Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (27 December 1879 â€" 18 January 1954) was a
British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films
until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a
Hollywood career lasting through the 1940s. Greenstreet is best
remembered for his Warner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter
Lorre, which include The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), and
Passage to Marseille (1944). Greenstreet portrayed Nero Wolfe on radio
during 1950 and 1951. He became a naturalized United States citizen in
1925.Sydney Hughes Greenstreet was born on 27 December 1879, in
Sandwich, Kent, the son of Ann (née Baker) and John Jarvis
Greenstreet, a tanner. He had seven siblings. Greenstreet left home at
the age of 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought
forced him out of business. He began managing a brewery, and to escape
boredom, took acting lessons.Greenstreet's stage debut was as a
murderer in a 1902 production of a Sherlock Holmes story at the Marina
Theatre, Ramsgate, Kent. He toured Britain with Ben Greet's
Shakespearean company, and in 1905, he made his New York City debut in
Everyman. Thereafter, he appeared in such plays as a revival of As You
Like It (1914). Greenstreet appeared in numerous plays in Britain and
America, working through most of the 1930s with Alfred Lunt and Lynn
Fontanne at the Theatre Guild. Throughout his stage career, his parts
ranged from musical comedy to Shakespeare, and years of such versatile
acting on two continents led to many offers to appear in films. He
refused until he was 61.
British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films
until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a
Hollywood career lasting through the 1940s. Greenstreet is best
remembered for his Warner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter
Lorre, which include The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), and
Passage to Marseille (1944). Greenstreet portrayed Nero Wolfe on radio
during 1950 and 1951. He became a naturalized United States citizen in
1925.Sydney Hughes Greenstreet was born on 27 December 1879, in
Sandwich, Kent, the son of Ann (née Baker) and John Jarvis
Greenstreet, a tanner. He had seven siblings. Greenstreet left home at
the age of 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought
forced him out of business. He began managing a brewery, and to escape
boredom, took acting lessons.Greenstreet's stage debut was as a
murderer in a 1902 production of a Sherlock Holmes story at the Marina
Theatre, Ramsgate, Kent. He toured Britain with Ben Greet's
Shakespearean company, and in 1905, he made his New York City debut in
Everyman. Thereafter, he appeared in such plays as a revival of As You
Like It (1914). Greenstreet appeared in numerous plays in Britain and
America, working through most of the 1930s with Alfred Lunt and Lynn
Fontanne at the Theatre Guild. Throughout his stage career, his parts
ranged from musical comedy to Shakespeare, and years of such versatile
acting on two continents led to many offers to appear in films. He
refused until he was 61.
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