Andrew Keir Biography

Fast Facts

• Worked to help promote community theatre in Scotland
• Worked in the Lanarkshire coalfields as a youth until his friend's introduction to a local dramatic society led to an invitation from Tyrone Guthrie to join the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre Company
• Quote: "[on his early career] "I soaked it up like a sponge, cutting my teeth on four new plays per year․ Novices don't have that sort of opportunity nowadays․""
• Quote: "[on mining] "Those were the days, when you left school at 14 and followed your father 'doon the pit․'""
• Worked in theatre with director Tyrone Guthrie for a number of years
• Specialized in playing frank, sometimes taciturn, authority figures
• In order to leave his job as a minor during World War II and switch to acting professionally, he had to obtain a medical diagnosis of pneumoconiosis