Background

Sydney Alderman Blackmer was born on July 13, 1895, in Salisbury, North Carolina, United States, to Walter Steele and Clara De Roulhac.

Education

Sydney excelled both as a student and an athlete. He and his family originally planned that he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer. To this end, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a star player on the football team. In 1914 he went to Europe and tried to enlist in the British Commonwealth forces; he failed to gain entry, though, and returned to North Carolina to complete his B. A. in 1915 and, a year later, his LL. B. Decades later, in 1964, he would also receive an LL. D. from North Carolina and a Litt. D. from Catawba College, North Carolina.

Career

After a brief stint as an artillery officer in World War I, Blackmer soon decided that his courtroom skills would stand him in good stead on the New York stage. He debuted in The Morris Dance in February 1917. Later that same year, he premiered his rendition of President Theodore Roosevelt in what proved to be an insignificant play; his brief appearance was its only memorable moment. Throughout his long career he would go on to play Teddy Roosevelt - to whom, with the right pair of glasses and a little bit of makeup, he bore a startling resemblance - in no fewer than ten plays and movies, the two most unforgettable being This Is My Affair and Rough Riders. After seeing his performance of Rough Riders, Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, remarked, "It was my father. " Over the span of the next fifty-five years he appeared in over two hundred feature films and television serials, as well as forty stage plays.

Blackmer’s film debut came in 1917 opposite Pearl White in serial features known collectively as The Perils of Pauline. In the fall of 1924 he had his first Broadway lead, in the long-running play Mountain Man. To prepare for the part, he spent the summer of 1921 alone, roughing it in the hills of northern Georgia. Blackmer played as Shirley Booth's alcoholic husband, Doc, in William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba (1950). He played this role so convincingly and with such passion that he suffered a severely sprained ankle, broken nose, two cracked ribs, and bruises, cuts, and abrasions over 90 percent of his body. Years later Miss Booth admitted that there were times she was so frightened by Blackmer's drunken scenes she forgot they were acting.

Over the years, Blackmer starred opposite several other famous actresses. In the 1930's version of Heidi he played Shirley Temple's adoptive father. Later he played opposite Helen Hayes, Eva Le Gallienne, and Tallulah Bankhead.

In his later years, he also became a respected producer and director. Blackmer, very much a leader in his profession, always spent freely of his time and money on behalf of worthy causes. During the infamous and bitter actor-manager struggle in the New York theater in 1919, he used his legal talents to protect actors' financial and contractual rights, long- and short-term film rights and profits. Subsequently, he was a member of the National Executive Board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and president of the Theater Authority - the clearing house for benefit performances.

In 1973, even as Blackmer discovered he had cancer, he helped Jerry Lewis initiate the first of his now famous annual Labor Day MDA Telethons, which have raised countless millions of dollars for children over the last two decades. On October 5, 1973, Sydney A. Blackmer lost his struggle with cancer, dying at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research at the age of seventy-eight. He was survived by his wife and two sons, who returned his body to his beloved North Carolina, where he is buried in a small Episcopal Cemetery near Salisbury.

Achievements

• Sydney Blackmer's greatest role came as Shirley Booth's alcoholic husband, Doc, in William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba (1950). For this role Blackmer received both the 1950 Donaldson Award and the Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Award. Among his other famous movie appearances were: People Will Talk (1951); Tammy and the Bachelor (1957); The High and the Mighty (1956); How to Murder Your Wife (1967); and Rosemary's Baby (1969). Blackmer also appeared in several TV movies and on such famous TV series as "Bonanza" and "Big Valley. " His voice alone was so elegant and powerful that he narrated over two dozen films and TV documentaries. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Works

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  • Behind The Green Lights

    (Beautiful Mary Kennedy, a police detective's daughter, ha...)

  • The House of Secrets

    (Barry Wilding arrives in London to take over his uncle's ...)

  • Firetrap, The by Norman Foster,Evelyn Knapp Sydney Blackmer

    (Insurance investigators are on the trail of a con man imp...)

  • The Count of Monte Cristo

    (An unjustly imprisoned Frenchman escapes, finds treasure ...)

  • Rosemarys Baby Blu-ray

    (Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Maurice Evans, Ruth ...)

  • Panther's Claw

    (Mild-mannered Everett P. Digberry is found wandering in a...)

  • Gallant Lady

    (Dr. Rosemary Walsh is a month away from parole, having se...)

  • President's Mystery by Sydney Blackmer,Betty Furness Henry Wilcoxen
  • Heart Of The West

Politics

A lifelong political activist, Blackmer spent much of his later life working for the Democratic party nationally and especially in North Carolina. One of his closest friends was Governor, later Senator, Terry Sanford.

Membership

Sydney Blackmer was a founding member of the Actor's Equity Association. He also was vice-president of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) of America.

Personality

Blackmer was more than just a suave and handsome celluloid image. He was a man who never forgot his roots. Although in later life he and his second wife lived with their sons at 100 Central Park South in New York City, Blackmer never gave up his family home at 112 South Fulton Street in Salisbury, North Carolina; he and the family spent many happy days there.

Connections

Blackmer was married twice. In 1928, Blackmer's marriage to the glamorous movie starlet Lenore Ulric became the theatrical social event of that year. Their tempestuous marriage lasted until 1939, when their divorce also caused a great sensation in Hollywood and New York and made headlines not only in the tabloids but also in reputable newspapers. His second wife was actress Suzanne Kaaren, whom he married in 1942.

Father:

Walter Steele Blackmer

Mother:

Clara (De Roulhac) Blackmer

Spouse:

Lenore Ulric

Spouse:

Suzanne Kaaren

Brother:

Walter Steele Blackmer

Brother:

Luke Blackmer

Friend:

Terry Sanford