Quixote in "Man of La Mancha." In the later years of his nearly five decades as an actor, Andes appeared in episodes of Cannon
Cannon (TV series)
Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976.The primary protagonist was the title character, Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad....
, Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. It continued from 1952 to 1975 as a syndicated television series...
, Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (TV series)
Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...
, I Spy, The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
,The Rifleman
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
, and Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
(in the episode "The Apple"). His work included voice acting in the animated Birdman and the Galaxy Trio
Birdman and the Galaxy Trio
Birdman and the Galaxy Trio is an animated science fiction TV series created by Alex Toth and produced by Hanna-Barbera. It debuted on NBC on September 9, 1967, and ran on Saturday mornings until September 6, 1969...
(1967). Late in life, he appeared in films such as ...And Justice for All
...And Justice for All (film)
...And Justice For All is a 1979 courtroom drama film, directed by Norman Jewison. The movie stars Al Pacino, John Forsythe, Jack Warden, Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Lahti, Craig T. Nelson and Thomas G. Waites. It was also 75-year-old character actor Sam Levene's final film...
and Tora! Tora! Tora!
Tora! Tora! Tora!
is a 1970 American-Japanese war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the extent these facts were known at the time of production. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and stars an all-star cast, including So Yamamura, E.G...
(about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
). He also appeared as Prime Minister Darius in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979–1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series aired....
episode "Buck's Duel to the Death".
Selected filmography
- The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
- Clash by NightClash by NightClash by Night is a black-and-white drama with some film noir aspects, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Ryan. The movie was based on the play by Clifford Odets, adapted by writer Alfred Hayes...
(1952) - Blackbeard the PirateBlackbeard the PirateBlackbeard the Pirate is a 1952 Technicolor adventure film made by RKO. The film was directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Edmund Grainger from a screenplay by Alan Le May based on the story by DeVallon Scott.-Plot:...
(1952) - Split SecondSplit Second (1953 film)Split Second is a 1953 thriller film about escaped convicts and their hostages holed up in a ghost town, unaware of the grave danger they are in. It starred Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, and Keith Andes.-Plot:...
(1953) - A Life at StakeA Life at StakeA Life at Stake is a 1954 American film directed by Paul Guilfoyle.The film is also known as Key Man.- Plot summary :Down on his luck architect and builder Edward Shaw is approached by Mrs Doris Hillman with a business proposal: buying land together, on which he would build houses that she would...
(1954) - Away All BoatsAway All BoatsAway All Boats is a 1956 American war film produced by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Joseph Pevney and produced by Howard Christie from a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman based on the 1953 novel by Kenneth M. Dodson....
(1956) - Back from EternityBack from EternityBack from Eternity is a 1956 drama film about a planeload of people stranded in the South American jungle and subsequently menaced by headhunters. It is a remake of an earlier 1939 film, Five Came Back, starred Chester Morris and Lucille Ball, also directed and produced by John Farrow...
(1956) - The Girl Most LikelyThe Girl Most LikelyThe Girl Most Likely is a musical about a young woman who ends up engaged to three men at the same time. The film, a remake of Tom, Dick and Harry , was directed by Mitchell Leisen, and stars Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, and Keith Andes...
(1957) - Model for MurderModel for MurderModel for Murder is a 1959 British crime film directed by Terry Bishop and starring Keith Andes, Hazel Court and Jean Aubrey.-Plot:American sailor David Martens, on shore leave in England, visits his brother Jack's grave...
(1959) - Surrender Hell (1959)
- Tora! Tora! Tora!Tora! Tora! Tora!is a 1970 American-Japanese war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the extent these facts were known at the time of production. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and stars an all-star cast, including So Yamamura, E.G...
(1970)
Death
Andes was found dead at the age of 85 at his Newhall, Santa Clarita home. He had been suffering from bladder cancerBladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. It is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control in the bladder. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; it is located in the pelvis...
and other ailments and committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by asphyxiation, according to a report from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
Family
His two sons, Mark AndesMark Andes
Mark Andes is an American musician, known for his work as a bassist with Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne, Firefall, Heart, and Mirabal.-Early life:...
(a musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
in such bands as Spirit
Spirit (band)
Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.- The original lineup :...
, Jo Jo Gunne
Jo Jo Gunne
Jo Jo Gunne is a rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1971 by Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes after they had left Spirit...
and Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
) and Matt Andes (also a musician who had briefly played with Spirit), survive him.