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 in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, 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 and the Arbiter in Halo 2 and Halo 3, 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 his 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, First Sunday, and Coraline

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. In 2004, he had small role in the Chris Rock film Head Of State.

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 also did the voice for Julius in the Xbox 360 title Saint's Row. 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.

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.

David is the voice for BMW commercials. He also recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's "Hip-Hop Literacy" campaign. David also does voiceovers for promos on the Versus Network, particularly for college football.

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. David also did the voice of the Black Cat in Coraline.

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.

Selected filmography

Films

• Disco Godfather (1979)
• The Thing (1982)
• 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)
• 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)
• Don McKay (2009)
• Against the Dark (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)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) (voice of Scrapper) (Rumored)
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)

External links

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