CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

David Keith (actor)

American actor and director (born 1954)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

David Lemuel Keith is an American actor and director. His breakout role was as aspiring Navy pilot Sid Worley in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), earning Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year. The role paved the way for leading performances in The Lords of Discipline (1983), Firestarter (1984) and the cult thriller White of the Eye (1987). Keith has since appeared in numerous supporting roles, among them Major League II (1994), The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), Poodle Springs (1998), U-571 (2000), Men of Honor (2000), Behind Enemy Lines (2001) and Daredevil (2003). He also portrayed Elvis Presley in Chris Columbus’s musical comedy Heartbreak Hotel (1988), singing several numbers on the soundtrack—including “Love Me” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”—opposite Tuesday Weld.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “David Keith (actor)” as american actor and director (born 1954). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Keith and actor.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1983, 1984, 1987—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with David, Keith and actor providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “David Keith (actor)”, the useful work is to connect “american actor and director (born 1954)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David Keith (actor)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David Keith (actor) primary sources, David Keith (actor) archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Keith (actor)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “David Keith (actor)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.