British actor
Sam Kydd
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Born
| Samuel John Kydd
(
1915-02-15
)
15 February 1915
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Died
| 26 March 1982
(1982-03-26)
(aged 67)
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Occupation
| Actor
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Years active
| 1945?1982
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Spouse
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Children
| Jonathan Kydd
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Samuel John Kydd
(15 February 1915 – 26 March 1982) was a British actor.
[1]
His best-known roles were in two major British television series of the 1960s, as the smuggler Orlando O'Connor in
Crane
and its sequel
Orlando
. He also played a recurring character in
Coronation Street
.
[2]
[3]
Kydd's first film was
The Captive Heart
(1946), in which he played a
POW
.
[4]
He made over 290 films, more than any other British actor, including 119 between 1946 and 1952.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
An army officer's son, Kydd was born on 15 February 1915 in
Belfast
,
Ireland
,
[5]
and moved to
London
as a child. He was educated at
Dunstable School
in
Dunstable
,
Bedfordshire
.
[6]
During the mid-1930s Kydd was an
MC
for the
Oscar Rabin Band
and one of his "Hot Shots". He would warm up audiences with jokes, impressions (Maurice Chevalier was a favourite) and tap dance routines before introducing the singers and attractions on the bill. During the late 1930s he joined the
Territorial Army
serving with the
Queen Victoria's Rifles
and when war broke out he was called up for active service.
Early in the
Second World War
, he went to
France
with the
British Expeditionary Force
but was quickly captured, spending the rest of the war in
Stalag XX-A
, a camp in
Toru?
in
German-occupied
Poland
.
[7]
Kydd later wrote of his experiences as a
POW
in his autobiographical book
For You the War Is Over
.
[8]
While held in a
forced labour
subcamp in
Wyrzysk
, he learned various Polish phrases through contact with the local
Polish population
.
[9]
During his internment in the
German prisoner-of-war camp
, where he remained for the next five years, he took command of the camp's theatrical activities - devising and staging plays.
[3]
He felt so strongly about his work there that, when he was offered repatriation after three years, he turned it down to continue with his theatrical work. In recognition of his valuable services during these years, he was awarded a pair of drama masks, made by the
Red Cross
from barbed wire.
Career
[
edit
]
Returning to Britain after the war, Kydd auditioned for the film
The Captive Heart
, which was about life in a prison camp, and as this was an area where he had much experience, he got a part as an advisor cum actor. He went on to appear in more than 290 films and 1,000 TV plays and series, including such films as
The Blue Lamp
,
Father Brown
,
The 39 Steps
and
I'm All Right Jack
.
[1]
He often played the part of a strong and resilient
cockney
. He is best remembered as a character actor in films such as
Chance of a Lifetime
,
The Cruel Sea
,
Sink the Bismarck!
,
The Yangtse Incident
,
Reach for the Sky
,
The Hound of the Baskervilles
,
Too Many Crooks
,
Smokescreen
,
Island of Terror
,
Too Late the Hero
,
Eye of the Needle
and
Steptoe and Son Ride Again
.
[10]
He also appeared in the big-screen versions of
Dad's Army
and
Till Death Us Do Part
.
In 1963, Kydd appeared as the lovable smuggler Orlando O'Connor in
Crane
starring
Patrick Allen
as a Briton who moved to
Morocco
to run a cafe and had an aversion to smuggling.
[11]
[12]
The programme ran for 39 episodes and was watched each week by over 16 million viewers. Sam's character was so popular that when
Crane
finished he was given his own programme,
Orlando
, a children's adventure series which ran for 126 episodes.
[2]
He also appeared on TV in
The Adventures of Robin Hood
,
The Pickwick Papers
,
Mess Mates
,
Arthur Askey
,
Benny Hill
,
Charlie Drake
,
Harry Worth
,
The Expert
,
Dixon of Dock Green
,
[13]
Fossett Saga
,
Curry and Chips
,
[1]
The Tony Hancock Show
,
Minder
,
Crossroads
,
Coronation Street
(playing the part of
Mike Baldwin
's father, Frankie),
The
Eric Sykes
Show
, and
Follyfoot
.
[14]
He was the subject of
This Is Your Life
in 1974 when he was surprised by
Eamonn Andrews
.
[
citation needed
]
Personal life and death
[
edit
]
He married
Pinkie Barnes
, an ex-international
table tennis
champion (she was World Doubles Finalist in 1948) and one of Britain's first women advertising copywriters.
[15]
Their son,
Jonathan Kydd
, followed his father into the acting profession.
[16]
Sam Kydd died of
emphysema
on 26 March 1982, aged 67. His son Jonathan Kydd reported that his father smoked up to 80 cigarettes a day, and he has edited 4 volumes of his father’s memoirs, the first of which is 'Be a Good Boy Sam' 1945-52
Selected filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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