The Mothership Earl Cameron, CBE

Earl Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda on 8^th August, 1917 and died in Kenilworth on 3^rd July 2020 at the grand old age of 102 years. His acting career stretches from theatre to the silver screen, and to television, where in 1966 he played Glyn Williams, a black astronaut in the Doctor Who story The Tenth Planet. It was for this reason that it was worth dipping a toe into an expansive career of one of the most interesting actors in both the 20^th and 21^st century. 

Cameron joined the British Merchant Navy as a young man and travelled from Bermuda to New York and back. He'd always held a desire to travel as a young boy and during his time in the Navy, transferred to another ship, called the Eastern Prince that sailed to South America. Unfortunately, on the very second journey, war broke out, and the Eastern Prince became the property of the British Admiralty and sailed to Britain. Cameron landed on British soil on 29th October 1939. He fell in love with a young lady and when Eastern Prince set sail again, it left without him, 'and the girl walked out too.'

Finding work in the UK during the War was incredibly difficult, more so for Cameron, and he reluctantly took work in the hospitality industry as a dishwasher, taking whatever casual work came his way.

In 1941, Cameron was given a theatre ticket by his friend Harry Crossman to see a revival of Chu Chin Chow at the Palace Theatre. His friend Harry was an actor and along with five other black actors, each had a small part in the West End production. Cameron wanted a job that gave him meaning – which dishwashing was never going to achieve, and he asked Crossman if there were any spare roles available. Sadly, at the time, none were, but a few weeks later, one of the actors didn’t show, and Cameron, after an arranged meeting with director Robert Atkins, became part of the cast, albeit a walk on role.

In 1945 – 1946, Cameron toured with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), entertaining the British armed forces personnel out in India in 1945, and the following year out in the Netherlands, playing one of the Dukes in The Duchess and Two Dukes. Later in 1946, Cameron returned to Bermuda for five months before returning to the UK to work as an actor. He worked as an understudy in the theatre play Deep Are the Roots which was written by Arnaud d’Usseau and James Gow. It played in London’s Wyndham Theatre for six months before going on tour. It was in this very production in Coventry, where he worked alongside Patrick McGoohan. 

Cameron’s acting break was in the film Pool of London, in 1951. It was directed by Basil Dearden and set-in post-war London. It was a powerful film, which involved racial prejudice. Cameron’s character was a merchant sailor who was to fall in love with a young white woman, played by Susan Shaw. The story also involved a diamond robbery. Cameron won much critical praise for his part in the film which was considered “the first major role for a black actor in a British mainstream film.” The film was a milestone in the sensitive way it handled a relationship between a black worker and a young white female. 

His next major film role was playing Peter Karanja in the 1955 film Simba. It was set against the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. In the same year, Cameron was to play the Mau Mau general Jeroge in Safari. 

Cameron found that work as a black actor in the early days was especially hard to come by. Unless a role was specified for a black actor, nobody was going to change a white part for a black part, so most of his roles were extremely small, which frustrated him greatly.  

He appeared in two Tarzan films in the 60s, playing two different characters before playing Captain Abraham in Guns at Batasi in 1964. In 1973 he worked alongside Sidney Poitier in the film A Warm December, playing the role of an African Ambassador in the UK. 

Before his role as Pinder in the James Bond film Thunderball in 1965, Cameron had been considered for the role of Quarrel in Dr No (1962), but was considered unsuitable by Harry Saltzman, the producer, who cast John Kitzmiller for the role instead. 

In Sidney Pollacks film The Interpreter, he played dictator Edmond Zuwanie, who was a fictional version of Robert Mugabe, the then leader of Zimbabwe. Both the Baltimore Sun and Rolling Stone praised Cameron’s performance in this role, writing that he was magnificent as the slimy old fraud of a dictator, or that he was subtle and menacing. 

In later years, he appeared in a cameo role as the portrait artist in the film The Queen, working alongside Helen Mirren. In the film Inception he played the Elderly Bald Man. 

His television roles began with Emergency Ward 10, The Zoo Gang and Crown Court, as well as reading five Brer Rabbit stories for the popular children’s programme Jackanory in 1971. He was also in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green.

There is much debate about Cameron being the first black actor to play an astronaut in a television series, although I haven’t found claim to who was the first in this role as Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhuru in Star Trek first saw her character head out beyond the stars a few years after Cameron’s role as Glyn Williams, in Doctor Who story The Tenth Planet. So, we can at least say he was one of the first black actors to play an astronaut on British television. 

Cameron became the oldest surviving Doctor Who actor to reach 100 after Zohra Sehgal and Olaf Pooley died. And after Cameron’s death in 2020, this title has now passed to Arnold Yarrow. 

Although I haven’t listed ALL of Cameron’s film and television achievements, you can still find a huge list on his IMDB account. There are an incredible 93 credits dating back to 1951 and his role as Johnny Lambert in Pool of London, right up to 2013 when he played Grandad in a film short – Up on the Roof.  

In 2009, in the New Year Honours list, Earl Cameron was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire or in short, the CBE. In Hamilton, Bermuda, the Earl Cameron Theatre was named in his honour when he attended a ceremony there in December 2012, and in 2013 he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Warwick, in the January of that year. 

Earl Cameron was married twice. His first wife, Audrey (nee Godowski) died in 1994. They were married in 1954. He had five children from his first marriage, Simon, Jane, Helen, Serena and Phillipa. His oldest son Quinton comes from an earlier relationship he had with Marjorie Astwood. He is survived by his second wife, Barbara (nee Bower). He has eight grandchildren, Louisa, Kalan, Siria, Sophie, Isabella, Fiorella, Karmeta and Kelly with two great-grandchildren, Kasra and Zander. 

Reference

Brian Baxter article with The Guardian

Wikipedia (not always helpful in factual articles, but nevertheless)

IMDB credit list