Keith David Biography
Summary
"Keith David Williams" (born June 4, 1956), better known by the stage name "Keith David", is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is perhaps most known for his live action roles in such films as "Crash", "There's Something About Mary", "Barbershop" and "Men at Work". He has also had memorable roles in numerous cult favorites, including John Carpenter's films "The Thing" (as Childs) and "They Live" (as Armitage), and as King in Oliver Stone's "Platoon". David is also well known for his voice over career, primarily his Emmy winning work as the narrator of numerous Ken Burns films. He is also known for playing the role of Spawn in "Todd McFarlane's Spawn", Goliath on the Disney series "Gargoyles", the Arbiter in "Halo 2" and "Halo 3", David Anderson in Mass Effect, as well as the Decepticon Barricade in "Transformers: The Game".
Biography
Early Life
David was born in Harlem, New York City, the son of Delores (née Dickenson) and Lester Williams. He 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 Manhattan's School of 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 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. In the '80s run of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", he portrayed Keith the Southwood Carpenter in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments. He also played Keith, the game coin collector in an episode where Rogers and a small child learn to play the arcade game "Donkey Kong".
He went on to appear in films such as Oliver Stone's "Platoon", "They Live" (reuniting with "The Thing" director, John Carpenter), "Road House", "Men at Work", "Marked for Death", and "Stars and Bars". He played the character of Kirby, the one legged war veteran, in the acclaimed 1995 Hughes Brothers film "Dead Presidents", and he appeared in the 1995 Spike Lee's film "Clockers", 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", "Crash", "ATL" and "First Sunday".
At the same time he has appeared in numerous independent films including the critically-acclaimed "Requiem for a Dream", playing the role of Big Tim. 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". He was a regular on another shoot made for ABC entitled 'The Big House' in 2004.
Voice acting
Although known for his roles in films and TV, he has 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 the English dub of "Princess Mononoke," David played the narrator and Okkoto. Additionally, he provided the voice for the character Decker in the computer role-playing game "Fallout" and the voice for the character Vhailor in a similar video game "Planescape: Torment." David provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game "Halo 2," released in 2004; later, he reprised that role in the Xbox 360 follow-up, "Halo 3." He played the role of Captain David Anderson in BioWare's "Mass Effect." David also did the voice for Julius in the Xbox 360 title "Saint's Row." David can be heard on the intro of several Ice Cube projects, including Westside Connection's 2003 release, "Terrorist Threats," and Cube's 2008 solo album "Raw Footage," and he narrated the documentary "Beef II," which also featured Ice Cube. The two have worked together in live action films like "Barbershop" and "First Sunday."
He has worked with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns several times, narrating Burns's "Jazz," "Mark Twain," "The War," and "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson." David won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work in the latter two films. He also performs the narration duties in the BBC documentary, "World War II: Behind Closed Doors."
David is popular in advertising, particularly in United States Navy recruitment commercials. He has done voice-over work for many other documentaries including several for "National Geographic" and the documentary "Comicbook Superheroes Unmasked" for the History Channel. He replaced Paul Winfield as narrator for the popular A&E show "City Confidential," taking over after Winfield's death in 2004. He voiced the trailer for the movie "Primeval," which was released in the U.S. on January 12, 2007.
Additionally, David provided the voice of police detective Alex Cross for the audiobook versions of three novels by James Patterson: "Cat and Mouse" (1997), "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1999), and "Roses are Red" (2000).
Other voice roles include Bebe Proud Clone from "The Proud Family Movie," Atlas from the "Teen Titans" animated series and the Decepticon Barricade in "Transformers: The Game."
He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign. David has done voiceovers for promos on the Versus Network, particularly for college football.
David did the voice of the Black Cat in "Coraline." David also voices Tarix in the upcoming film "BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn."
Stage acting
In 1992, David received a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his performance in Jelly's Last Jam. David received raves for his Shakespeare work on stage in Central Park, New York City.
