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Richard Todd (born June 11, 1919) is a British actor.
Born Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland, Todd was the son of a British officer who played international rugby for Ireland. He moved to Devon, England when very young and attended Shrewsbury School. During his early career he acted in regional theatres, before co-founding the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1939.
When World War II began, he served as an officer and paratrooper. During the war he met Major John Howard on Pegasus Bridge in Normandy — he would later appear in two films in which this scence was recreated: in D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) he played the commanding officer of the unit in which both of them served, and in The Longest Day (1962) he played Major Howard himself.
After the war he gained fame in the London stage version of The Hasty Heart (as Lachlan MacLachlan), which took him to Broadway, then a film version in Hollywood. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1949. Although Todd appeared in other films, he was never able to repeat his success in the United States.
He continued an active acting career into his eighties. He was married to the actresses Catherine Grant-Bogle, who he met in Dundee Repertory (1949-1970, two children) and Virginia Mailer (1970-1992, two children).
Selected films
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