Geoffrey Keen dies aged 89

In his long life as a character actor, the role in which Geoffrey Keen was seen by the largest audiences worldwide was in the Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and The Living Daylights (1987).

Keen’s portrayal of the acerbic Minister of Defence came at the end of a busy career playing authority figures. Once advised by a casting director that if an effective part and a dull part were up for grabs, he would always be offered the latter, Keen accepted the inevitable and made a living specialising in stern, tetchy roles - reports The Times.

During the 1950s and 1960s, if ever an actor was required to portray an authoritarian headmaster, strait-laced chairman or a commanding officer, Keen was high on the wanted list.

He established himself as one of the busiest character actors in the profession, often averaging more than five films a year. The joke in British film studios was that Keen seemed to pop up in every home-grown film ever made, an indication of how memorable his performances were.

Keen later recalled a gratifying moment when the trailer for his 1954 film, The Maggie, was shown at a cinema he was visiting. When he appeared on the screen, a ripple spread through the audience as people whispered: “Oh, we know him.”

Acting was in Keen’s blood. He was born in Wallingford, Surrey, in 1916; his father was the Shakespearean actor Malcolm Keen. His parents had split before his birth, and he spent his early years with his mother, who blamed her husband’s obsession with the theatre for the break-up of their marriage. It was a lonely childhood: his brother, seven years older, spent little time with him, and his father’s visits were sporadic.

As a boy, Keen moved to Bristol with his mother and attended Bristol Grammar School. He then followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the Little Repertory Theatre, Bristol, earning seven shillings a week. He made his debut at 16 in School for Scandal. After a year with the company, and still not persuaded that his future lay on the stage, he went to France, to stay for a year with his brother in Cannes.

On his return to England, he moved in with his father, but, doubting his ability to live up to his father’s expectations, refrained from announcing his desire to become an actor. Just when it seemed a career in commerce beckoned, after being accepted as a student at the London School of Economics, he plucked up the courage and told his father he wanted to become a professional actor.

He won a scholarship to RADA and was quickly successful: he won the Bancroft Gold Medal after only his first year and played Florizel in The Winter’s Tale at the Old Vic. He went on to acquire more valuable stage experience, playing Edgar in King Lear at the age of 20, David French in Follow Your Saint, directed by Basil Dean, and appearing alongside his father in Treasure Island.

He had just progressed to the Royal Shakespeare Company when the war broke out. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, and after six years rose to the rank of corporal. While in uniform he joined Stars in Battledress and appeared in an army instruction film directed by Carol Reed.

After the war his film career got under way when he played a farmer in Riders of the New Forest, following the lives of the ponies in the forest.

He was reunited with Reed for his next two pictures: Odd Man Out (1947), with James Mason and Robert Newton, and The Fallen Idol (1948), with Ralph Richardson and Jack Hawkins, which was voted the Best British Film of the year.

After appearing in The Third Man (1949), he secured his biggest role so far, as the agitator Harry Bolger in Chance of a Lifetime (1951), produced and directed by Bernard Miles. The film spotlighted the lives of factory workers taking over the running of a plough factory. Despite a fine cast, the film lost money and prompted questions in the Commons from MPs concerned about its political bias.

The film offers kept coming, however, and took Keen around the world. He filmed Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) in South Africa and His Excellency (1952) in Sicily. For Born Free (1966) Keen spent three weeks in Kenya with Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, but found some of the scenes harrowing: “It was a lovely part, except for the lions,” he later recalled. “I actually had to take them for a walk on a lead like a dog.” Chunks of meat were used to help the lions relax in the presence of the tense actor: “It was me that needed the relaxation, but because they were still nervous with me, meat was placed under my legs to encourage them to approach.” The ploy never worked.

Also among Keen’s 100 film credits were Genevieve (1953), Doctor in the House (1954), The Long Arm (1956), Fortune is a Woman (1957), The Spiral Road (1962) — his first taste of Hollywood, he appeared with Rock Hudson — and Doctor Zhivago (1965).

By the 1970s the latter part of his big-screen career consisted mainly of his appearances in the Bond movies. However, there was a steady stream of theatrical engagements, as well as an increasing involvement in television. His most memorable small screen role was his portrayal of Brian Stead, a ruthless oil company chairman, in Troubleshooters.

The Living Daylights (1987) signalled his retirement at the age of 71. Since the death of his third wife, Doris, Keen lived a quiet life in Surrey. He no longer enjoyed watching the films in which he appeared, calling them “ghosts which will only haunt me”.

Keen is survived by his daughter and by his second wife.

Geoffrey Keen, actor, was born on August 21, 1916. He died on November 3, 2005, aged 89.

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