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Richard Todd

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Richard Todd
OBE
Publicity photo of Todd, c. 1959
Born
Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd

(1919-06-11)11 June 1919
Dublin, Ireland
Died 3 December 2009(2009-12-03) (aged 90)
Grantham,[1] Lincolnshire, England
OccupationActor
Spouse(s)
Catherine Grant-Bogle
​
​
(m. 1949; div. 1970)​

Virginia Mailer
​
​
(m. 1970; div. 1992)​
Children5 (2 with Bogle, 1 with Nelson and 2 with Mailer)
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1941–1946
UnitKing's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Parachute Regiment
Battles / warsWorld War II

Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd OBE (11 June 1919 – 3 December 2009) was an Irish born English actor. He received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, as well as an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor nomination for his role in the film The Hasty Heart (1949).

Biography

Early life

Richard Todd was born as Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland.[2] His father, Andrew William Palethorpe Todd, was an Irish physician and an international Irish rugby player who gained three caps for his country.[3] Richard spent a few of his childhood years in India, where his father, an officer in the British Army, served as a physician.[4]

Education

Later his family moved to Devon and Todd attended Shrewsbury School. Upon leaving school, Todd trained for a potential military career at Sandhurst before beginning his acting training at the Italia Conti Academy in London.

This change in career led to estrangement from his mother. When he learned at age 19 that she had committed suicide, he did not grieve long for her, he admitted in later life.[4]

Early Career: Founding Scottish theatre company, theatre and film

He first appeared professionally as an actor at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in 1936 in a production of Twelfth Night. He played in regional theatres and then co-founded the Dundee Repertory Theatre in Scotland in 1939. He also appeared as an extra in British films like Good Morning, Boys (1937), A Yank at Oxford (1938) and Old Bones of the River (1939).

World War 2

Captain Richard Todd landed near Pegasus Bridge on 6 June 1944.

At the beginning of World War 2, Todd joined the British Army, receiving a commission in 1941. He served in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) before joining the Parachute Regiment and the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion as part of the British 6th Airborne Division. On 6 June 1944, as a captain, he participated in Operation Tonga during the D-Day landings.[5] He was among the first British soldiers to land in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord. His battalion parachuted in after glider-borne forces had landed to capture the Pegasus Bridge near Caen.[5] During the operation he met John Howard on the bridge and organized the repulse of several counter-attacks by the Wehrmacht forces holding the area.[6] (Todd played Howard in the film The Longest Day, recreating these events, while another actor played Todd.)[7][8]

Acting career

After the war, Todd was unsure what direction to take in his career. His former agent, Robert Lennard, had become a casting agent for Associated British Picture Corporation and advised him to try out for the Dundee Repertory Company. Todd did so, performing in plays such as Claudia, where he appeared with Claudia Grant-Bogle. Lennard arranged for a screen test and Associated British offered him a long-term contract in 1948. He was cast in the lead in For Them That Trespass (1949), directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.[9] The film was a minor hit and Todd's career was launched.[10]

The Hasty Heart

Todd had appeared in the Dundee Repertory stage version of John Patrick's play The Hasty Heart, portraying the role of Yank and was subsequently chosen to appear in the 1948 London stage version of the play, this time in the leading role of Cpl. Lachlan McLachlan. This led to his being cast in that role in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of the play, which was filmed in Britain alongside Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal. Todd was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1949.[11] He was also voted favourite British male film star in Britain's National Film Awards. [12] The film was the tenth most popular movie at the British box office in 1949.[13]

Todd was now in much demand. He was lent out to a new company, Constellation Films, to appear in a thriller, The Interrupted Journey (1949). Alfred Hitchcock then used him in Stage Fright (1950), opposite Marlene Dietrich and Jane Wyman – Hitchcock's first British film located in Britain since 1939.

Associated British put him in a drama, Portrait of Clare (1950), which did not perform particularly well at the box office. Neither did Flesh and Blood (1951), for London Films, in which Todd had a dual role. Director King Vidor offered Todd a lead in a Hollywood movie, Lightning Strikes Twice (1951). Far more popular was The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), in which Todd played the title role for the Disney Corporation.

Associated British put him in another thriller, 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952), with Merle Oberon. The Rank Organisation borrowed him for a thriller, Venetian Bird (1952), directed by Ralph Thomas.

Disney reunited the Robin Hood team in The Sword and the Rose (1953), with Todd as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. It was not as popular as Robin Hood in the US but performed well in Europe. The same went for Disney's, Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1953), in which Todd played the title role. Disney pulled back on making costume films as a result.[14]

In 1953, he appeared in a BBC Television adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff. Nigel Kneale, responsible for the adaptation, said the production came about purely because Todd had turned up at the BBC and told them that he would like to play Heathcliff for them. Kneale had to write the script in only a week as the broadcast was rushed into production.[15]

A Man Called Peter and The Dam Busters

Todd's career received a boost when 20th Century-Fox signed him to a non-exclusive contract and cast him as the United States Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall in the film version of Catherine Marshall's best selling biography, A Man Called Peter (1955), which was a popular success.

