Richard Todd
Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd was a British actor known for his leading man roles of the 1950s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, and an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance as Corporal Lachlan MacLachlan in the 1949 film The Hasty Heart. His other notable roles include Jonathan Cooper in Stage Fright, Wing Commander Guy Gibson in The Dam Busters, Sir Walter Raleigh in The Virgin Queen, and Major John Howard in The Longest Day. He was previously a Captain in the British Army during the Second World War, fighting in the D-Day landings as a member of the 7th Parachute Battalion.
Early life and career
Richard Todd was born in Dublin. His father, Andrew William Palethorpe-Todd, was an Irish physician and an international Irish rugby player who gained three caps for his country. Richard spent a few of his childhood years in India, where his father, an officer in the British Army, served as a physician. 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 the age of 19 that she had committed suicide, he did not grieve long.
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 including Good Morning, Boys, A Yank at Oxford and Old Bones of the River.
Military service
Todd enlisted soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, entering the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in late 1939. On 29 January 1941, he was one of 26 cadets injured when 'D' Block of New College was hit by a German bomb in an attack by the Luftwaffe. In his memoirs, he describes seeing the bomb pass through the ceiling in front of him before he was blown out of the building by its blast, landing on a grass bank and suffering lacerations; five cadets were killed in the incident. Todd passed out in the spring of 1941. On the day he received his commission, he tried to join several friends at the Café de Paris in London, but could not get a table booked for the evening. That evening, the venue was destroyed in an air raid and 15 newly commissioned subalterns were killed.He was commissioned into the 2nd/4th Battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Following arctic warfare training in Iceland he returned to the UK as a lieutenant. For a short while he was posted, at his request, as liaison officer to the 42nd Armoured Division then applied to join the Parachute Regiment to have a better chance at seeing action. He was accepted and after training was posted to the 7th Parachute Battalion, which formed part of the 5th Parachute Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major General Richard Gale. On 6 June 1944, he participated in Operation Tonga during the D-Day landings. He was among the first British soldiers to land in Normandy and the first Irishman. His battalion parachuted after glider-borne forces had landed to capture the Pegasus Bridge near Caen. During the operation he met Major John Howard on the bridge and was involved in helping to repulse counter-attacks by the German forces in the area. Five days after D-Day, while still in the bridge defence area, he was promoted to captain. Todd later played Howard in the 1962 film The Longest Day, recreating these events.
After three months fighting in Normandy, the 6th Airborne Division returned to the UK to reconstitute and went back to the continent three months later as emergency reinforcements to halt the Battle of the Bulge the German offensive in the Ardennes. Short of transport as they advanced into Germany, Todd, as the motor transport officer, was responsible for gathering a rag-tag selection of commandeered vehicles to ferry troops forward. After VE day, the division returned to the UK for a few weeks, then was sent on counter-insurgency operations in Palestine. During this posting he was seriously injured when his Jeep overturned, breaking both shoulders and receiving a concussion. He returned to the UK to be demobilised in 1946.
Career
Associated British Picture Corporation
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 Catherine Grant-Bogle, who became his first wife. Lennard arranged for a screen test and Associated British offered him a seven year contract in 1948. Todd was cast in the lead in For Them That Trespass, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. The film was a minor hit and Todd's career was launched.Todd had appeared in the Dundee Repertory stage version of John Patrick's play The Hasty Heart, portraying the role of Yank and was 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 film adaptation of the play, filmed in Britain, alongside Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal for Warner Bros.. Todd was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1949. He was also voted favourite British male film star in Britain's National Film Awards.
The film was the tenth most popular movie at the British box office in 1949.
Todd was now much in demand. He was lent to Constellation Films to appear in the thriller The Interrupted Journey. Alfred Hitchcock then used him in Stage Fright, opposite Marlene Dietrich and Jane Wyman – Hitchcock's first British film since 1939. Associated British put him in the drama Portrait of Clare, which did not perform well at the box office. Neither did Flesh and Blood for London Films, in which Todd had a dual role. Director King Vidor offered Todd a lead in Lightning Strikes Twice, for Warners. Far more popular was The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, in which Todd played the title role for Walt Disney Productions.
Associated British put him in 24 Hours of a Woman's Life, with Merle Oberon. The Rank Organisation borrowed him for Venetian Bird, directed by Ralph Thomas. Todd turned down the lead in The Red Beret because he disliked the script. Disney reunited the Robin Hood team in The Sword and the Rose, with Todd as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. It was not as popular as Robin Hood in the U.S. but performed well in Europe. The same went for Disney's Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue, in which Todd played the title role. Disney pulled back on making costume films as a result.
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 only a week to write the script, as the broadcast was rushed into production.
20th Century Fox
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, which was a popular success.Even more popular was The Dam Busters in which Todd played Wing Commander Guy Gibson. This was the most successful film at the British box office in 1955 and became the defining role of Todd's movie career.
The success of Man Called Peter led 20th Century Fox to offer Todd a four-picture contract. Associated British signed the actor to a new contract to make one film a year, but which enabled him to make "outside" movies. Todd's first film for Fox under the new deal was The Virgin Queen, playing Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Bette Davis' Queen Elizabeth I. It did not do as well as Peter. He agreed to appear in Loser Takes All but had to pull out when that film was delayed.
In France, Todd played Axel Fersen opposite Michèle Morgan in Marie Antoinette Queen of France, which was popular in France but not widely seen elsewhere. Fox cast him in D-Day the Sixth of June, opposite Robert Taylor, which was a mild success.
Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst was an attempt to repeat the success of The Dam Busters, with the same director 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, directed by Otto Preminger.
Chase a Crooked Shadow was a thriller with director Anderson for Associated British. Intent to Kill was another thriller, which he was forced to do under his contract with Fox. He returned to war films with Danger Within, a POW story. Then there were more thrillers, with Never Let Go, directed by John Guillermin and co-starring Peter Sellers in a rare straight acting role; Todd gave what has been called one of his best performances.
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, with Laurence Harvey and Richard Harris, for Associated British. He tried comedy with Don't Bother to Knock, again for Associated British in conjunction with Todd's own company, Haileywood Films. This was followed by The Hellions, shot in South Africa.