A Tribute to Larry Keith
On AMC, she played Ellen and he played Nick. In real life, Kathleen Noone and Larry Keith, who passed away on July 17, were in a romantic relationship for over 10 years and friends until the very end. Noone was kind enough to share her memories of Larry Keith with Digest.
I must say, he was just a major influence in this business, in this industry, with his work at the Screen Actors Guild. He worked tirelessly and was so dedicated to the welfare and to the care and to getting proper representation to the membership as far as his union work. He dedicated his life to it. He was with the Guild for something like 37 years. He worked very, very hard and was dogged in his approach to winning arguments and trying to further the cause of the membership any way possible. He was extraordinary in that regard.
The other side of him, well, we were together for about 10 years, and he had a wonderful place out in the Hamptons, a beach house that he absolutely adored. He was a man of the air and the sea. He loved to be flying. He flew his own plane for a period of time, a Cessna, and he just loved it, loved to be in the air, flying around. And he loved this beach house that he had, the beautiful ocean view he had right on the water. That gave him great peace and great solace. I was always happy for him that he had that place of respite because he worked very, very hard. He was very interesting in that regard. He was a mentor to many people coming up in the business because one of the things you have to do in this business is remain flexible about all the different avenues you have to excel in to earn a living and to make a career. In other words, he didn’t only act on ALL MY CHILDREN but he acted on the stage. He was a singer. He had a major voiceover career in New York City. And the last thing he did, just as he found out how serious his illness was, back in September, was DAMAGES. And this is a man who loved working, loved being part of the Broadway community, which he did much more so in the latter part of his life. He sort of bookended his career, he did it in the very beginning, got into voiceovers, got on ALL MY CHILDREN, then went back to the stage and wound up finishing up on Broadway and still doing television shows. He was a man of many, many, many talents, and a great heart for his work and for the art.
He was also one of the funniest people I have ever been around in my life. He had such a quick wit and such quick comebacks and stories and they were beautiful, just beautiful and fun and you always spent time around Larry in lots of laughter. I have a remembrance of him the last time he was in the hospital and the doctor came in and Larry had us all in stitches, just carrying on, about all the things that were going on in the hospital. And I thought, “This is Larry. He’s finishing his life in laughter, and the ability to look at life with that wry sense of humor, no matter what he was facing.” And let me tell you something: He exhibited extraordinary strength and courage to get through this disease. It caused him a lot of discomfort and pain. His daughter, Lisa, was right by his side and these last nine months, he could not have asked for a better, more devoted medical care manager. She was that. She really shepherded this through this extraordinarily difficult time and my hat is off to her and certainly my heart is with her at this difficult time. You never want to see someone so dynamic with so much to offer the world going out in a very difficult manner. And he did it with great bravery.
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