The Stage

Dambuster Richard Todd dies aged 90

Published Friday 4 December 2009 at 13:30 by Michael Quinn

The actor Richard Todd has died from cancer at the age of 90.

Best known for his role as pilot Guy Gibson in the 1955 war film The Dambusters, Dublin-born Todd made his stage debut in 1936 at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park and joined Dundee Repertory Theatre in its opening season in 1939.

Following service in the Parachute Regiment during the war with whom he parachuted into France on D-Day, Todd returned to the London stage in The Hasty Heart and went on to appear in its Broadway run and a 1949 film adaptation alongside Ronald Reagan, for which he was nominated for and Academy Award. He later worked with Alfred Hitchcock in Stage Fright, a raft of films for Disney and alongside Marlene Dietrich and Bette Davis, and was reportedly Ian Fleming’s first choice to play James Bond.

West End appearances in the 1960s included An Ideal Husband at the Strand and Dodie Smith’s Dear Octopus at the Haymarket. In 1970 he co-founded Triumph Theatre Productions with Paul Elliott and Duncan C Wheldon. He toured with the RSC to America in 1974 and appeared in Business of Murder for eight years at the Mayfair Theatre.