Dennis O'Keefe

Dennis O'Keefe, born Edward Vance Flanagan on March 29, 1908, in Fort Madison, Iowa, was an American actor whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television, and Broadway. He died on August 31, 1968, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 60.

O'Keefe came from a vaudeville family; his parents, Edward J. Flanagan and Charlotte Flanagan (née Ravenscroft), were both performers of Irish descent. As a young child he joined their act, and he later contributed original skits to the stage. He enrolled at the University of Southern California but departed midway through his sophomore year following his father's death, after which he took over his father's vaudeville act and continued it for several years.

His screen career began in 1931 when he worked as a film extra under the name Bud Flanagan. A turning point came with his appearance in Saratoga (1937), after which Clark Gable recommended him to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio signed him to a contract that same year and gave him the professional name Dennis O'Keefe. His first significant MGM role came in The Bad Man of Brimstone (1938) opposite Wallace Beery, followed by the lead in Burn 'Em Up O'Connor (1939). He departed MGM around 1940 and subsequently worked primarily in lower-budget productions, taking on tough-guy roles in action and crime dramas while also demonstrating range as a comic and dramatic performer. A prominent role in The Story of Dr. Wassell brought him considerable attention. In the mid-1940s he worked under a five-year contract with producer Edward Small, during which he appeared in the film-noir productions T-Men and Raw Deal, both directed by Anthony Mann. He also wrote screenplays during this period, using the pen name Jonathan Rix in the late 1940s and 1950s and later Al Everett Dennis in the 1960s. His screenplay Don't Pull Your Punches was produced by Warner Bros., and he wrote and directed Angela. In 1947 he was developing plans to co-produce and act in Drawn Sabers, based on his own story.

O'Keefe extended his work into radio in 1950, starring in the CBS program T-Man. Throughout the 1950s he made guest appearances on television series including Justice, The Ford Show, Studio 57, and Climax!, and in 1957 he was set to serve as permanent host of the Alfred Hitchcock-produced anthology series Suspicion, though he departed after two episodes. From 1959 to 1960 he starred in his own series, The Dennis O'Keefe Show. During the same decade he also pursued directing and wrote mystery stories.

His Broadway career ran from 1962 to 1964 and included two productions: Never Too Late and Never Live Over a Pretzel Factory (1964).

In his personal life, O'Keefe married actress Louise Stanley in 1937; the marriage ended in divorce in 1938. In 1940 he married actress and dancer Steffi Duna, with whom he had two children, Juliena and James. A heavy cigarette smoker throughout his life, O'Keefe died of lung cancer in 1968 and was buried at Wee Kirk O'the Heather at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.