This Is Your Life: Richard Todd 2

Richard TODD (1919-2009)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Richard Todd, actor, was surprised by Michael Aspel during the curtain call for the play The Business of Murder at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, from where the programme was then recorded.

Richard, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and trained at Italia Conte Stage School, was already a successful theatre actor before joining the Parachute Regiment during the Second World War. As a captain, he was among the first British officers to land in Normandy on D-Day. Richard went on to portray his superior officer in a recreation of his own experiences of the D-Day landings in the 1962 film The Longest Day.

Returning to acting after the war, he became a popular leading man in a string of successful films, including The Dam Busters, Stage Fright, The Story of Robin Hood and The Hasty Heart – a role which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In the late 1960s, he returned to working in the theatre, co-forming Triumph Theatre Productions, which produced over 100 plays, musicals and pantomimes, some of which Richard starred in.

Richard Todd was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions – previously surprised by Eamonn Andrews in March 1960 at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios.

"It can't be!"

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