Cecil Yekuthial Linder (March 10, 1921 – April 10, 1992) was a Polish-born Canadian film and television actor. He was Jewish and managed to escape Poland before the Holocaust. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked extensively in the United Kingdom, often playing Canadian and American characters in various films and television programmes.
In television, he is best remembered for playing Dr. Matthew Roney in the BBC serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59). In film, he is best remembered for his role as James Bond's friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, in Goldfinger (1964). Another well-known film in which he appeared was Lolita (1962), as Doctor Keegee.
Career
He was raised in Timmins, Ontario where his father was a rabbi to the Jewish community. During his early years of his professional career, Linder worked as an announcer at CKGB in Timmins.[1]
Linder enjoyed an extensive and successful television career on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, probably his most prominent role was as the palaeontologist Roney in the original BBC version of Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59).
In the United States, he was a regular in the CBS soap operas The Secret Storm and The Edge of Night and in the 1980s appeared in several of the Perry Mason revival TV films as District Attorney Jack Welles.
Linder was also a regular on the popular 1980s Canadian crime series Seeing Things, playing Crown Attorney Spenser.