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10 articles from 2009

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Actor Richard Todd Dead At Age 90; Recreated His WWII Heroics On Film

17 hours ago | Cinemaretro.com | See recent CinemaRetro news »

Todd in his most acclaimed role, as star of The Dam Busters.

The distinguished British actor Richard Todd has passed away at age 90. Todd was a real-life war hero, being among the first paratroopers to enter France on the eve of the Normandy invasion. Todd later starred in two major films recreating the historic event: D-Day, The Sixth of June and The Longest Day. He also starred in the acclaimed WWII adventure The Dam Busters. His eclectic post war career included an eight year stint performing on Britain's West End in the play The Business of Murder and launching a successful dairy business. Among his other films were starring opposite Ronald Reagan in The Hasty Heart (for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar), The Long and the Short and the Tall (aka Jungle Fighters), Never Let Go in which he starred opposite Peter Sellers, The Hellions, Operation Crossbow »

- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)

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'Dam Busters' star Todd dies, aged 90

4 December 2009 8:24 AM, PST | digitalspy | See recent digitalspy news »

The Dam Busters star Richard Todd has died at the age of 90, reports BBC News. A spokesperson for his family confirmed that he passed away in his sleep at his home in Grantham, near Lincolnshire on Thursday morning. "[He] had been suffering from cancer, an illness that he bore with his habitual courage and dignity. His family were with him throughout," he said. Todd is best known for his role in war movie The Dam Busters. His other film (more) »

- By Lara Martin

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Richard Todd obituary

4 December 2009 8:10 AM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Actor best known for his role in the classic second world war film The Dam Busters

Richard Todd, who has died of cancer aged 90, will be best remembered for the films in which he played a wide assortment of clean-cut British heroes. His most famous performance was as Wing Commander Guy Gibson in The Dam Busters (1955), although he also played Robin Hood and Sir Walter Raleigh.

As dour and stiff upper-lipped as any of the characters he portrayed in his highly successful film career in the 1940s and 1950s, he was one of the first members of the Parachute Regiment to jump on D-day – a real-life role he later echoed, albeit at a higher rank, in The Longest Day (1962), the reconstruction of the invasion of Normandy 17 years after the event (another actor posed as Todd himself).

As Gibson, Todd starred as the leader of the daring airborne mission in May »

- Dennis Barker

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Actor Todd Dies At 90

4 December 2009 4:16 AM, PST | WENN | See recent WENN news »

The Dam Busters star and real life war hero Richard Todd has died at the age of 90.

Todd, best known for his role in the 1955 World War II epic, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Grantham, England on Thursday.

The Irish-born star began as a stage actor in the 1930s, but his promising career was cut short by war and he joined the British Army. He graduated to the position of captain in the British 6th Airborne Division and took part in the famous D-Day landings of 1944.

After the war, Todd returned to the stage for a production of The Hasty Heart and was chosen to star in a Hollywood adaptation which won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in 1949. For his second role he teamed up with legendary director Alfred Hitchcock to star in 1950 thriller Stage Fright.

He went on to play heroes including folk legends Robin Hood and Rob Roy, before landing a role in The Dam Busters. He also starred in another well-known World War II epic The Longest Day in 1962, in which he relived the D-Day landings.

Todd came close to landing the iconic role of James Bond in the super-spy's movie debut Dr. No. The actor was 007 author Ian Fleming's first choice to play the suave secret agent, but a scheduling conflict ruled him out of the movie and handed the part to Sean Connery.

The veteran star continued to act in the 1980s with roles in British TV shows including crime series Silent Witness and sci-fi classic Doctor Who and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1993. »

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Dam Busters actor Richard Todd dies

4 December 2009 3:51 AM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The actor who played wing commander Guy Gibson in The Dam Busters, and was first choice to play James Bond, has died

The actor Richard Todd, best known for his role in the classic war film The Dam Busters, has died at the age of 90.

His spokeswoman said Todd, who had been suffering from cancer, died last night.

She said in a statement: "He had been suffering from cancer, an illness that he bore with his habitual courage and dignity. His family were with him throughout."

Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd was born in Dublin on 11 June 1919, the son of a British officer. He grew up in Devon and attended Shrewsbury public school.

