Keith David

Keith David
Years active	1980 – present

Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956), better known by the stage name Keith David, is an Emmy Award-winning American film, television, and voice actor. He is perhaps most known for his live action roles as Childs in John Carpenter's The Thing and King in Oliver Stone's Platoon. David is also well known for his voice work, including Goliath on the Disney series Gargoyles and the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3.

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 They Live (reuniting with his Thing director, John Carpenter), Road House, Men at Work, Marked for Death, Stars and Bars, and Oliver Stone's Platoon. He played the character of Kirby, the one legged war veteran, in the acclaimed 1995 Hughes Brothers film Dead Presidents and 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, and most recently in the critically acclaimed Crash and the film ATL.

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 and speaking the famous line "I know it's pretty baby, but I didn't take it out for air." to a desperate Jennifer Connelly. 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. In 2004, he had small role in the Chris Rock film Head Of State. Most recently, he was the narrator for the documentary The War by Ken Burns.

Voice acting

Although known for his roles in films and TV, he has also 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 CRPG Fallout and also the voice for the character Vhailor in a similar CRPG Planescape: Torment. David also provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game Halo 2, released in 2004; later reprising that role in the Xbox 360 follow-up, Halo 3. He also played the role of Captain David Anderson in BioWare's Mass Effect on Xbox 360. David can also 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 and the narrated the documentary Beef II which featured Cube. The two have also 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.

David is also 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 also currently performs narration for the popular A&E show City Confidential, taking over after the 2004 death of the original narrator Paul Winfield, and also voiced the trailer for the movie Primeval which was released in the U.S. on January 12, 2007.

Keith also provides the voice for Julius in the 2006 Xbox 360 game Saints Row. 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.

David is the voice for BMW commercials. He also recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign and voices the US Navy's TV and radio recruiting commercials with the slogan "Accelerate Your Life". David also does voiceovers for promos on the Versus Network, particularly college football.

David will also voice the character of "the cat" in the upcoming film adaptation of Coraline.

On July 5, 2007, it was reported that David would be doing the voice of Dr. Facilier, the villain of Disney's upcoming 2009 film, The Princess and the Frog.

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.

As of May 2006, he was appearing in the musical Hot Feet on Broadway in New York.

Filmography

• Disco Godfather (1979)
• The Thing (1982)
• The Whoopee Boys (1986)
• Platoon (1986)
• Stars and Bars (1988)
• They Live (1988)
• Road House (1989)
• Men at Work (1990)
• Marked for Death (1990)
• Final Analysis (1992)
• Clockers (1995)
• Dead Presidents (1995)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• Eye for an Eye (1996)
• Volcano (1997)
• Loose Women (1997) (cameo)
• 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 (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 Sensei (2008)
• Charlie Valentine (2009)
• Don McKay (2009)

Voice work

• Christmas in Tattertown (1987)
• 3x3 Eyes (1991)
• Fantastic Four (1995)
• Yellowstone: Realm of the Coyote (1995)
• Gargoyles (1994-1997)
• Hercules (1997)
• Spawn: The Animation (1997)
• Princess Mononoke (1997)
• Fallout (1997)
• Hercules: The Animated Series (1998)
• Spawn 3: Ultimate Battle (1999)
• Planescape: Torment (1999)
• The Legend of Tarzan (2001)
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
• House of Mouse (2001-2002)
• PBS Hollywood Presents (2001)
• Empires: Egypt's Golden Empire (2001)
• Jazz (2001)
• Tales From the Crypt: Fare Tonight, Followed by Increasing Clottiness! (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)
• Teen Titans (2004)
• Halo 2 (2004)
• City Confidential (2004)
• The Proud Family Movie (2005)
• Saints Row (2006)
• Walking the Bible (2006) - narrator of Torah passages
• Primeval (movie trailer) (2007)
• Transformers: The Game (2007)
• Halo 3 (2007)
• Mass Effect (2007)
• The War (2007)
• Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
• The Navy commercials - narrator
• The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008)
• Ice Cube: Raw Footage (intro) (2008)
• Saints Row 2 (2008)
• Coraline (2008)
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)

References

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

External links

• Keith David at IMDb
• Keith David at the Internet Broadway Database