DAVID LANGTONThe typical English gentleman was played with brilliant regularity during a distinguished career by David Langton, who died on 25 April 1994 aged 82.During six decades, he was one of Britain ’s longest-serving stage and screen actors.Mr Langton will always be associated with the role of Lord Bellamy – the head of the Edwardian household in period drama Upstairs, Downstairs, which was watched by millions in the 1970s.He will also be remembered for harbouring a secret that only became public knowledge after his death.Born Basil Muir Langton-Dodds on 16 April 1912 in Motherwell, near Glasgow, his father was a wine merchant and took his family to England when he was four.He left school at 16 and, with the encouragement of his father, began working for a small Shakespearean theatre company. At 19 Mr Langton went to live in Yell, a remote island in the Shetlands. He worked as a sheep farmer while simultaneously trying to become a writer but later admitted the move had been a “disaster”.In 1938 he began working in the theatre full time and changed his name to David Langton because there was already an actor on the scene called Basil Langton. He saw action in the Second World War, rising through the ranks to become a major. He also married first wife Rosemary in 1940, with whom he had three sons, until their divorce in 1966.Mr Langton secured a plum role in the West End play Seagulls Over Sorrento in 1950 but made headlines for the wrong reasons when he suddenly went AWOL for three weeks. He was finally discovered in New York , where he was en route to see his brother Donald in Canada . He explained to the media that he had needed a break following the recent death of his father.He continued his stage career in the 1950s but also branched out into television and in the 1960s his credits included parts in The Troubleshooters, Out of the Unknown, The Avengers, The Champions and Special Branch.But he did not gain nationwide fame until 1971 with the part of Richard “Lord” Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs. He secured the role after a chance meeting with producer John Whitney at the Garrick Club.During the show, which ran for five series between 1971 and 1975, Mr Langton spent some time living in Eaton Place , the square in Belgravia where the show was set. In May 1975 he also married his second wife, Claire Green, the former spouse of TV host Hughie Green.He appeared in the 1976 film The Incredible Sarah and in the 1980s played Earl Mountbatten in Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story. His final TV roles were in Absolutely in 1991 and The Good Guys in 1992 until his death of a heart attack in Stratford-upon-Avon .David Langton will forever be remembered for his role as an archetypal Englishman in Upstairs, Downstairs.It crowned a memorable career on stage, television and film which few of his peers could match.And his death brought to light one of his best-kept showbiz secrets – he had shaved ten years off his age after finding fame on TV.Even most of his friends thought he was 72 - but he was actually 82 when he died.
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