Born in Sandwich, Kent, England. One of eight children of a leather merchant, he went to Sri Lanka at 18 in search of a fortune as a tea planter but was forced out of business by a drought and returned to England. He managed a brewery and tried several other jobs and to relieve the routine began attending an acting school. He made his London stage debut in 1902, playing a murderer in a production of Sherlock Holmes. Two years later he went on tour in the US, made his Broadway debut in Everyman, and subsequently appeared in numerous productions in New York and on the road, playing a wide range of roles, from Shakespeare to musical comedy. He spent most of the 30s with the Lunts at the Theatre Guild and in 1941 made an auspicious screen debut in the role of the mysterious and ruthless Kasper Guttman in John Huston's thriller THE MALTESE FALCON. A bulky man, weighing nearly 300 pounds, he remained in Hollywood to play other mystery men and master villains, mostly in Warner Bros. melodramas. He was particularly effective when matched with fellow schemer, little Peter Lorre. Greenstreet's urbane ambiguous brand of villainy made him a favorite of film audiences of the 40s and one of the classic film villains of all time. Long plagued by diabetes and Bright's disease, he died at 75, four years after retiring from the screen. Visit the Internet Movie Database to view Greenstreet's film credits.    Nominated for Supporting Actor 1941: THE MALTESE FALCON 1 nomination