Earl Cameron (actor)
| Earl Cameron CBE | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Earlston J. Cameron 8 August 1917 Pembroke, Bermuda |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1951–present |
| Spouse(s) | Audrey Cameron (?–1994) (her death) Barbara Cameron (1994–present) |
Earl Cameron, CBE (born 8 August 1917) is a Bermudian actor. Along with Cy Grant, he is known as one of the first black actors to break the "colour bar" in the United Kingdom. With his appearance in 1951's Pool of London, Cameron becames the first black actor to take up a starring role in a British film. According to Screenonline, "Earl Cameron brought a breath of fresh air to the British film industry's stuffy depictions of race relations. Often cast as a sensitive outsider, Cameron gave his characters a grace and moral authority that often surpassed the films' compromised liberal agendas." He also had repeated appearances on many British science fiction programmes of the 1960s, including Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and The Andromeda Breakthrough.
Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda. As a young man, he joined the British Merchant Navy, and sailed mostly between New York and South America. When the Second World War broke out he found himself stranded in London, arriving on the ship The Eastern Prince on 29 October 1939. As he himself put it in an interview for The Royal Gazette newspaper: "I arrived in London on 29 October 1939. I got involved with a young lady and you know the rest. The ship left without me, and the girl walked out too."
In 1941, a friend named Harry Crossman gave Cameron a ticket to see a revival of Chu Chin Chow at the Palace Theatre. Crossman and five other black actors had bit parts in the West End production. Cameron who was working at the kitchen of the Strand Corner House at the time, was fed up with menial jobs and asked Crossman if he could get him on the show. At first he told Cameron that all of the parts were cast, but two or three weeks later, when one of the actors did not show up, Crossman arranged a meeting with the director Robert Atkins, who cast Cameron on the spot.
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