Dennis O'Keefe, a tall, cheerful, and outdoorsy leading man of Hollywood B-movies, began his show business career as an infant accompanying his vaudevillian parents, "Flanagan and Edwards, the Rollicking Twosome," on stage. As a teenager, he started writing film scripts while attending college and later tried to break into films as an extra, appearing under his birth name Bud Flanagan. His easy-going manner and impudent grin, which possibly reminded Clark Gable of himself, led to Gable suggesting Bud to MGM management for leading roles.
Bud Flanagan soon became Dennis O'Keefe, the resident tough guy of action dramas and occasional comedies. Serious acting was rarely called upon, but Dennis handled the material given to him with aplomb and good humor. After his contract with MGM expired in 1940, he free-lanced and appeared in three of his best pictures: Topper Returns (1941),The Leopard Man (1943),and T-Men (1947),which he co-scripted with John C. Higgins.
Dennis O'Keefe was chosen for the lead in the CBS radio series based on T-Men, which balanced drama with light comedy. He alternated roles on radio with film work for most of the period between 1944 and 1952. On screen, he displayed his penchant for comedy in Brewster's Millions (1945),followed by the forgettable farce Getting Gertie's Garter (1945),and the fair, marginally off-beat comedy The Lady Wants Mink (1953),co-starring with Ruth Hussey and Eve Arden.
In addition to his film work, Dennis O'Keefe directed the crime thriller Angela (1954),which he also co-scripted under the pseudonym Jonathan Rix. He eventually turned his hand to directing and starred in his own short-lived television sitcom about a widowed Los Angeles syndicated columnist. After that, he guested in just a few more TV episodes before his untimely death from lung cancer in August 1968.