Even more popular was The Dam Busters (1955) in which Todd played Wing Commander Guy Gibson. This was the most successful film at the British box office in 1955[16] and which would become the defining role of Todd's movie career.

20th Century Fox offered Todd another historical picture, The Virgin Queen (1955), playing Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Bette Davis' Queen Elizabeth I. It do not do as well as Peter.

In France he played Axel Fersen opposite Michèle Morgan in Marie Antoinette Queen of France (1956), which was popular in France but not widely seen elsewhere. Fox cast him in a war film, D-Day the Sixth of June (1956), opposite Robert Taylor, which was a mild success.

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst (1957) was an attempt to repeat the success of The Dam Busters, with the same director (Michael Anderson) and Todd playing another real life hero. It was popular in Britain but not on the scale of The Dam Busters. He was Dunois, Bastard of Orléans in Saint Joan (1957), directed by Otto Preminger.

Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958) was a thriller with director Anderson for Associated British. Intent to Kill (1958) was another thriller, this time for Fox, with Betsy Drake. He returned to war films with Danger Within (1958), a POW story. Then there were more thrillers, with Never Let Go (1960), directed by John Guillermin and co-starring Peter Sellers in a rare dramatic role.

Few of these films had been overly popular but Todd was still the top billed star of The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961), with Laurence Harvey and Richard Harris. He tried comedy with Don't Bother to Knock (1961), then made an adventure film in South Africa, The Hellions (1961).

Professional decline

His career in films rapidly declined in the 1960s as the counter-culture movement in the Arts became fashionable in England, with social-realist dramas commercially replacing the more middle-class orientated dramatic productions that Todd's performance character-type had previously excelled in.

The Boys (1962) was a courtroom drama film in which Todd played the lead prosecuting barrister. He had a decent part among the many stars in The Longest Day (1962), Todd's biggest hit in a long time. The Very Edge (1963) was a thriller, then he played Harry Sanders in two films for Harry Alan Towers, Death Drums Along the River (1965) and Coast of Skeletons (1965). He also had a small role in Anderson's Operation Crossbow (1965).

In 1964 he was a member of the jury at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.[17]

He had a supporting part in The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965) and the lead in The Love-Ins (1968).

In the 1970s, he gained new fans when he appeared as the reader for Radio Four's Morning Story. In the 1980s his distinctive voice was heard as narrator of the series Wings Over the World, a show about the history of aviation shown on Arts & Entertainment television. He appeared before the camera in the episode about the Lancaster bomber. Todd continued to act on television, including roles in Virtual murder, Silent Witness and in the Doctor Who story Kinda in 1982. In 1989 he appeared in the first episode of the sixth series of the television whodunit; Murder, She Wrote in which he played Colonel Alex Schofield in the episode entitled Appointment in Athens.

He formed Triumph Theatre Productions with Duncan C Weldon and Paul Elliott in the late 1960s. This company produced over 100 plays, musicals and pantomimes all over the country. Some of them starred Todd.

His active acting career extended into his eighties, and he made several appearances in British shows such as Heartbeat and The Royal. He appeared in The Royal as Hugh Hurst a retired solicitor in tbe episode Kiss and Tell (2003); his last appearance in Heartbeat being when he played Major Harold Beecham in the 2007 episode Seeds of Destruction.

Richard Todd was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.[18]

He was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in March 1960 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, and in November 1988, when Michael Aspel surprised him on stage at the Theatre Royal Windsor.

Unmade projects

Todd was the first choice of author Ian Fleming to play James Bond in Dr. No, but a scheduling conflict gave the role to Sean Connery. In the 1960s, Todd unsuccessfully attempted to produce a film of Ian Fleming's The Diamond Smugglers[11] and a television series based on true accounts of the Queen's Messengers.[11] He was also announced for a proposed film about William Shakespeare.[19]

In his book British Film Character Actors (1982), Terence Pettigrew described Todd as 'an actor who made the most of what he had, which could be summed up as an inability to sit still while there was a horse to leap astride, a swollen river to swim or a tree to vanish into.'

Personal life

Both Todd's marriages ended in divorce. His first was to actress Catherine Grant-Bogle, whom he met in Dundee Repertory and was married to from 1949 until 1970; they had a son Peter (1952–2005) and a daughter Fiona. In 1960 he had a son Jeremy with model Patricia Nelson. He was married to model Virginia Mailer from 1970 until 1992; they had two sons, Andrew and Seamus (1977–1997).[20] In retirement, Todd lived in the village of Little Ponton and later in Little Humby, 8 miles from Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Two of Todd's five children died by suicide. In 1997, Seamus Palethorpe-Todd shot himself in the head in the family home in Lincolnshire. An inquest determined that the suicide might have been a depressive reaction to the drug he was taking for severe acne. On 21 September 2005, Peter killed himself with a shotgun in East Malling, Kent, following marital difficulties.[21]

His sons' suicides affected Todd profoundly; he admitted to visiting their adjoining graves regularly. He told the Daily Mail that dealing with those tragedies was like his experience of war, "You don't consciously set out to do something gallant. You just do it because that is what you are there for."

