Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956), better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, and voice actor, and singer. 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), the Riddick films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick (as the Imam), the General in Armageddon, 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. Characters that he has voiced include Goliath on the Disney series Gargoyles, the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3, David Anderson in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, the Decepticon Barricade in Transformers: The Game, Julius Little in Saints Row and Saints Row 2, Sgt. Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, and Chaos in Dissidia: Final Fantasy.
Contents
Early life
David was born in Harlem, New York City, the son of Delores (née Dickenson) and Lester Williams.[1] 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, Delta Farce, and First Sunday. He also portrayed "Father" in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. 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. David played the male lead role in Deon Taylor's slasher flick Chain Letter.[2]
Voice acting
Although known for his roles in films and TV, he remains in great demand for vocal work because of his deep, resonant 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.He also played the small roll of mama in the english dub of 3x3 eyes manga release 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 voice work in the Xbox 360 title Saint's Row playing gang leader Julius. David can be heard on the intro of several Ice Cube projects, including Westside Connection's 2003 release, Terrorist Threats, Cube's 2008 solo album Raw Footage, , Cube's 2010 solo album I Am The West, 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.
Keith David also provides the voice for the UPS "What can Brown do for you" commercials. His voice can be heard in the earlier years of Justice Leagues cartoons.
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.[3]
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 Comic Book 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, the lone renegade male gorilla "Tublat" in The Legend of Tarzan, 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. He also recorded the narration for the opening of the World Wrestling Federation's (now Entertainment) WrestleMania 2000 pay-per-view.
Recently, David did the voices of the Black Cat in Coraline, Sgt. Foley in Modern Warfare 2, and Doctor Facilier in The Princess and the Frog. David voiced Tombstone (comics) from only one episode from The Spectacular Spider-Man, Survival of the Fittest.
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.
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)
- Nails (1992)
- The Last Outlaw (1993)
- 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)
- Never Met Picasso (1996)
- Johns (1996)
- Vanishing Point (1997)
- Flipping (1997)
- Volcano (1997)
- Executive Target (1997)
- Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest (1997)
- Don King: Only in America (1997)
- The Tiger Woods Story (1998)
- Armageddon (1998)
- There's Something About Mary (1998)
- A.T.F. (1999)
- Dark Summer (a.k.a. Innocents) (2000)
- Pitch Black (2000)
- Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- Where the Heart Is (2000)
- The Replacements (2000)
- Semper Fi (2001)
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
- Novocaine (2001)
- Seduced: Pretty When You Cry (2001)
- 29 Palms (2002)
- Barbershop (2002)
- Agent Cody Banks (2003)
- Head of State (2003)
- CSI:Crime Scene Investigation (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)
- The Last Sentinel (2007)
- Beautiful Loser (2008)
- First Sunday (2008)
- Superhero Movie (2008)
- Chasing 3000 (2008)
- My Mom's New Boyfriend (2008)
- The Fifth Commandment (2008)
- No Bad Days (2008)
- The Sensei (2008)
- Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (2009)
- Against the Dark (2009)
- Charlie Valentine (2009)
- Don McKay (2009)
- The Butcher (2009)
- Gamer (2009)
- All About Steve (2009)
- Pastor Brown (2010)
- Death at a Funeral (2010)
- Lottery Ticket (2010)
- Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming (2010)
- Chain Letter (2010)
Voice work
- Christmas in Tattertown (1989)
- 3×3 Eyes (1991)
- Aladdin (1994)
- Fantastic Four (1995)
- Gargoyles (1994–1997)
- Hercules (1997)
- Todd McFarlane's 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)
- Jazz (2001)
- House of Mouse (2001–2002)
- 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)
- Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends (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)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
- Dissidia: Final Fantasy (2009)
- Sid Meier's Civilization V (2010)
- Mass Effect 2 (2010)
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes(2010)
- Ken Burns' Baseball: The Tenth Inning(2010)
Further reading
- Voisin, Scott. Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 9-781593-933425
References
External links
- REDIRECT Template:IMDb name
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