In 1995, David played the lead as Floyd 'Schoolboy' Barton in August Wilson's Seven Guitars on Broadway.
In May 2006, he appeared in the musical "Hot Feet" on Broadway in New York.
Selected filmography
Films
"Disco Godfather" (1979) (uncredited)
"The Thing" (1982)
"Terror in the Aisles" (1984)
"Platoon" (1986)
"Hot Pursuit" (1987)
"Braddock: Missing in Action III" (1988)
"Off Limits" (1988)
"Stars and Bars" (1988)
"Bird" (1988)
"They Live" (1988)
"Road House" (1989)
"Always" (1989)
"Men at Work" (1990)
"Marked for Death" (1990)
"Final Analysis" (1992)
"Article 99" (1992)
"There Are No Children Here" (1993)
"Reality Bites" (1994)
"The Puppet Masters" (1994)
"Clockers" (1995)
"Dead Presidents" (1995)
"The Quick and the Dead" (1995)
"Blue in the Face" (1995)
"Loose Women" (1996) (cameo)
"The Grave" (1996)
"Eye for an Eye" (1996)
"Larger Than Life" (1996)
"Johns" (1996)
"Volcano" (1997)
"Armageddon" (1998)
"There's Something About Mary" (1998)
"Pitch Black" (2000)
"Requiem for a Dream" (2000)
"Where the Heart Is" (2000)
"The Replacements" (2000)
"Novocaine" (2001)
"29 Palms" (2002)
"Barbershop" (2002)
"Agent Cody Banks" (2003)
"Head of State" (2003)
"Hollywood Homicide" (2003)
"Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London" (2004)
"The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004)
"Crash" (2004)
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005)
"Transporter 2" (2005)
"Dirty" (2005)
"The Oh in Ohio" (2006)
"Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil" (2006)
"ATL" (2006)
"If I Had Known I Was a Genius" (2007)
"Delta Farce" (2007)
"Beautiful Loser" (2008)
"First Sunday" (2008)
"Superhero Movie" (2008)
"Chasing 3000" (2008)
"My Mom's New Boyfriend" (2008)
"The Sensei" (2008)
"Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia" (2009)
"Against the Dark" (2009)
"Don McKay" (2009)
Voice work
"Christmas in Tattertown" (1987)
"3×3 Eyes" (1991)
"Aladdin" (1994)
"Fantastic Four" (1995)
"Gargoyles" (1994-1997)
"Hercules" (1997)
"Spawn" (1997)
"Princess Mononoke" (1997)
"Fallout" (1997)
"Hercules: The Animated Series" (1998)
"Planescape: Torment" (1999)
"The Legend of Tarzan" (2001)
"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (2001)
"House of Mouse" (2001-2002)
"Jazz" (2001)
"Lords of EverQuest" (2003)
"Justice League" (2003)
"Spider-Man: The New Animated Series" (2003)
"Kaena: The Prophecy" (2003)
Westside Connection:"Terrorist Threats" (intro) (2003)
"Beef II" (2004)
"The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury" (2004)
"Teen Titans" (2004)
"Halo 2" (2004)
"City Confidential" (2004)
"The Proud Family Movie" (2005)
"Saints Row" (2006)
"Transformers: The Game" (2007)
"Halo 3" (2007)
"Mass Effect" (2007)
"The War" (2007)
"Justice League: The New Frontier" (2008)
"The Spectacular Spider-Man" (2008)
Ice Cube: "Raw Footage" (intro) (2008)
"Saints Row 2" (2008)
"Coraline" (2009)
"World War II: Behind Closed Doors" (2009)
"The Princess and the Frog" (2009)
"BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn" (2009)
"Modern Warfare 2" (2009)
"Dissidia: Final Fantasy" (2009)
Further Reading
Voisin, Scott, 'Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting.' BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 9-781593-933425.
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Keith David.
