Cy Grant
| Cy Grant | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Cyril Grant 8 November 1919 Beterverwagting, Demerara, British Guiana (now Guyana) |
| Died | 13 February 2010 (aged 90) Highgate, London, England |
| Citizenship | British |
| Occupation | Actor, musician, writer, poet |
| Years active | 1951–1994 |
| Style | Calypso music, folk music, steelpan music |
| Television |
Tonight (1950s) Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–68) |
| Title | Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University |
| Spouse(s) | Dorith Grant (m. 1956; his death 2010) |
| Children | 4 |
| Website | www |
Cyril Ewart Lionel Grant (8 November 1919 – 13 February 2010) was a Guyanese actor, musician, writer and poet. In the 1950s, he became the first black person to be featured regularly on television in the United Kingdom, mostly due to his appearances on the BBC current affairs show Tonight.
Following service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, Grant worked as an actor and singer, before establishing the Drum Arts Centre in London in the 1970s. In the 1980s, he was appointed director of Concord Multicultural Festivals. A published poet and author of several books, including his 2007 memoir Blackness and the Dreaming Soul and other writing that reflected his belief in Taoism and an expansive world view, Grant was made an Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University in 1997, and a member of the Scientific and Medical Network in 2001. In 2008, he was the founder and inspirator of an online archive to trace and commemorate Caribbean airmen of the Second World War.
A father of four children, Grant lived with his wife, Dorith, in Highgate, London.
Grant was born in the village of Beterverwagting, Demerara, British Guiana (modern-day Guyana), one of seven children in a close-knit middle-class family. His father was a Moravian minister and his mother a music teacher originally from Antigua. Grant had two brothers and four sisters. At the age of 11, he moved with his family to New Amsterdam, Berbice. After leaving high school, Grant worked as a clerk in the office of a stipendiary magistrate but was unable to study law overseas due to a lack of funds. Speaking of his upbringing, Grant said: "I was brought up in a typically colonial way, singing 'Rule Britannia' and learning about English history and geography, but not knowing anything about the country I was born in. I knew as a young person in Guyana that something was wrong.... I felt frustrated by the colonial way of life. I knew that the colony was too small to hold me."
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