It can’t have done an actor’s self esteem much good to be classed as a salaryman. Richard Todd was on the Rank payroll in his heyday, and was derided by the acting aristocracy as one of the ‘Rank Smallies’. His CV easily refutes such slurs: historical figures from Sir Walter Raleigh to Robin Hood, slicing up Sylvia Sims in Asylum, and, unsurprisingly given his part in the D-Day landings, a slew of military roles.
FINEST HOUR: Well, in real life, D-Day. On film, D-Day as well, playing for the camera almost the same thing he did for real in The Longest Day.
