
Acting
Richard Todd
Born — Died
1919-06-11 — 2009-12-03
Place of birth
Dublin, Ireland
Known for
Acting
Credits
75 titles
Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd (11 June 1919 – 3 December 2009) was an Irish actor known for his leading man roles of the 1950s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, and an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance as Corporal Lachlan MacLachlan in the 1949 film The Hasty Heart. His other notable roles include Jonathan Cooper in Stage Fright (1950), Wing Commander Guy Gibson in The Dam Busters (1955), Sir Walter Raleigh in The Virgin Queen (1955), and Major John Howard in The Longest Day (1962). He was previously a Captain in the British Army during the Second World War, fighting in the D-Day…
Known for
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
7.9The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Doctor Who
1963
7.5An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
Murder, She Wrote
1984
7.6A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.2Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Theatre 625
1964
Film credits
1990s · 4 titles
5.1King Edward asks Sherlock Holmes to perform one more task before his retirement: to safeguard the Star of Africa on a trip to Cape Town. Soon the fabled jewel is stolen and several people end up being murdered.
Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls
1992
8.0This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991
NRAugust 1941: HG Wells confronts George Orwell, who has just published a scathing attack on him. As wartime London endures the Blitz, they speculate on life and death, truth and propaganda.
Beautiful Lies
1992
6.0Biography of Marlene Dietrich using interviews, film clips and rare footage of the actress, including her own home movies.
No Angel: A Life of Marlene Dietrich
1996
1980s · 4 titles
6.4An American writer goes to a remote Welsh manor on a $20,000 bet that he can write a classic novel like 'Wuthering Heights' in 24 hours. However, upon his arrival he discovers that the apparently empty manor has several rather odd inhabitants.
House of the Long Shadows
1983
7.5The TARDIS lands on the idyllic jungle world of Deva Loka, which is being surveyed for possible Earth colonisation. Deva Loka is already home to a race of apparent savages, however: a mysterious people with strange powers which have mentally unbalanced the members of the expedition. To make matters worse, an ancient enemy of the natives known as the Mara is intent upon revenge, and latches onto Tegan's mind as its bridgehead to victory.
Doctor Who: Kinda
1982
6.0This fact-based story follows a woman who launches a rescue of her Royal Air Force pilot son, who was shot down over Germany in 1941. Getting no help from the underground, she sets up her own rescue mission.
Jenny's War
1985
2.5Olympian gods watch the Earth and resolve to fight a group of terrorists who stole a diskette containing a secret that can destroy the world.
Olympus Force: The Key
1988
1970s · 8 titles
6.1A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.
Asylum
1972
5.8Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a case of blackmail involving the two wild daughters of a rich general, a pornographer and a gangster.
The Big Sleep
1978
5.1London, England. Dorian Gray is a young man who somehow keeps his beauty eternally, while a mysterious portrait of himself gradually reveals his moral decay.
Dorian Gray
1970
5.5The police receive an anonymous tip that Bernard Peel has murdered his wife, Jennifer. Peel declares his innocence, but there is a substantial amount of evidence contradicting his story. Is someone trying to frame Mr. Peel? Peel asks private detective Matthew Earp to investigate.
The Next Scream You Hear
1974
4.7Chicken, a desperate hippie junkie living in a small Spanish village, is finding it difficult to separate fantasy and reality. This isn't helped by the villagers practising magic and child sacrifice, or his involvement with a group of boozy expatriates lost in their own dreams and regrets.
The Sky is Falling
1975
4.1No. 1 is fearless, irrestible, and licensed to kill. No. 1 is assigned to capture a madman killing international financiers. Before getting the bad guy, No. 1 encounters mercenaries from the evil organization K.R.A.S.H. (Killing, Rape, Arson, Slaughter, and Hit).
No. 1 of the Secret Service
1977
5.5A successful rock lyricist becomes romantically involved with a girl he picks up hitchhiking only to learn that she is only fourteen. Her parents take action against him.
Home Before Midnight
1979
9.0Alberto Cavalcanti reviews his own prolific career as a filmmaker.
