Cyril Delevanti
Encyclopedia
Cyril Delevanti sometimes credited as Syril Delevanti, was an English
-born character actor
with a long career in American films.
Delevanti was born in London
,as Harry Cyril Delevanti, the son of a music professor, Edward Prospero Richard Delevanti (1859-1911) and Mary Elizabeth Rowbotham (b.1861). He married Eva Kitty Peel (b.1890 in Portsea, Hampshire); they had three children, Kitty (b.1913, m. Forde Beebe), Cyril (b.1914 d. 1975 in Los Angeles) & Harry (b.1915).
His first film appearance was in Devotion (1931). In 1938, he appeared in Red Barry for director Ford Beebe
who was to become his son-in-law. From the 1940s, he appeared in countless small roles, frequently uncredited, in films such as Phantom of the Opera
(1943), Confidential Agent
(1945), Deception (1946), Monsieur Verdoux
(1947), Forever Amber
(1947), David and Bathsheba
(1951), Limelight (1952), Les Girls
(1957).
In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a fixture of many television series, including The Fugitive
, Gunsmoke
, The Virginian
, Daniel Boone
, Jefferson Drum
, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, Perry Mason
, The Untouchables
, Science Fiction Theater, The Twilight Zone
, Dragnet
while continuing to act in films. He was seen in Bye Bye Birdie
(1963), Dead Ringer
(1964), The Night of the Iguana
(1964), Mary Poppins
(1964), The Greatest Story Ever Told
(1965), Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1967), The Killing of Sister George
(1968), Bedknobs and Broomsticks
(1971), The Girl Most Likely to...
& Soylent Green
both in (1973).
He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award
as Best Supporting Actor in The Night of the Iguana.
He died in Hollywood, California of lung cancer
. His interment was in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
with a long career in American films.
Delevanti was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
,as Harry Cyril Delevanti, the son of a music professor, Edward Prospero Richard Delevanti (1859-1911) and Mary Elizabeth Rowbotham (b.1861). He married Eva Kitty Peel (b.1890 in Portsea, Hampshire); they had three children, Kitty (b.1913, m. Forde Beebe), Cyril (b.1914 d. 1975 in Los Angeles) & Harry (b.1915).
His first film appearance was in Devotion (1931). In 1938, he appeared in Red Barry for director Ford Beebe
Ford Beebe
Ford Beebe was a screenwriter and director...
who was to become his son-in-law. From the 1940s, he appeared in countless small roles, frequently uncredited, in films such as Phantom of the Opera
Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)
Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward....
(1943), Confidential Agent
The Confidential Agent
The Confidential Agent is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fueled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction while working, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in an apartment below him. He used that apartment in the novel and had an...
(1945), Deception (1946), Monsieur Verdoux
Monsieur Verdoux
Monsieur Verdoux is a 1947 black comedy film directed by and starring Charles Chaplin. The supporting cast includes Martha Raye, William Frawley, and Marilyn Nash.-Plot:...
(1947), Forever Amber
Forever Amber (film)
Forever Amber is a 1947 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same name. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Dolores Hart, and Jessica Tandy...
(1947), David and Bathsheba
David and Bathsheba
David and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film about King David made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Henry King, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Philip Dunne. The music score was by Alfred Newman and the cinematography by Leon Shamroy...
(1951), Limelight (1952), Les Girls
Les Girls
Les Girls, also known as Cole Porter's Les Girls, is a 1957 musical comedy film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by George Cukor, produced by Sol C...
(1957).
In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a fixture of many television series, including The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
, Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (TV series)
Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...
, Jefferson Drum
Jefferson Drum
Jefferson Drum is an American Western television series starring Jeff Richards and Eugene Martin on the NBC network that aired from April 25 to December 11, 1958.-Overview:...
, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
, The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, Science Fiction Theater, The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
, Dragnet
Dragnet
Dragnet may refer to:* A type of fishing net*Dragnet , a coordinated search, named for the fishing net-Dragnet media series:...
while continuing to act in films. He was seen in Bye Bye Birdie
Bye Bye Birdie (film)
Bye Bye Birdie is a 1963 musical comedy film from Columbia Pictures. It is a film adaptation of the stage production of the same name. The screenplay was written by Michael Stewart and Irving Brecher, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams....
(1963), Dead Ringer
Dead Ringer (1964 film)
Dead Ringer, also known as Who is Buried in my Grave? is a 1964 thriller film made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Paul Henreid and produced by William H. Wright from a screenplay by Oscar Millard and Albert Beich from the story La Otra by Rian James...
(1964), The Night of the Iguana
The Night of the Iguana
The Night of the Iguana is a stageplay written by American author Tennessee Williams, based on his 1948 short story. The play premiered on Broadway in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964 film of the same name....
(1964), Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
(1964), The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last...
(1965), Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1967), The Killing of Sister George
The Killing of Sister George
The Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was adapted as a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.- Stage version :Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers...
(1968), Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company which combines live action and animation and was released in North America on December 13, 1971...
(1971), The Girl Most Likely to...
The Girl Most Likely to...
The Girl Most Likely to... is a black comedy with slight psychological thriller elements written by Joan Rivers and starring Stockard Channing and Edward Asner. The film was released on November 6, 1973 as a made-for-television movie broadcast on the ABC Movie of the Week...
& Soylent Green
Soylent Green
Soylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer. Starring Charlton Heston, the film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution,...
both in (1973).
He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
as Best Supporting Actor in The Night of the Iguana.
He died in Hollywood, California of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. His interment was in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
.