The Hall of Hams #11: Sydney Greenstreet
The Hall of Hams is my series on some of my favorite actors who have brought the art of melodramatic acting into the modern era.
Today marks the birthday of beloved Hollywood character actor Sydney Greenstreet (1879-1954). Millions of fans know him from his brief (8 year) career as part of the incredible Warner Brothers stock company. What they might not know is that the larger-than-life Greenstreet didn’t start his movie career until he was 62 years old. He’d spent 40 years on the stage, playing in everything from Shakespeare to musicals, before he finally caved in to the lure of Hollywood with The Maltese Falcon (1941). Prior to his starting his stage career, Greenstreet tried his luck as a tea planter in Ceylon…which sounds awfully like one of his characters! Ill health (diabetes) forced his retirement in 1949.
Here’s his hilarious cameo turn in the 1944 wartime morale booster Hollywood Canteen, along with his frequent co-star Peter Lorre (they come to the rescue of Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters):