Um Homem e o Cinema
1976
1960s · 13 titles
7.6The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"
The Longest Day
1962
6.7Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.
Operation Crossbow
1965
6.5John Cummings, an unsuccessful London cosmetics salesman, has his unpaid-for car stolen by a hood in the employ of Lionel Meadows, sadistic organiser of a car conversion racket. As the vehicle is uninsured, and since the police seem indifferent, Cummings decides to find it himself — and gets himself involved in an underworld battle.
Never Let Go
1960
5.8A former district officer is assigned to work on a team of diamond prospectors, who are busy double crossing each other until they are blown up having found bullion.
Coast of Skeletons
1965
4.4Two British children travel to Italy in an attempt to break up their runaway mother's affair with an Italian concert pianist.
The Battle of the Villa Fiorita
1965
5.3A British colonial policeman in Africa investigates a murder in a hospital up river.
Death Drums Along the River
1963
4.8An Edinburgh travel agent loses his keys and his fiancé in one night. A friend finds the keys and makes loads of copies with his address attached as a joke. She gives them to him as he leaves for a holiday. He gives the keys to several women he romances across the continent. He gets engaged again by phone and arranges to meet his fiancé at his flat, but the flat isn't empty...
Don't Bother to Knock
1961
6.7Based on a play by Willis Hall. A troop of British soldiers are out in the jungle to record jungle noises and troop noises in the jungle so that the recordings can be played back by other troops to divert the enemy to their whereabouts. As they progress to what they think is closer to the base camp they find themselves farther and farther from radio range until the only channel they can get clearly is that of a Japanese broadcast. They now realize they are probably only 10 to 15 miles from a Japanese camp! The tension is added to by rowdy and openly admitted "non-hero" Private Bamforth who has nothing good to say about anyone and especially Corporal Johnstone (who holds an equal dislike for Bamforth). When a Japanese soldier is taken as their prisoner, the true colours of each man comes to the surface
The Long and the Short and the Tall
1961
5.2A young wife is becoming very distraught over the fact that her husband, a secret service "spy" for England, has changed his mind about transferring away so that he can spend more time with her and their young son. He has grown cold and distant towards her; she thinks it 's because of the secretiveness of his work. Meanwhile, an American spy comes to England and is induced to help the British "team" with an undercover spy ring. When this spy ring is over turned the "bugs" that crawl out from under its rock shocks everyone!
Subterfuge
1968
4.8A college professor falls in with the counterculture crowd in San Francisco after resigning from his position in solidarity with two expelled hippie students.
The Love-Ins
1967
5.3Tracey Lawrence is assautled in her home and is so affected by the traumatic event she now finds all men totally repulsive, including her husband. Her attitude does not change with time, and to make matters worse her husband has got romantically involved with his secretary. Also, the police still have not tracked down Tracey's attacker and there is no guarantee that she is safe.
The Very Edge
1963
6.7Luke Billings (Lionel Jeffries) and his family have a problem with the new police sergeant Sam Hargis (Richard Todd) so they take over a small Transvaal town with the attention of drawing Hargis into a showdown. Hargis tries to get back up from the townsfolk who do not want to know, so is forced to lay low. As things get out of hand one of the Billings boys takes an interest in the storekeeper's wife, Priss Dobbs (Anne Aubrey). Having had enough her husband, Ernie (Jamie Uys) takes up the gun and heads down the main street alone. An act that prompts Hargis to join him. Slowly, the townsfolk turn up to back them up.
The Hellions
1961
7.5A night watchman at a garage is found murdered, and four teddy boys are put on trial for the crime. Witnesses and suspects give differing accounts of the lead-up to the crime, and the truth emerges.
The Boys
1962
1950s · 24 titles
6.8A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.
Stage Fright
1950
5.3En route to Normandy, an American and a British officer reminisce in flashback about their romances with the same woman.
D-Day the Sixth of June
1956
5.2After the 1715 defeat of the clans, one of the highland leaders, Rob Roy MacGregor escapes, has lots of adventures, gets married, and eventually becomes enough of a nuisance to George I to be outlawed, and hunted by the English
Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue
1953
6.9The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 Squadron 'The Dam Busters'.
