Duncan Lamont
|
|
Quatexp03.JPG
He had a long and successful career in film and television, appearing in a variety of high-profile productions. On film, the best-known of the many productions he appeared in were The Thirty-Nine Steps (1959 version, as Kennedy), Ben-Hur (1959, uncredited but playing Marius), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962, as John Williams) and Battle of Britain (1969, as Flight Sergeant Arthur).
On television, he was a semi-regular in the series The Texan from 1958 to 1960, and 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, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders!, and Doctor Who. In 1953, he appeared in the major role of astronaut Victor Carroon in the ground-breaking 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.
Lamont was a busy working actor right up until his death: when he died of a heart attack at the age of sixty in 1978, he was working 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 in which he appeared and his replacement by the actor John Abineri.
He was married to the Irish actress Patricia Driscoll.