Keefe Brasselle (February 7, 1923 – July 7, 1981) was an American film actor, television actor/producer, and author. He is best remembered for the starring role in The Eddie Cantor Story (1953). Brasselle had a close friendship with the CBS executive James T. Aubrey, but he insisted on Aubrey's total support. He was known to be very demanding in his relationship with Aubrey. There were rumors that Aubrey had no choice in approving the Brasselle projects due to threats from the Mafia, with which Brasselle was known to be connected.

He was born Henry Keefe Brassil, the son of an Irish father, Henry Richard Brassil, a hotel manager in Cleveland, Ohio; and Madelaine Antonelli, an Italian nightclub singer from New York. Keefe was raised by his mother and her second husband, Harold Prindle, in New York; Prindle trained Keefe for a career in show business.

Brasselle joined the U. S. Army in 1942 and appeared in a few motion pictures without screen credit. Just a few days after separating from the Army in September 1944, he auditioned for the juvenile lead opposite singing star Gloria Jean in the waterfront mystery River Gang (filmed in 1944, released 1945). His dark, chorus-boy looks landed him the role, and he went on to featured roles in movies. Ida Lupino cast him in two pictures she produced herself, Not Wanted (1949) and Never Fear (1950).

Brasselle's mother was actress Betty Grable's personal hairdresser, using the name Marie Brasselle. In 1949 she wrote, "My son, Keefe Brasselle, is an actor. [Betty] called Louella Parsons and gave Keefe a build-up that would make a press agent's conversation sound weak by comparison. That plug from Betty Grable, who has never sought publicity for herself, did Keefe a lot of good, and he'll never forget it." Brasselle was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950 as a promising leading man.

Warner Bros. groomed him for stardom in The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), filmed in response to the wildly successful The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again starring Larry Parks as Al Jolson, one of Cantor's musical-comedy contemporaries. The Eddie Cantor Story could not equal the success of the Jolson films, largely because Brasselle didn't fit the role physically. Standing almost a foot taller than the real Cantor, and unable to convey Cantor's natural warmth, Brasselle's performance became a caricature: the actor played most of his scenes with bulging eyes and busy hands, which was effective in the musical numbers but awkward in the dramatic scenes. In 1954, to promote the film, he was a guest on an episode (season 4, episode 21, February 21, 1954) of The Colgate Comedy Hour with host Gene Wesson.

Ultimately, Brasselle's career did not launch as anticipated, and he reverted to second and third leads in minor films. An attempt in 1957 to find starring roles in England resulted in two feature films, after which he returned to the United States for occasional appearances on television.

Determined to find steadier work, Brasselle turned to nightclubs, where he appeared as a singer and comedian. In 1961, an Edison Township, New Jersey, nightclub owned by Brasselle burned under suspicious circumstances. Fire officials came across six empty cans of gasoline at the scene, while their caps and spouts were found separately in a paper bag.

In the summer of 1963, Brasselle starred in a summer replacement series for The Garry Moore Show. Called The Keefe Brasselle Show, the program featured actress Ann B. Davis as herself in three episodes. A 21-year-old Barbra Streisand appeared on his first episode on June 25, 1963, in promoting her first album.