Irish actor Richard Todd, star of “The Longest Day” and “A Man ...

by AP

Irish actor Richard Todd dies at 90

LONDON — Richard Todd, who re-enacted his wartime exploits in the 1962 film “The Longest Day” and was Ian Fleming’s choice to play James Bond, has died of cancer at age 90, his family said Friday.

Todd, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1949 film “A Hasty Heart” and starred as U.S. Senate chaplain Peter Marshall in “A Man Called Peter” (1954), died Thursday at his home in Lincolnshire in central England, according to his agent, the Richard Stone Partnership.

In Britain, one of his best-known roles was playing Royal Air Force pilot Guy Gibson in “The Dam Busters.”

“He had been suffering from cancer, an illness that he bore with his habitual courage and dignity,” the family said in a statement.

Fleming had preferred Todd to take the lead in “Dr. No” in 1962, The Daily Telegraph said in its obituary, but a schedule clash opened the way for Sean Connery to define the part. Instead, Todd took the role of role of Inspector Harry Sanders in “Death Drums Along the River,” released in 1963.

Born Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Todd at first hoped to become a playwright but discovered a love for acting after helping found the Dundee Repertory Company in Scotland in 1939.

He volunteered for the British Army, and was among the first paratroopers dropped into Normandy in the D-Day invasion. He was also one of the first paratroopers to meet the glider force commanded by Maj. John Howard at Pegasus Bridge; he played Howard in “The Longest Day.” After being discharged in 1946, he returned to Dundee. His role as male lead in “Claudia” led to romance and then marriage to his leading lady, Catherine Grant-Bogle.

A Scottish accent mastered while preparing for his role in “The Hasty Heart” proved a useful skill in his later film career.

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