The Timeless Theater
  • Home
  • Action
    • 1920 Action
    • 1930 Action
    • 1940 Action
    • 1950 Action
    • 1960 Action
  • Comedy
    • 1920 Comedy
    • 1930 Comedy
    • 1940 Comedy
    • 1950 Comedy
    • 1960 Comedy
  • Drama
    • 1920 Drama
    • 1930 Drama
    • 1940 Drama
    • 1950 Drama
    • 1960 Drama
  • Horror-SciFi
    • 1920 Horror-Scifi
    • 1930 Horror-Scifi
    • 1940 Horror-Scifi
    • 1950 Horror-Scifi
    • 1960 Horror-Scifi
  • Suspense
    • 1920 Suspense
    • 1930 Suspense
    • 1940 Suspense
    • 1950 Suspense
    • 1960 Suspense
  • Features
    • Film Noir >
      • Film Noir-The Men
      • Film Noir-The Women
      • Film Noir-The Directors
    • Pre-Code Hollywood >
      • Pre-code-Women-I
      • Pre-code-Women-II
  • Title Index
  • Home
  • Action
    • 1920 Action
    • 1930 Action
    • 1940 Action
    • 1950 Action
    • 1960 Action
  • Comedy
    • 1920 Comedy
    • 1930 Comedy
    • 1940 Comedy
    • 1950 Comedy
    • 1960 Comedy
  • Drama
    • 1920 Drama
    • 1930 Drama
    • 1940 Drama
    • 1950 Drama
    • 1960 Drama
  • Horror-SciFi
    • 1920 Horror-Scifi
    • 1930 Horror-Scifi
    • 1940 Horror-Scifi
    • 1950 Horror-Scifi
    • 1960 Horror-Scifi
  • Suspense
    • 1920 Suspense
    • 1930 Suspense
    • 1940 Suspense
    • 1950 Suspense
    • 1960 Suspense
  • Features
    • Film Noir >
      • Film Noir-The Men
      • Film Noir-The Women
      • Film Noir-The Directors
    • Pre-Code Hollywood >
      • Pre-code-Women-I
      • Pre-code-Women-II
  • Title Index
Picture
Dennis OKeefe
Active - 1931 - 1968  |   Born - Mar 29, 1908 in Fort Madison, IA  |   Died - Aug 31, 1968 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA  |   Genres - Comedy, Drama, Musical, Crime, Romance

Born Edward Flanagan, O’Keefe was a lithe, brash, charming, tall, rugged lead actor. The son of vaudevillians, he began appearing onstage in his parents’ act while still a toddler. By age 16 he was writing scripts for “Our Gang” comedy shorts. He attended some college and did more work on vaudeville before entering films in the early ‘30s, appearing in bit roles in more than 50 films under the name Bud Flanagan.

He is remembered as being a leading man of Hollywood B films during the 1940s. He moved to California to pursue an acting career, writing film scripts while attending college. In the early 1930s he appeared in numerous films under the name Bud Flanagan, usually as an extra, the first being “Reaching for the Moon” (1930). After a small but impressive role in “Saratoga” (1937), Clark Gable recommended him to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, and they signed him to a contract later that year, renaming him Dennis O’Keefe. He received bigger film roles after that, starting with “The Bad Man of Brimstone” (1938, with Wallace Beery), and the lead role in “Burn ‘Em Up O’Connor” (1939).

In 1940 he left MGM but continued working in mostly low budget film productions, often playing the tough guy in action and crime dramas but was also known as a comic actor as well as a dramatic lead. For most of the period between 1944 and 1952, he alternated roles on radio with film work. He had another lead in the 1945 radio serial “Hollywood Mystery Time”, as a movie director-cum-sleuth. His other notable films include “Topper Returns” (1940), “Broadway Limited” (1941), “The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine” (1942), “The Leopard Man” (1943), “The Story of Dr. Wassell” (1944), “Brewster’s Millions” (1945), “The Affairs of Susan” (1945), “Getting Gertie’s Garter” (1945), “Doll Face” (1946), “Dishonored Lady” (1947), “T-Men” (1947), “Walk a Crooked Mile” (1948), “Raw Deal” (1948), “Cover Up” (1949), “Abandoned” (1950), “Woman on the Run” (1950), “The Fake” (1953), and Drums of Tahiti” (1954).

In the 1950s he did some directing and wrote mystery stories and appeared on NBC television’s legal drama series “Justice” as well as “The Martha Raye Show.” From 1957 to 1958, he was the host of NBC television’s mystery drama “Suspicion,” produced by Alfred Hitchcock and from 1959 to 1960, he was the star of the CBS television situation comedy, “The Dennis O’Keefe Show.” His last film appearance was in “Naked Flame” (1964). He was married to actress and dancer Steffi Duna from 1940 until his death. A heavy smoker, he died of lung cancer at the age of 60

Available Films:

CENTRAL PARK (1932)

CHICAGO SYNDICATE (1955)

COMPANY SHE KEEPS, THE (1950)

COVER-UP (1949)

DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE (1957)

EAGLE AND THE HAWK (1950)

EASY LIVING (1937)

EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT (1935)

FIGHTING SEABEES, THE (1944)

HANGMEN ALSO DIE (1943)

LADY SCARFACE (1941)

LAS VEGAS SHAKEDOWN (1955)

LEOPARD MAN, THE (1943)

RAW DEAL (1948)

T-MEN (1947)

WOMAN ON THE RUN (1950)

YOU'LL FIND OUT (1940)

Trivia:
Changed his stagename to Dennis O'Keefe from Bud Flanagan in 1937.

Was an extra in over 200 films.
Explore the simpler time of yesteryear... 
A time when men and women were truly glamorous. A time when you could watch any movie with your children and not have to worry about gratuitous sex or violence – yet enjoy all the lustful inferences and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Welcome to The Timeless Theater!

    Contact Us

    Don't be shy
    Your questions, comments or fond memories here
    Please leave your email address so I can respond back.
Submit

*** new features ***

Film Noir: The Men
Meet the hard-boiled detectives, cynical antiheroes, and ruthless villains
Film Noir: The Women
Meet Hard-Boiled Women, good girls gone bad, and femme fatales
Film Noir: The Directors
Meet the master storytellers who weave their ill-fated tales in an unforgiving dark, shadowy world.

Picture
Meet The Women who pushed the boundaries of moral, social, and artistic conventions... 
Part I
Part II