Sidney Blackmer

Sidney Blackmer

1895-07-12 – 1973-10-06 (age 78) Salisbury, North Carolina, USA
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Biography

Sidney Alderman Blackmer (13 July 1895 – 6 October 1973) was an American actor.

Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately decided to go into acting. Blackmer went to New York hoping to act on the stage. While in the city, he took jobs and extra work at various film studios at the then motion picture capital, Fort Lee, New Jersey, including a bit part in the highly popular serial, The Perils of Pauline (1914).

He made his Broadway debut in 1917, but his career was interrupted by service in the U.S. military in World War I. After the war, he returned to the theatre and in 1929 returned to motion pictures and went on to be a major character actor in more than 120 films. He won the 1950 Tony Award for Best Actor (Drama) for his role in the Broadway play, Come Back, Little Sheba.

In film, Blackmer is remembered for his more than a dozen portrayals of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and for his role in the Academy Award-winning 1968 Roman Polanski film about urban New York witches, Rosemary's Baby, in which he played an over-solicitous neighbor.

A humanitarian, Blackmer served as the national vice president of the United States Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 1972, he was honored with the North Carolina Award in the Fine Arts category. It is the state of North Carolina's highest civilian award. On his passing in 1973, Blackmer was interred in the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina.

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Known For

Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby

1968

as Roman Castevet

High Society
High Society

1956

as Seth Lord

Little Caesar
Little Caesar

1931

as Big Boy

Heidi
Heidi

1937

as Sesemann

Duel in the Sun
Duel in the Sun

1946

as The Lover

Wilson
Wilson

1944

as Josephus Daniels

Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill

1944

as Theodore Roosevelt (uncredited)

How to Murder Your Wife
How to Murder Your Wife

1965

as Judge Blackstone

The High and the Mighty
The High and the Mighty

1954

as Humphrey Agnew

Sabotage Squad
Sabotage Squad

1942

as Carlyle Harrison

Maryland
Maryland

1940

as Spencer Danfield

In Old Oklahoma
In Old Oklahoma

1943

as Teddy Roosevelt

Woman Hungry
Woman Hungry

1931

as Geoffrey Brand

Framed
Framed

1940

as Tony Bowman

Deluge
Deluge

1933

as Martin Webster

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo

1937

as Victor Karnoff

Suez
Suez

1938

as Marquis Du Brey

A Song Is Born
A Song Is Born

1948

as Adams

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

1956

as Austin Spencer

The Wrecker
The Wrecker

1933

as Tom Cummings