Evening star., 1942-10-25
Leanness No Requisite for Meanness
Advent of Sidney Greenstreet Exploded Myth,
SO Now We Learn Something of the Man
By Harold Hefernan,
HOLLYWOOD

Lc1 SdtHer TOunQ To-Day and eX-
plode a favorite old myth. The
Jolly fat man isn't jolly any more!
The great big mans good-natured
chuckles have given away to snarls
and sneers, and when he isn't
snarling or sneering he's likely to
be leering or rubbing his hands in
wicked delight over some heinous
scheme. In the movies, anyway.
It's all the fault of a couple of
fellows named Laird Cregar and
Sydney Greenstreet. Cregar, who
weighs neat $50 pounds. and
Greenstreet, who wavers between
200 and 3o5 pounds, are rapidly
establishing the fat man as a villain
Of the deepest dye.
From the days OF John Bunny,
recognized as the screens first funny
fat man, actors of extraordinary
physical dimensions have almost al
ways been comedians. Oliver Hardy,
for instance, or Eugene Palette or
Lou Costello. Henry Armetta,
Charles Winninger or Bert Roach
And everybody remembers Roscoe
Fatty) Arbuckle.
On the other hand, the screens
villains have been the tall, gaunt
type-the gents with cadaverous
frames and long, black capes They
have, in fact, been anything but
round and chubby. like Sydney
Greenstreet or Laird Cregar. It's
Mr.. Greenstreet that this thesis will
discuss, because he's the newest of
the fat baddie finds.
Sinister Record.
He is the fat man who broke into
the movie-going eye with his por-
trayal Of the ponderous and sinister
antique collector in The Maltese
Falcon" He followed this with
characterization as Gen. Winfield
Scott in They Died With Their
Boots On" He is currently one of
the luminous lights in Across the
Pacific" In the latter film Green
street Is again a villainous fellow
with fondness for the Japanese.
He will soon be seen as the roguish
head of the North American black
market in "Casablanca" and as one
Of the bad men of Background to
Danger" Greenstreet obviously has
been typed by Warner Bros,
where he is under contract, as an
oily and menacing fellow for the
rest of his screen life.
Before he came to HOLLYWOOD
"The Maltese Falcon" was his first
lnovie-Greenstreet had been a
theater mainstay for 40 years. Dur
ing that time he was a comedy
favorite, with nary touch of the
tnsidious. He traipsed through
musicals and sailed like a blinp
through bedroom farces. He acted
with Lunt and Fonta 1ne for seven
years, appeared in plays from Maine
to Manila, and gained an inter-
national reputation as comic.
The Sublime Hops.
The Greenstreet saga begins in
Sandwich, Kent, in England, where
our subject was born December 27,
1879. His father was tanner and
at the age of l8 Sydney set sail for
Ceylon to become manager OF a tea
plantation. When drought killed
of the crop, Greenstreet, who
wasn't interested in tea anyway, re-
turned to England. There he began
selling beer. BY his own admission.
he had too much of knack for
drinking the fluid and too little for
disposing of it to the pubs. More
in desperation than anything else,
he drifted into amateur theatricals
After playing several years of
Shakespearean comedy parts. he
came to the United States in 1904.
He's remained here ever since.
Greenstreet doesn't mind playing
villainous roles. He doesn't mind
being typed. He's just plain happy
about the way things ere turning
for him in movieland. In his opin-
ion, movie acting is far more diff
cult than stage acting. The tech
,ltoue of picture making, he points
out, is like putting together jigsaw
puzzle and therefore is no slow and
steady building to climax so far as
the actor is concerned.
Intimate With Bard.
He knows more than 10000 lines
of Shakespeare by heart. In his
opinion, Shakespeare can and
should be done in the movies, If the
emphasis is placed on the story and
not on the scenery, but he thinks
Hollywood must FIRST build up a
public for the Bard and lose money
In the process.
Away from the studio, he's an
avid golfer. He also paints, sculpts
and collects antiques. He is un-
married and lives alone in large,
tastefully decorated home in the
hills. When he retires he contem-
plates teaching acting, but he isn't
thinking of that for long time yet.
! Summing up his screen meanies,
Greenstreet said:
ss"There's no reason in the world
That a fat man shouldn't have evil
ideas. He can be as mean as any
body else. It's just that he's been
typed, suppose, as the pleasant fell
low who ripples his belly as he
laughs and laughs"
q Our fat villain wonders if the
tme will ever come when movie pa
IRONS start kissing fat men on sight.
(Released by the North American
u NnMxnan ner Alliance Inc