Brian Keith — Horrible Toupee in “The Parent Trap”

Brain Keith, the late actor and star of the stupid 60s sitcom “Family Affair” also played the dad in the original version of The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills — not the newer one with that drug addict drunk Lindsay Lohan.

Anyway, while The Parent Trap was being filmed back in the early 1960s, Brain keith wore what was probably the worst toupee in the history of cinema.    At one point during filming he was so disturbed by the way the wig looked in the daily rushes (prints) of the movie, that he insisted that a scene be added where he falls into the lake and climbs out — his hair still intact.  He figured that by doing this,  people who watched the movie and otherwise wondered if indeed he was was wearing a toupee would be swayed to assume he wasn’t were he to fall into the water and emerge with his hair still intact. 

“We had to film that scene months after the movie was finished,” said a source close to the production.  “It cost us almost as much to film that one segment that it did to film the entire movie.  We had to fly people in and re-rent the location — a house near Lake Tahoe — it was a nightmare, but there was no saying “no” to Brian Keith because he was an ego maniac who thought that he was the pillar of masculine virility. 

“The producers insisted that he stop trying to film shirtless scenes because he had that in-shape but really outta shape old man body.  One scene was filmed where he takes off his shirt to take a shower but when the movie came out that scene was cut in such a way that you only see him unbutton his shirt but you don’t see him walk across the bathroom shirtless.  Brian was so infuriated that the director did this that he walked out of the premier of the movie at the Chinese Theater.”

TheDamienZone notes that Brian Keith had the worst toupee of his time and he refused to listen to stylists who told him that you can’t have a thick wavy mop of strawberry blond hair on the top of your head when the sides of your head are thinning and grayish black.  If you watch the movie the toupee will drive you out of your mind.  It may have driven Brian Keith out of his mind too because he eventually committed suicide.

6 thoughts on “Brian Keith — Horrible Toupee in “The Parent Trap”

  1. Sorry for my english
    I’m really great fan of Briank Keith and Daniel H. Kelly in Hardcastle & Mccomrmick, one of the great show of all time. He learn as hid his baldness, he did the carryover over his skull, I see his hairpiece is really awful in this movie. He should have learned by William Shatner, but I think the carryover in Hardcastle and McCormick
    was good

    PS: the is a blog on William Shatner, I listen some click on him, one time on Radio the DJ tell him: “Hei you had the best hairpiece never seen”, and Shatner go baldy “This is shitting idiot question bla bla bla” and slammed down his phone amusing

  2. Had no idea all this info after seeing his “piece” in an old noir movie. It looks like a plant seeking sunlight.

  3. Brian Keith didn’t commit suicide because his toupee drove him out of his mind. He had cancer and emphysema, and his daughter had committed suicide not long before.

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