His interest in the theatre led him to small roles in stage productions in England and Scotland. In 1939 he was a co-founder of the Dundee Repertory Theatre.

After the war he gained fame in the London stage version of The Hasty Heart, »

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Richard Todd Reads From The Thing Itself

18 August 2009 2:55 PM, PDT | Vanity Fair | See recent Vanity Fair news »

The Thing Itself by Richard Todd. In his new book, The Thing Itself (Riverhead), editor and culture critic Richard Todd examines the pursuit of authenticity in contemporary society. In an era when everything can be made to seem “real” or “vintage,” Todd searches ways to gauge the truth in his own life—from the items he purchases to the people he loves. Listen to an exclusive audio excerpt, after the jump. »

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"Hell Drivers" At Film Forum New York August 21

17 August 2009 2:59 PM, PDT | Cinemaretro.com | See recent CinemaRetro news »

The terrific cult film Hell Drivers (1957) will be screened at New York's Film Forum this Friday, August 21 as part of the theater's Brit Noir series. The movie stars Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan, Peggy Cummings, Herbert Lom and future super spies Sean Connery and David McCallum. Cy Endfield directed. The movie is being shown on a double bill with John Guillerman's Never Let Go (1960) a crime drama with Richard Todd, Adam Faith and Peter Sellers in a dramatic role. For details click hereTo watch the Hell Drivers trailer click here »

- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)

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Peter Jackson's 'Dambusters' to March Onscreen in 3-D?

3 August 2009 8:00 AM, PDT | Fast Company | See recent Fast Company news »

Peter Jackson's currently trialing some hot-topic tech that may bring a whole new dimension to his remake of the historic Dambusters movie: 3-D filming. He's shooting test footage in New Zealand to see how feasible it is right now.

There is something of a 3-D renaissance happening in the entertainment industry right now. We've heard it's coming soon to our TVs and PC monitors, it's had an outing in a number of CGI films like Pixar's Up, the ever tech-savvy U2 even released a whole movie/show performance piece in 3-D last year, and James Cameron spent 14 years perfecting the 3-D technology for his new movie Avatar. Jackson's reported to be interested because 3-D could enable the audience to experience the history of the Dambusters in a much more physical way--because, let's face it, the idea of low-flying bombers launching water-skipping bombs at a wartime dam target is pretty damn physical. »

- Kit Eaton

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Richard Todd Reads From Robert Nylen's Guts

3 June 2009 11:00 AM, PDT | Vanity Fair | See recent Vanity Fair news »

Guts by Robert Nylen (Random House). There were many facets to Robert Nylen’s colorful personality: soldier and salesman, professor and family man, journalist and publisher (a driving editorial and entrepreneurial force behind New England Monthly and Beliefnet.com). Last December, Nylen lost a long battle with cancer, but not before he finished his memoir, Guts: Combat, Hell-raising, Cancer, Business Start-ups, and Undying Love—One American Guy’s Reckless Lucky Life (Random House). In this excerpt from the book, his friend Richard Todd—the esteemed editor, and author of The Thing Itself: On the Search for Authenticity—reads selections on Nylen’s tour of duty as a decorated platoon leader in the Vietnam War, among the many adventures in the storied life of this modern Renaissance man. Listen to the podcast after the jump. »

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Ken Annakin: 1914-2009 -- An Appreciation

30 April 2009 10:22 AM, PDT | The Hollywood Interview | See recent The Hollywood Interview news »

Director Ken Annakin.

I knew there was something familiar about the name when I read it: "Deborah Annakin-Peters." I had been corresponding with Debby via email for nearly a year after she had started working for Home Video Publicity at Paramount, and handled all my DVD requests. Then one day it struck me. I wrote her a quick email: "Are you, by chance, related to the director Ken Annakin?" I got a quick reply "Sure am. He's my dad!" It just happened that Annakin's most famous film, "The Longest Day," was getting a special edition DVD release from 20th Century Fox in a few weeks. I asked Debby if her father, then in his early 90s, was up to doing an interview. The answer to that question lies in the conversation below.

I was lucky enough to get to know Ken Annakin quite well over the next year or so when my producing partner, »

- The Hollywood Interview.com

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10 articles from 2009

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