Trevor Laird

Acting

Trevor Laird

Born 1957-07-11 · Islington, London, England

Trevor Laird (born 11 July 1957, London, England) is a British actor. Born in Islington, London in 1957, Laird trained at the Anna Scher Theatre. Early roles included a 1976 role in a TV adaptation of the Peter Prince novel Playthings, directed by Stephen Frears, and several Play For Todays: Victims of Apartheid by Tom Clarke (1978),Barrie Keeffe's Waterloo Sunset (1979) and The Vanishing Army by Robert Holles (1980). Laird was a founder member of the Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat) in 1978 and performed in its inaugural play Welcome Home Jacko by Mustapha Matura the following year. He then had breakthrough roles in the 1979 film Quadrophenia - as Ferdy, a drug supplier for the main character Jimmy - and in Franco Rosso's 1980 cult classic Babylon as Beefy. He played the boy under the car in The Long Good Friday (1980) and appeared in Menelik Shabazz's black British film Burning an Illusion. Later appearances include the 1986 Doctor Who serial Mindwarp as the guard commander Frax. He later returned to Doctor Who in the role of Clive Jones, father of the Tenth Doctor's companion Martha Jones. In 1996 Laird played Hortense's brother in the Mike Leigh film Secrets & Lies. He played Wesley Carter in the TV series Undercover Heart, and Trevor in the British gangster film Love, Honour and Obey (2000). He played DI Mike Vedder “End of the Night”, S8:E4 of Waking the Dead (2009). In 2015, Laird appeared as Vince Thuram in the BBC TV series Death in Paradise. In March 2021, he appeared in an episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors as Samuel Asante.

Acting credits

Cruella poster
8.0

In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.

Cruella

2021

The Long Good Friday poster
7.2

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

The Long Good Friday

1980

Secrets & Lies poster
7.6

After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.

Secrets & Lies

1996

Quadrophenia poster
7.0

Based on the 1973 rock opera album of the same name by The Who, this is the story of 60s teenager Jimmy. At work he slaves in a dead-end job. While after, he shops for tailored suits and rides his scooter as part of the London Mod scene.

Quadrophenia

1979

Water poster
6.1

The British governor of a tiny island nation in the Caribbean Commonwealth finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when an American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.

Water

1985

Play Things poster
NR

A young man volunteers to work with a children's play group in a deprived London area. Adapted by Peter Prince from his own novel.

Play Things

1976

Babylon poster
7.0

Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.

Babylon

1980

Doctor Who: Mindwarp poster
7.7

As the Doctor's trial continues, evidence is presented showing his most recent adventure, one where he faces an old adversary, Sil. As a scientist conducts his unethical experiments to prolong the life of Sil's boss Kiv, the Doctor's memories of the events begins to return and an unpleasant surprise awaits him.

Doctor Who: Mindwarp

1986

Burning an Illusion poster
6.0

A young black woman in England becomes increasingly frustrated with her life with her lazy, demanding boyfriend, and with the help of friends seeks something better.

Burning an Illusion

1981

Slipstream poster
4.3

In the near future, where Earth has been devastated by man's pollution and giant winds rule the planet, bounty hunter Matt kidnaps a murderer out of the hands of two police officers, planning to get the bounty himself.

Slipstream

1989

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire poster
6.1

Cocky cockney snooker player Billy Kid accepts the challenge of a grudge match from Maxwell Randall (the Green Baize Vampire), six times world champion; the loser will never play professional snooker again.

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire

1985

A Gangster's Kiss poster
NR

For as long as Jack can remember, he and Danny have been friends, and Danny has always gotten Jack into trouble. He's had a few brushes with the law and blows up half a high street before deciding to turn to acting. Everything is going well until Jack lands his first feature film role and Danny agrees to shadow 'the family'. Jack soon realizes he is way over his head with deadly and hilarious consequences.

A Gangster's Kiss

2024

National Theatre Live: One Man, Two Guvnors poster
6.3

Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from his fiancée’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers. Holed up at The Cricketers’ Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple.

National Theatre Live: One Man, Two Guvnors

2011

Bernard and the Genie poster
7.3

Bernard Bottle, a mild mannered art buyer, is fired by his greedy boss, abandoned by his girlfriend and discovers a genie in an old bottle. The genie immediately embraces the modern world and helps Bernard on the side.

Bernard and the Genie

1991

The Vanishing Army poster
NR

"Why don't you keep that missus o' yours under control? She ain't exactly doin' you a packet o' good, is she? If she was mine I'd bloody put 'er right, I'll tell yer." The marriage of an introverted Scottish army sergeant and his loving, but independent wife is threatened by military life.

The Vanishing Army

1978

Flying Devils poster
6.0

A family of aerialists decides to go after the $250,000 prize being offered to any group that can execute a complicated trapeze maneuver. However, personal dramas and financial difficulties soon threaten to overtake the flyers' pursuit of the elusive quadruple somersault. The film received a Robert Award as the best Danish film of 1985.

Flying Devils

1985

National Theatre Live: Small Island poster
8.0

Embark on a journey from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, England. The play follows three intricately connected stories. Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots.

National Theatre Live: Small Island

2019

Waterloo Sunset poster
NR

Grace leaves her old folks' home to return to her birthplace in Lambeth, a place which has changed on the surface but at its heart is still the same.

Waterloo Sunset

1979

To Be Someone poster
3.8

Life couldn’t be better for entrepreneur and British Mod, Danny. That is until he’s introduced to Mad Mike, an unhinged underworld mobster who is determined to coerce Danny into pulling off an illegal drugs run.

To Be Someone

2021

Smack and Thistle poster
7.0

With a drug-addled lifestyle and a prison sentence firmly behind him, Abel is determined to go straight and stay clean... as soon as he's seen to one final heist. In the house that he burgles he comes across Elizabeth - rich, desperate, hopelessly addicted to a heroin and unconscious. Saving her from the clutched of an overdose, Abel stays out of compassion which eventually evolves into attraction. But when Abel takes on Elizabeth he also takes on her family. His resolution to go straight has to go on the back burner while he struggles against a drugs conspiracy that stretched from the slums of the East End to the Houses of Parliament.

Smack and Thistle

1991

Easy Money poster
NR

At a concert Marcia picked Terry out of the crowd. So he no longer feels alone. Until he learns about her secret life and dare not tell his friends.

Easy Money

1982

Victims of Apartheid poster
NR

George, a black South African, finds it hard to settle down in London after his experiences in South Africa.

Victims of Apartheid

1978

Dangerous and the Lonely Hearts poster
NR

Brought to the station after nicking some sweets, a waifish Eastern European girl refuses to give even her name. What starts out as a simple case of shoplifting turns into apparent murder, however, after Davies finds the girl's mother strangled. The trail leads to some surprising suspects from a video matchmaking service.

Dangerous and the Lonely Hearts

2004

Jake's End poster
NR

'Motors can stall, shooters can jam. But Jake's end of it'll be all right.' Jake's a professional, a married man with a reputation to maintain-and a bank to rob.

Jake's End

1982