Earl Cameron (actor)
| Earl Cameron | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 August 1917 Pembroke, Bermuda |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1951–present |
| Religion | Bahá'í Faith |
| Spouse | Audrey Cameron, (?-1994) (her death) Barbara Cameron (?-present) |
Earl Cameron, CBE (born August 8, 1917) is a Bermudian actor. He is known as one of the first black actors to break the "colour bar" in the United Kingdom, along with Cy Grant. He also had repeated appearances on many British science fiction programmes of the 1960s, including Doctor Who, The Prisoner and The Andromeda Breakthrough.
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[edit] Early career
Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda. As a young man, he joined the British Merchant Navy, and sailed mostly between New York and South America. When the Second World War broke out he found himself stranded in London, arriving on 29 October 1939. As he himself put it in an interview for The Royal Gazette newspaper: "I arrived in London on 29 October 1939. I got involved with a young lady and you know the rest. The ship left without me, and the girl walked out too."
His first stage experience came in 1942 when he talked his way into a West End production of Chu Chin Chow. He went on to act in a number of plays in London, including The Petrified Forest. In 1946 Cameron returned to Bermuda for five months but decided to return to work as an actor in the UK. He then took a job on the London stage as an understudy in the play Deep are the Roots. This play was staged in London for some months and then went on tour. It was during this tour that Earl first met, and worked alongside, Patrick McGoohan during a production of that play in Coventry.
He understudied in Deep are the Roots with fellow understudy Ida Shepley, a well known singer. As Earl was having problems with his diction at the time Ida introduced him to a very good voice coach named Amanda Ira Aldridge. Miss Aldridge was the daughter of Ira Aldridge, a legendary black Shakespearian American actor of the 19th century. Cameron's breakthrough acting role was in Pool of London, a 1951 film set in post-war London involving racial prejudice, romance and a diamond robbery. He won much critical acclaim for his role in the film.
[edit] Film career
His next major film role following his work in Pool of London was in the 1955 film Simba. This was a drama about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in which Earl Cameron played the role of Peter Karanja, a doctor trying to reconcile his admiration for Western civilisation with his Kikuyu heritage. He played the Mau Mau general Jeroge in Safari in the same year.
From the 1950s to the present day Cameron has had major parts in many films, including: The Heart Within (1957) in which he played a character Victor Conway in a crime movie yet again set in the London docklands; and Sapphire (1959) in which played Dr Robbins, the brother of a murdered girl; and The Message (1976) – the story of the Prophet Muhammad.
Other film appearances have included: Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), in which he played Tate; No Kidding (1960); Flame in the Streets (1961), in which he played Gabriel Gomez; Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963), in which he played Mang; Guns at Batasi (1964), in which he played Captain Abraham; Battle Beneath the Earth (1967), in which he played Sergeant Seth Hawkins; The Sandwich Man (1966), in which he played a bus conductor; and the James Bond movie Thunderball (1965), in which he played Bond's Caribbean assistant Pinder Romania.
His most recent film appearances include a major role in The Interpreter (2005), playing the fictitious dictator Edmond Zuwanie. His performance was universally praised. The Baltimore Sun wrote: "Earl Cameron is magnificent as the slimy old fraud of a dictator..." Rolling Stone described Mr. Cameron's appearance as "subtle and menacing". Philip French in The Observer referred to "that fine Caribbean actor Earl Cameron". In 2006 he appeared in a cameo as a painter in the film The Queen, alongside Helen Mirren. In 2010 he appeared as "Elderly Bald Man" in the film Inception.
[edit] TV career
Cameron has had roles in a wide range of TV shows but one of his earliest major roles was a starring part in the BBC 1960 TV drama The Dark Man, in which he played a West Indian cab driver in the UK. The show examined the reactions and prejudices he faced in his work. In 1956 he had a smaller part in another BBC drama exploring racism in the workplace, Man From The Sun, in which he appeared as community leader Joseph Brent.
He appeared in a range of popular television shows including five episodes of the TV series Danger Man (Secret Agent in the US) alongside series star Patrick McGoohan. He worked with McGoohan again in 1967 when he appeared in the TV series The Prisoner as the Haitian supervisor in the episode "The Schizoid Man".
His other television work includes Emergency - Ward 10, The Zoo Gang, Crown Court (two different stories, each 3 episodes long, in 1973), Jackanory (a BBC children's series in which he read five of the Brer Rabbit stories in 1971), Dixon of Dock Green, Doctor Who - The Tenth Planet, Neverwhere, Waking the Dead, Kavanagh QC, Babyfather, EastEnders (a small role as a Mr Lambert), Dalziel and Pascoe, and Lovejoy.
He also appeared in a number of other one-off TV dramas, including: Television Playhouse (1957); A World Inside BBC (1962); ITV Play of the Week (two stories – The Gentle Assassin (1962) and I Can Walk Where I Like Can't I? (1964); the BBC's Wind Versus Polygamy (1968); ITV's A Fear of Strangers (1964), in which he played Ramsay, a black saxophonist and small-time criminal who is detained by the police on suspicion of murder and who is also racially abused by a Chief Inspector Dyke played by Stanley Baker; Festival: the Respectful Prostitute (1964); ITV Play of the Week – The Death of Bessie Smith (1965); Theatre 625: The Minister (1965); The Great Kandinsky (1994); and two episodes of Thirty-Minute Theatre (Anything You Say 1969 and another in 1971).
[edit] Personal life
Cameron is a practitioner of the Bahá'í Faith,[1] and held a reception in London in 2007 to honour his 90th birthday.[2] He currently lives in Warwickshire in England. He is married to Barbara Cameron. His first wife, Audrey Cameron, died in 1994. He has five children.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[3][4]
[edit] Filmography
- Pool of London (1951)
- Emergency Call (1952)
- Simba (1955)
- The Woman for Joe (1955)
- Safari (1955
- The Buccaneers (1956)
- Odongo (1956)
- The Heart Within (1957)
- The Mark of the Hawk (1957)
- Sapphire (1959)
- Flame in the Streets (1961)
- Guns at Batasi (1964)
- Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976)
- The Interpreter (2005)
[edit] References
- ^ Veteran actor Earl Cameron brings a sense of world citizenship to UN role by Robert Weinberg, One Country, Volume 17, Issue 1 / April–June 2005
- ^ Earl Cameron's 90th birthday
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58929. p. 7. 31 December 2008.
- ^ Smyth, Chris (31 December 2008). "Terry Pratchett "flabbergasted" over knighthood". The Times (London: News International). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article5420707.ece. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
