Richard Todd (born June 11, 1919) is a British actor. Born Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland, his father Andrew William Palethorpe Todd was a British officer who gained three caps for Ireland at rugby before the First World War. 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 the Second World War began, he served as an officer and paratrooper. After landing in Normandy on D-Day as one of the first British officers, he met up with Major John Howard on Pegasus Bridge - he would later appear in two films in which this scene 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. He returned to England to appear in the film version and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1949. He later appeared in the film The Dambusters as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, probably the role for which he is best remembered.
He has continued to act on television, including roles in Virtual Murder, Silent Witness, and in the Doctor Who story Kinda in 1982.
He has continued an active acting career into his eighties. He was married to the actresses Catherine Grant-Bogle, whom he met in Dundee Repertory (1949-1970, two children) and Virginia Mailer (1970-1992, two children).
