Sam Kydd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sam Kydd (born February 15, 1915, in Belfast, Ireland (now Northern Ireland) - March 26, 1982) was an actor.

He was educated at Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. In his twenties, he looked for all round entertainment jobs, such as MC for the Oscar Rabin Band.

Early in WWII, 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 near Thorn in German-occupied western Poland.[1] After the war he wrote a book about his experience.[2]

He is best remembered as a character actor in films such as The Cruel Sea, Sink the Bismarck, Too Late the Hero, The Yangste Incident, Reach for the Sky, Eye of the Needle and Steptoe and Son Ride Again.

He married Pinkie Barnes an ex-international tennis champion. She was also one of England's first women advertising copywriters. She was called 'Pinkie' apparently because she was a very pink baby. But in reality she didn't like the abbreviations of all her names. She was Lavender Rosamund Marguerite and hated Lav, Ros and Marge, so was keen to be called a nickname. She played for England 11 times between 1946 and 1950 and won various trophies including the Championship of the Netherlands. She was British Doubles Finalist with the then World Champion, Hungary's Guysey Farkas.

He took part in more than 100 films and TV plays/series including, 'Pickwick Papers', 'Mess Mates', 'Arthur Askey', 'Benny Hill', 'Charlie Drake', 'Harry Worth', 'The Expert', 'Dixon of Dock Green', 'Crane', 'Orlando', 'Fossett Saga', and 'Curry and Chips'.

He made innumerable television appearances in programmes such as The Tony Hancock Show, Orlando, Crane, Crossroads, Coronation Street (playing the part of Mike Baldwin's father, Frankie), The Eric Sykes Show, and Follyfoot.

His son, Jonathan Kydd, has followed him into the acting profession.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Letter and photo in camp magazine 1942 [1]
  2. ^ For You The War Is Over by Sam Kydd - Futura, London, 1974. ISBN 0-85974-005-6

[edit] External links