Richard Todd

Acting

Richard Todd

Born 1919-06-11 · Dublin, Ireland

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 landings as a member of the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion. Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Todd, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

The Longest Day poster
7.6

The 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

House of the Long Shadows poster
6.4

An 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

D-Day the Sixth of June poster
5.3

En 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

The Big Sleep poster
5.8

Private 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

Stage Fright poster
6.8

A 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

Operation Crossbow poster
6.7

Allied 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

The Dam Busters poster
6.9

The 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

Asylum poster
6.0

A 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

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men poster
6.2

Young 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

Dorian Gray poster
5.1

London, 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

Flesh and Blood poster
7.0

Based 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

Jenny's War poster
6.0

This 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

The Virgin Queen poster
7.0

Sir 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

Venetian Bird poster
6.2

Travelling 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

Beautiful Lies poster
NR

August 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

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker poster
8.0

This 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

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst poster
7.3

While 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

The Hasty Heart poster
6.9

In 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

The Long and the Short and the Tall poster
6.7

Based 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

Chase a Crooked Shadow poster
7.1

A 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

Saint Joan poster
6.5

In 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

The Sword and the Rose poster
6.4

Tells 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

Danger Within poster
6.3

Drama 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

Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue poster
5.2

After 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