Gourt Home::Gourt :: Keith David
Keith David (born June 4, 1956) is an American film, television, and voice actor.
Early life
David was born in Harlem, New York City and first knew he was going to become an actor after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and went on to study at New York's High School of the Performing Arts.
Film and television acting
In 1980-81 David honed his craft touring the country with John Houseman's The Acting Company in productions of A Midsummer's Night's Dream and Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. Less than two years later he went on to star as Childs opposite Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's The Thing and his lengthy on-screen career had begun.
He went on to appear in films such as They Live, Platoon, Road House, and Stars and Bars. His role in They Live is most memorable for an interminably long alleyway brawl with Roddy Piper that lasts nearly seven minutes onscreen; they fight over whether Keith will wear a pair of sunglasses.
He played the character of Kirby the one legged war veteran in the acclaimed 1995 Hughes Brothers film Dead Presidents and followed this up with roles in big films such as Volcano, Armageddon, There's Something About Mary, Pitch Black, Barbershop, Agent Cody Banks, The Chronicles of Riddick, and most recently in the critically acclaimed Crash.
At the same time he has appeared in numerous independent films including the critically-acclaimed Requiem for a Dream.
He has also appeared extensively in TV productions since the 1980s and as a regular character Lieutenant Williams on the short-lived TV series The Job.
Voice acting
Although known for his roles in films and TV, he has also done extensive voice-acting work, and is noted for his deep, commanding voice. He is known most notably as the voice behind Goliath from Gargoyles and the title character in the Spawn animated series. In Princess Mononoke, David played the narrator and Okkoto. Additionally, he provided the voice for the character of Vhailor in the video game Torment. David also provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game Halo 2, released in 2004. He narrated the 2001 documentary series Jazz by Ken Burns and is also popular in advertising, particularly in navy recruitment commercials. He has done voice-over work for countless other documentaries. He also currently performs narration for the popular A&E show City Confidential, taking over after the 2004 death of the original narrator Paul Winfield.
Stage acting
In the early 1990s he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical.
David received raves for his Shakespeare work on stage in Central Park, New York City. He succeeds the late Paul Winfield as narrator of the long-running A&E programme, City Confidential.
As of May 2006, he was appearing in the musical "Hot Feet" on Broadway in New York.
External links
1956 births | African-American actors | American film actors | American television actors | American voice actors | American character actors | Gargoyles voice actors | Living people | People from New York City | Spider-Man actors | CSI actors | Law & Order actors | The Outer Limits actors | American musical theatre actors | Fantastic Four actors
"Keith David"