A great actor who was in some of the big WWII movies, The Longest Day and The Dam Busters and a soldier who IRL walked the walk as many others of his generation had to do.
In The Longest Day he played Major John Howard who had to hold the Pegasus Bridge near Caen, in the movie he kept on thinking back to his instructions “HOLD UNTIL RELIEVED”. IRL they did hold the bridge and IRL Richard Todd was on that bridge holding it for real as he was one of the first British Officers to parachute in on that fateful day.
In an interview I saw he said he always got lots of ribbing about the “Hold until relieved” line from his comrades in arms.
He also played Wing Commander Guy Gibson in The Dam Busters (one of the finest and most uplifting WWII movies IMO) brilliantly.
A great man IRL and the arts.
For me, the favourite part played by Richard Todd was as Commander Kerrans in ‘Yangtse Incident’. I met Cdr Kerrans many years later, and he told me that he found it very embarrassing that Todd had played him in the film - ‘Because he was much better than I was.’ On the other side of the coin, when ‘HMS Amethyst’ was used for the filming, more damage was done than in the actual event.
Our local news programme has just broadcast an interview with him recorded last year. He said that his own grave will be between those of his two sons.
I remember him as Robin Hood in a movie from the 1950’s – very handsome and with an air of calm and strength. He was still handsome in the D-Day video. It shouldn’t mean anything, but when people age well I think they probably also lived well, without causing pain.
If I remember correctly, Richard Todd replaced Richard Basehart in the stage version of The Hasty Heart, and so when they decided to do the movie, Todd got the part.
A much underused concept/word.