The Dam Busters
1955
7.0Sir Walter Raleigh overcomes court intrigue to win favor with the Queen in order to get financing for a proposed voyage to the New World.
The Virgin Queen
1955
6.2Young Robin Hood, in love with Maid Marian, enters an archery contest with his father at the King's palace. On the way home his father is murdered by henchmen of Prince John. Robin takes up the life of an outlaw, gathering together his band of merry men with him in Sherwood Forest, to avenge his father's death and to help the people of the land that Prince John are over taxing.
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men
1952
7.3While sailing lawfully up the Yangste in 1949, the British warship Amethyst found its return to the open sea blocked by Communist Chinese shore batteries that unexpectedly opened fire. In charge, Lietenant Commander Kerans was not however prepared for his crew and his ship to remain as a hostage for the Chinese to use as an international pawn.
Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst
1957
6.5In 1456, French King Charles VII recalls the story of how he met the 17-year-old peasant girl Joan of Arc, entrusted her with the command of the French Army, and ultimately burned her at the stake as a heretic.
Saint Joan
1957
6.2Travelling to Venice to locate an ex-partisan on behalf of a French insurance company, a British private detective gets mixed-up in a political assassination conspiracy.
Venetian Bird
1952
7.1A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.
Chase a Crooked Shadow
1958
6.4Tells the story of Mary Tudor and her troubled path to true love. Henry VIII, for political reasons, determines to wed her to the King of France. She tries to flee to America with her love but is captured when she is "un-hatted" on board ship. In return for her consent to the marriage with France, Henry agrees to let her choose her second husband. When King Louis of France dies, Mary is kidnaped by the Duke of Buckingham. He tries to force her to marry him but she is rescued by her love in an exciting battle on the beach.
The Sword and the Rose
1953
3.8Four-episode Franco-Italian omnibus film. Four men from different national and cultural background take refuge in a cabin after being sidetracked by bad weather on their way to conference.
The Secrets of the Bed
1954
NRPromotional film for The Story of Robin Hood, featuring Walt Disney and production personnel; released in 1952.
The Riddle of Robin Hood
1952
5.7Sent to a dude ranch in the west to recover her health, a New York actress falls in love with a ranch owner recently acquitted of the murder of his wife.
Lightning Strikes Twice
1951
6.3Drama set in an Italian prisoner of war camp during World War 2, where a group of British soldiers find their plans for escape thwarted by a mysterious traitor in their midst.
Danger Within
1959
6.6Based on the true story of a young Scottish lad, Peter Marshall, who dreams of only going to sea but finds out there is a different future for him when he receives a "calling" from God to be a minister. He leaves Scotland and goes to America where after a few small congregations he lands the position of pastor of the Church of the Presidents in Washington, D.C. and eventually he becomes Chaplain of the U.S. Senate.
A Man Called Peter
1955
6.1As Louis XV lies on his deathbed, the Dauphine of France, Marie-Antoinette, seduces a Swedish officer, Axel de Fersen, which pains her husband, Louis XVI, who will know how to be generous when he learns of this deception.
Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France
1956
5.8A compulsive gambler stumbles towards losing everything when Merle Oberon decides to save him from himself.
24 Hours of a Woman's Life
1952
Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.
Wuthering Heights
1953
7.0Based upon the play A Sleeping Clergyman by James Bridie, it tells the story of three generations of the Scottish Cameron family, with its various conflicts and romances.
Flesh and Blood
1951
NRDocumentary essay about the First Moscow International Film Festival, held in August 1959, about its participants and guests - Soviet and foreign actors, directors who came to the film forum.
Stars Meet in Moscow
1959
5.2While resisting pressure from his upper-class wife to take a higher-paying job in London, a Montreal physician prepares to carry out brain surgery on a Latin American president. They don't suspect that a trio of assassins is also waiting, for their chance to carry out a political assassination on the operating table.
Intent to Kill
1958
10.0Africa, early 20th century, an Englishman marries the girlfriend of a late friend and faces natives and adventures, on the banks of a river infested with crocodiles.
