Screen legend and a black pioneer

TRIBUTES have been paid to screen “pioneer” Earl Cameron, pictured, one of the first black actors to make it in British cinema, who has died aged 102.

Cameron’s career began in 1951 with Pool Of London, credited as being the first British film to feature an interracial relationship.

His later credits included playing Pinder in Bond movie Thunderball, Inception, and Sir Sidney Poitier’s 1973 movie A Warm December.

Actor Paterson Joseph wrote on Twitter: “Giant Man. His generation’s pioneering shoulders are what my generation of actors stand on.

“No shoulders were broader than this gentleman with the voice of God and the heart of a kindly prince. RIP Earl Cameron.”

Film production company StudioCanalUK wrote: “We’re deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Pool Of London actor Earl Cameron - one of the first prominent black actors to break through the ‘colour bar’ of British cinema.”

Nicholas Pegg paid tribute to Cameron, as well as Louis Mahoney, the Fawlty Towers and Doctor Who actor whose death, aged 81, was announced recently.

“Fine actors, and back in the day two of the most prominent people of colour in a profession overwhelmingly white,” he said.

Dance choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne said of Cameron: “Sad that we didn’t see more opportunities given to this fine actor during his long career... but a groundbreaker certainly and a great legacy to celebrate today.”

In 2017, Cameron told The Guardian: “I never saw myself as a pioneer. It was only later, looking back, that it occurred to me that I was.”

He told the newspaper: “Unless it was specified that this was a part for a black actor, they would never consider a black actor for the part. And they would never consider changing a white part to a black part.

“So that was my problem. I got mostly small parts, and that was extremely frustrating - not just for me but for other black actors. We had a very hard time getting worthwhile roles.”

His TV credits included Doctor Who in 1966, as well as Danger Man, Dixon Of Dock Green, The Prisoner, The Dark Man and Lovejoy.

Born in Bermuda, he joined the British merchant navy and arrived in the UK in 1939.

It’s time to eat out to help out, to enjoy the arts to help out and to work out to help out. It’s over to all of you to help the country recover safely -

If we want to try then to bring the deficit back to where it would have been absent the crisis, we will need to do some spending cuts, or given a decade of austerity, perhaps more likely some tax rises -