Harry Baird (actor)

Harry Baird
Baird as strongman Ubaratutu in Thor and the Amazon Women (1963)
Born	(1931-05-12)12 May 1931 Georgetown, British Guiana
Died	13 February 2005(2005-02-13) (aged 73) London, England, United Kingdom
Cause of death	Cancer
Occupation	Film, television and stage actor
Years active	1954–1975
Known for	Sapphire (1959) The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968)
Television	UFO (1970)

Harry Baird (12 May 1931 – 13 February 2005) was a Guyanese-born British actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, appearing in more than 36 films throughout his career.

Baird was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, and educated in Canada and Britain. He was 17 years old when he joined his brother in London and, driven by an early interest in the cinema, began training at the YMCA. He made his first film appearance in 1955 as a boxer called Jamaica in Carol Reed's A Kid for Two Farthings. A year later, he appeared in the play Kismet at the Stoll Theatre in London, and had a role in Jean Genet's The Blacks in 1961 at the Royal Court Theatre.

Baird subsequently appeared mostly in film and television, though other stage work included A Wreath for Udomo (Lyric Hammersmith, 1961) and Ogodiveleftthegason (Royal Court, 1967).

His first lead role was as Atimbu, in the TV series White Hunter, in 1958. A series of stereotyped roles followed, in low-budget films featuring generic African or "jungle" themes. Baird's most high-profile role, however, came in Michael Relph and Basil Dearden's racial drama film Sapphire (1959). Prominent roles for black actors in Britain remained scarce, although he appeared in supporting roles in the TV series Danger Man and UFO (1970; as Lieutenant Bradley, a role that he left halfway through the series' run).