Legacy

Todd, with his own military record, was a keen supporter of remembrance events especially those associated with the Normandy landings and the Dambusters. He continued to be identified in the public consciousness with Guy Gibson, the role he played in The Dam Busters.

Todd appeared at many Dambusters' anniversaries at Derwent Dam. His final appearance was in May 2008 with Les Munro (the last surviving pilot from the raid on the Ruhr dams).

The actor also narrated at least one TV documentary about the Dambusters and contributed forewords to many books on the subject, including The Dam Busters by Jonathan Falconer (2003), Filming the Dam Busters by Jonathan Falconer (2005) and most recently Bouncing-Bomb Man: The Science of Sir Barnes Wallis by Iain Murray (2009).

Death

Todd died at his home near Grantham, Lincolnshire on 3 December 2009.[22][23] His body was buried between his two sons Seamus and Peter at St. Guthlac's Church in Little Ponton, in the county of Lincolnshire. The gravestone's epitaph reads – Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd, 1919–2009, husband of Virginia and Kitty, loving father of Peter, Fiona, Andrew, Seamus and Jeremy, exit Dashing young Blade – a reference to the description made by the Queen Mother of the actor.

Selected filmography

Box office rankings

British exhibitors regularly listed Todd among the most popular local stars at the box office in various polls:

  • 1950 – 7th most popular British star[24]
  • 1952 – 5th most popular British star in Britain[25]
  • 1954 – 9th most popular British star
  • 1955 – 7th most popular British star[26]
  • 1957 – 3rd most popular star in Britain[27]

Select theatre credits

Books

  • Caught in the Act (1986)
  • In Camera An Autobiography Continued (1989)

References

  1. ^ "He died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday at his home near Grantham in Lincolnshire.". See under 'Death' below
  2. ^ "BBC News – Dam Busters star Richard Todd dies aged 90". news.bbc.co.uk. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  3. ^ "Varsity match venues, uncapped Barbarians..." scrum.com. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Richard Todd". The Daily Telegraph. 6 December 2009. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
  5. ^ a b Ambrose, Stephen E. (1985) [2003]. Pegasus Bridge. London: Simon and Schuster. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-7434-5068-3.
  6. ^ "D-DAY SPECIAL: We take film legend Richard Todd back to the scene of his toughest real-life battle". News International. 3 August 2009.
  7. ^ "The Longest Day – Full Credits". Turner Classic Movies. Time Warner Company. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  8. ^ "Extract: The story of an Irishman in WW II: Richard Todd – actor and soldier".
  9. ^ "Richard Todd is newest find for British films". The Australian Women's Weekly. 9 July 1949. p. 38. Retrieved 25 July 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ Nepean, E. (1957, Feb 09). Round the British studios. Picture show, 68, 11. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1879656089
  11. ^ a b c Todd, Richard. Caught in the Act, Hutchinson, 1986 ISBN 0-09-163800-3
  12. ^ "Jean Simmons Named No. 1 British Film Star". The Daily News (FIRST ed.). Perth. 22 April 1950. p. 5. Retrieved 18 December 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "TOPS AT HOME". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. 31 December 1949. p. 4. Retrieved 24 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ Disney Reports Income Gain Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 4 June 1954: A7.
  15. ^ Murray, Andy (2006). Into the Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale (paperback). London: Headpress. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-900486-50-7.
  16. ^ "'The Dam Busters'." Times [London, England], 29 December 1955, p. 12 via The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved: 11 July 2012.
  17. ^ "Berlinale 1964: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  18. ^ TCM
  19. ^ "Hope tops list for popularity". The Mail. Adelaide. 30 December 1950. p. 5 Supplement: Sunday Magazine. Retrieved 10 July 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006
  21. ^ "Suicide of actor's depressed son". BBC. 3 March 2006. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  22. ^ "Dambusters star Richard Todd dies aged 90". BBC News. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  23. ^ Richard Todd, Dashing Actor, Dies at 90
  24. ^ "Success Of British Films." Times [London, England] 29 December 1950: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012.
  25. ^ "COMEDIAN TOPS FILM POLL". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 28 December 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 27 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. ^ "'The Dam Busters'." Times [London, England] 29 December 1955: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012.
  27. ^ Most Popular Film of the Year. The Times (London, England), Thursday, 12 December 1957; p. 3; Issue 54022
  28. ^ "Richard Todd off stage". The Canberra Times. 3 February 1973. p. 11. Retrieved 18 December 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
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