OVERLOOKED STUFF: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SYDNEY GREENSTREET!

Today happens to be the 132nd birthday of character actor Sydney Greenstreet.  Born in England, Greenstreet was a failed tea planter in Ceylon who turned to acting out of boredom.  From 1902 on he made his living on the stage, traveling back and forth across the Atlantic.  It wasn't until 1941, when he was 62, that Greenstreet finally agreed to make films.  His debut film couldn't have been better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMm1ewxA0nU

Another movie he did with Bogie is a classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyJIJgoQRPs

And then there was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN1WDJXSYCA

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkO0NZmvVcI

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MioYuhkhUyw

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTXM5rvC5lM

And was there a more slimy villain than Count Fosco?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXmej1Lgxhc

In 1948, Greenstreet retired from films, but in 1951 he returned as everyboody's favorite corpulent detective: 

http://www.archive.org/details/Nero_Wolfe

He died in 1954, but his spirit lives on.  He was in part the inspiration for Jabba the Hut and for the Marvel Comics villain The Kingpin.  The Nagasaki atomic bomb was nicknamed "The Fat Man", a nod to Greenstreet's Caspar Gutman character in The Maltese Falcon.

He's been immortalized in poetry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U0_twT1m10

And in theater:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDM5L0okEP0

And there has even been a sideways musical tribute to the man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5mzwWM5JE

So, happy birthday, Sydney!  You made good movies even better.

**********

For more Overlooked stuff this week, go to Sweet Freedom, where Todd will have all the links.