Duncan Lamont

This article is about the British actor. He is not to be confused with the British saxophonist and composer Duncan Lamont, whose soundtracks include the music to Mr Benn.

Duncan Lamont
Duncan Lamont in trailer for The Golden Coach (1952)
Born
Duncan William Ferguson Lamont

(1918-06-17)17 June 1918
Lisbon, Portugal
Died19 December 1978(1978-12-19) (aged 60)
Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
OccupationActor
Years active1930s–1978
Spouse
​
(m. 1950)​
Children2

Duncan William Ferguson Lamont (17 June 1918 – 19 December 1978) was a British actor.[1][2][3] Born in Lisbon, Portugal, and brought up in Scotland, he had a long and successful career in film and television, appearing in a variety of high-profile productions.

Career

He trained as an actor at RADA in London, and had a considerable amount of stage experience before the Second World War. He acted in repertory, and at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. During the War he served as a sergeant pilot in the Glider Pilot Regiment of the British airborne forces.[4] He resumed acting acter the War, and entered films in the early 1950s.

On film, he appeared in The Man in the White Suit (1951, as Harry), The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955, as the villain De La Marck), The 39 Steps (1959, as Kennedy), Ben-Hur (1959, as Marius, an associate of Messala), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962, as John Williams), Arabesque (1966, as Kyle Webster) and Battle of Britain (1969, as Flight Sergeant Arthur). Lamont is particularly memorable in his role as the wry, urbane Viceroy in Jean Renoir's The Golden Coach (1952).

From 1958 to 1960, Lamont was a semi-regular as David MacMorris in the CBS western television series, The Texan, starring Rory Calhoun.[5]

Lamont also appeared in guest roles in a range of popular British programmes from the 1950s to the 1970s, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dixon of Dock Green, Danger Man, The Avengers, Callan, Secret Army, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders! and Doctor Who.

In 1953, he appeared in the major role of astronaut Victor Carroon in Nigel Kneale's ground-breaking BBC science-fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment, and fourteen years later returned to the series when he played the role of Sladden in the Hammer Films version of the third serial, Quatermass and the Pit.

He died in 1978 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, of a heart attack at the age of 60. He was working at the time on "Hostage", an episode of the BBC science-fiction series Blake's 7. Although he had completed location work for the episode, he died before the studio scenes had been shot, necessitating a re-mount of the location material performed by his replacement John Abineri.

He was married to the Irish actress Patricia Driscoll until his death in 1978. They had two children together.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ "Duncan Lamont". BFI. Archived from the original on 26 July 2017.
  2. ^ Brian McFarlane (Ed): The Encyclopedia of British Film (BFI/Methuen • London • 2000) p397
  3. ^ Picture Show Who's Who on the Screen (Amalgamated Press • London) [1956] p87
  4. ^ "Chit Chat - Happy and Glorious," The Stage, 15 November 1945, page 4.
  5. ^ "The Texan". Classic Television Archive. Archived from the original on 8 April 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2013.