Fred Keating

Biography

Fred Keating was a professional magician who reinvented himself as a Hollywood actor. Of Irish-Spanish parentage, Keating performed conjuring tricks from early childhood and eventually became apprenticed to Howard Thurston after having absconded from Culver Military Academy. He struck out on his own by the age of eighteen and became immensely successful on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920's. Amusing patter and clever showmanship were his stock-in-trade and one of his most popular routines was a version of de Kolta's Vanishing Birdcage. He also sold several short stories and changed his name from 'F. Serrano Keating' (Serrano was his mother's maiden name) to 'Fred Keating' on the advice of playwright Edna Ferber. By 1932, he began to forsake magic for comedy. He appeared on Broadway (where star Tallulah Bankhead helped him overcome jittery nerves) and then acted in fourteen Hollywood films between 1934 and 1940. Keating was given several starring vehicles, including The Nitwits (1935) (with comic duo Wheeler & Woolsey), The Devil on Horseback (1936) (opposite Lili Damita), When's Your Birthday? (1937) (with Joe E. Brown) and Prison Train (1938) (with Dorothy Comingore). Alcoholism and depression subsequently hampered his career and he returned to performing magic in the seedier nightclubs and hotels of New York. However, by then, his days at the top of his profession were well and truly past.