Linda Keith
| Alan Keith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alexander Kossoff 19 October 1908 London, England, UK |
| Died | 17 March 2003 (aged 94) London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actor, disc jockey, radio presenter |
| Spouse(s) | Pearl Rebuck (1941–2003, his death) |
Alan Keith OBE (born Alexander Kossoff; 19 October 1908 – 17 March 2003) was a British actor, disc jockey and radio presenter, noted for being the longest serving and oldest presenter on British radio by the time of his death aged 94.
Alexander Kossoff was born in the East End of London and educated at Dame Alice Owen's School at Islington. In 1926 he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he anglicised his name to Alan Keith. He graduated in 1928 with the Silver Medal, and spent the next eight years on the West End and Broadway stage.
By 1935, Alan Keith was already an established voice on BBC radio, appearing in dozens of radio plays as a member of the drama and spending three years as an interviewer for In Town Tonight. He also acted in films, appearing in Dangerous Moonlight (1941), The World Owes Me a Living (1945), The Long Knife (1958) and Yesterday's Enemy (1959). In pre-war television broadcasts, he discovered he had a facility with American accents, and he continued to play American characters on television and radio through the 1940s and 1950s.
Beginning in the early 1950s, he devoted time to devising and presenting music programmes for the BBC. In 1959, he devised Your Hundred Best Tunes, a programme of famous classical music, operetta and ballads. Keith chose the original 100 pieces himself. Many works were suggested by listeners and played in the programme. Thus a good many more than 100 works were played and the list evolved. Therefore, in subsequent years, a 100 Best were periodically voted for by listeners. In early March 2003, at the age of 94, he recorded an announcement that he intended to retire from the programme after 44 years. However, he fell ill almost immediately afterwards, and died soon after; his final programme was broadcast 12 days after his death.
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