David Keith (born May 8, 1954) is a Golden Globe-nominated American actor and director. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Keith had an early supporting role in the prison film Brubaker and later co-starred with Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman. Keith also played a local thug in The Great Santini, starred in The Lords of Discipline and White of the Eye, and held a prominent supporting role in U-571 opposite Matthew McConaughey. He played opposite child-star Drew Barrymore in the 1984 hit Firestarter. Keith played Elvis Presley in the 1988 film Heartbreak Hotel. He directed The Curse and The Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck (in which he also starred). He is currently costarring in The Class, an American sitcom, as Yonk Allen, a retired professional football player. Other roles include parts in Daredevil and televisionshows such as Navy NCIS, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , Criminal Intent and High Incident.
Keith was present during the sentencing phase for John Couey, who was convicted by a jury of his peers for kidnapping, raping, and murdering Jessica Lunsford. Keith said that he was planning on going to Washington D.C. with Mark Lunsford after the sentencing, to lobby congress for more support of child sexual predator laws.
Keith gave an interview with Tampa Bay ABC affiliate WFTS-TV and was quoted saying this:
"One of the great things I said about Mark (Lunsford) is he wants justice and he wants closure in this, he wants justice for his daughter. But what he really wants is to protect children and if we can get child molesters in jail, that's the way you protect children!"
Keith is an active member for PROTECT.org which is The National Association to Protect Children association.
