Blackmer a star of stage and screen

Sidney Blackmer

Sidney Blackmer

Sidney Blackmer, Suzanne Blackmer and Gov. Terry Sanford

Sidney Blackmer in character

Sidney Blackmer

By Katie Scarvey

kscarvey@salisburpost.com

Sidney Blackmer was born July 13, 1895, in Salisbury.

According to the "Sweet Bird of Youth" playbill, Blackmer's role as a political boss was appropriate, given that his maternal grandfather, Sidney Sears Alderman of Florida, "was first signer and last survivor of the Secessional Convention."

Blackmer attended the University of North Carolina, where he not only acted in plays but played football and worked as associate editor for The Tar Heel. After working briefly in Atlanta for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, he went to New York in his late teens in hopes of establishing an acting career.

According to the Internet Movie Database, he began his career by appearing in movies — uncredited — produced by various studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, "which in the first half of the decade of the 1910s, was the Hollywood of America." He reportedly appeared in in the "The Perils of Pauline" (1914), a popular serial.

He had to put his acting on hold to serve in World War I, but he returned to Broadway after the war, reportedly becoming a star in 1921 with his role in "The Mountain Man."

One of his most memorable stage roles came years later in 1950, when he won a Tony Award for best actor in "Come Back, Little Sheba."

Blackmer also starred in many movies, with 1937 an especially busy year — he appeared in 12 films that year, including "Heidi" with Shirley Temple.

One of Blackmer's specialties was portraying President Teddy Roosevelt. He played Roosevelt in numerous films, including "Teddy, the Rough Rider" in 1940.

Modern audiences perhaps know him best for his role as the coven-leading neighbor in the Roman Polanski film "Rosemary's Baby."

Blackmer married his second wife, Suzanne Kaaren, in 1943. (Suzanne later made headlines fighting and triumphing over Donald Trump, who was trying to evict her from the New York apartment she'd shared with Sidney). The couple had two sons, Jonathan and Brewster.

Blackmer was known for his charitable work with the United States Muscular Dystrophy Association.

He died in 1973 and is buried in Salisbury's Chestnut Hills Cemetery.