The Naked Earth
1958
6.7The three marriages of a woman: a young man who is killed, a priggish lawyer and a sympathetic barrister. From the novel by Francis Brett Young.
Portrait of Clare
1950
1940s · 3 titles
6.9In the final days of World War II, in a MASH unit in Burma, a severely wounded corporal watches in dismay as fellow soldiers pack-up to return home but a caring nurse and five remaining soldiers bring him solace.
The Hasty Heart
1949
5.3In this drama, a frustrated upper-class writer decides that he will find real inspiration by examining his subjects first-hand. This leads him to begin wandering about the seamiest side of town where he witnesses a murder. When an innocent man is arrested, the writer refuses to assist him as the knowledge that he has been "slumming" could destroy his career. The young man is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
For Them That Trespass
1949
5.8When John North, a budding author, pulls the communication cord of a late night train that is taking him away on a weekend with his publishers wife, he sets in motion a series of events that lead to a train crash, a murder and a police man hunt, but all is not what it seems.
The Interrupted Journey
1949
1930s · 3 titles
6.8A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.
A Yank at Oxford
1938
7.2Dr. Benjamin Twist (Hay) and his pupils become involved with art thieves on a trip to Paris. Hay’s seamy schoolmaster act is supported by a fine cast including Charles Hawtrey and Lilli Palmer.
Good Morning, Boys!
1937
NRA dramatization to promote the Territorial Army.
The Gap
1937
Series credits
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
7.9The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Doctor Who
1963
7.5An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
Murder, She Wrote
1984
7.6A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.2Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Theatre 625
1964
7.0Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.
Thriller
1973
A modern day version of the 1969 detective series about Private Investigator Jeff Randall, who is aided in cases by the ghost of his deceased partner Marty Hopkirk.
Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)
2000
7.4The Last Place on Earth is a 1985 Central Television seven part serial, written by Trevor Griffiths based on the book Scott and Amundsen by Roland Huntford. The book is an exploration of the expeditions of Captain Robert F. Scott and his Norwegian rival in polar exploration, Roald Amundsen in their attempts to reach the South Pole. The series ran for seven episodes and starred a wide range of UK and Norwegian character actors as well as featuring some famous names, such as Max von Sydow, Richard Wilson, Sylvester McCoy and Pat Roach. It also featured performances early in their careers by Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant. Subsequently Huntford's book was republished under the same name. The book put forth the point of view that Amundsen's success in reaching the South Pole was abetted by much superior planning, whereas errors by Scott ultimately resulted in the death of him and his companions.
The Last Place on Earth
1985
7.0Eccentric psychology professor Dr John Cornelius solves technologically-charged crimes with his partner Samantha Valentine, police contact Inspector Cadogan, and his HOD Professor Owen Griffiths.
Virtual Murder
1992
5.5Running for seven weeks from July 2007, each week focused on a different genre, examining British film by genre. Presented by Jessica Stevenson the series featured over 200 exclusive interviews with leading actors and directors including Sir Michael Caine, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet.
British Film Forever
2007
8.0The adventures of a 12-year-old boy's struggles in Victorian Yorkshire, after his father, Captain Charles Bulman, is lost, presumed drowned off the coast of Africa.
Boy Dominic
1974
6.7Jenny's War is a 1985 war television serial set during World War II, made by HTV in association with Columbia Pictures. It is directed by and written by Steve Gethers. The screenplay is based on the novel with the same name of Jack Stoneley. In the UK it was shown as four 50 minute episodes on the ITV network, while in the United States it was syndicated under the Operation Prime Time banner by MCA TV. The serial stars Dyan Cannon, Nigel Hawthorne, Robert Hardy Christopher Cazenove and Hugh Grant, and is about a mother, Jenny Baines, who searches for her son Peter, who was shot down over Germany, and who she believes is still alive.
Jenny's War
1985
7.8Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.
The Royal
2003
NRTwo-part documentary celebrating the 75th anniversary of what was once the biggest film production centre outside Hollywood: Elstree.
Elstree: Britain's Hollywood
1989

