Ronald Radd (22 January 1929 – 23 April 1976) was a British television actor. He originated the role of Hunter in the television thriller series '' Callan''. In 1971, he was nominated for a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

for ''Abelard and Heloise''.

Early work

Radd began as a

stage actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

in the Alexandra Theatre in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

in the early-1950s, along with the likes of Leslie Sands and Edward Mulhare. In 1951 he appeared in a Lionel Hamilton production of '' The Romantic Young Lady'' at the Kettering Savoy.''Northampton Mercury'', 9 March 1951, p. 5; accessed via The

British Newspaper Archive The British Newspaper Archive website provides access to searchable digitized archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011. History The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London ...

; retrieved 22 November 2014. By 1954, Radd had graduated to the West End, where he appeared with

Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was a British actor and comedian. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 ''Carry ...

in two different productions in the

Apollo Theatre The Apollo Theatre is a listed building, Grade II listed West End theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London.

in February 1956, ''The Buccaneer'' and '' The Boy Friend''. In 1958 he starred in ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

'' on Broadway with Reginald Denny.

Television and film work

Radd gradually lost interest in

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

and broke into television in '' Ordeal by Fire'' in 1957 as a dastardly Frenchman with

Peter Wyngarde Peter Paul Wyngarde (born Cyril Goldbert, 23 August 1927 – 15 January 2018) was a British actor. He was best known for portraying the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two television series: '' Department S'' (19 ...

and

Patrick Troughton Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor. He became best known for his roles in television, most notably starring as the Second Doctor, second incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the lo ...

whom he appeared with in the BBC production of ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...

'' (1958). Radd made a number of appearances in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

production '' The Shari Lewis Show'' between 1960 and 1963, and in 1960 appeared in the production of

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

's '' The Iceman Cometh'' directed by

Sidney Lumet Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. Lumet started his career in theatre before moving to film, where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York City, New York dramas w ...

, who also directed him in the

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

adaptation of '' The Sea Gull'' (1968) and ''

The Offence ''The Offence'' is a 1973 British neo-noir crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet starring Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, Vivien Merchant, and Ian Bannen. Connery plays a veteran police detective who suffers a psychological breakdown and kills ...

'' (1972). In between them he appeared in

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

's '' The Kremlin Letter'' (1970). Radd worked alongside actors such as

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the ...

and

Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robards received numerous accola ...

. In that year, Radd also appeared in the

production of ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'' playing the role of the drunkard Stefano, alongside

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s and gave a memor ...

who portrayed Caliban and Maurice Evans as Prospero. Radd made a guest appearance on Episode 2 of the TV series '' The Saint'', which starred a young

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the ...

. The episode first aired Sept 26, 1963. Radd featured in some 60 different TV shows between 1955 and 1976 including '' The Avengers'', ''

Danger Man ''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again ...

'', ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a British television series created by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan portrays Number Six (The Prisoner), Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a The Village (The Prisoner), mysteri ...

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

'' and ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...

''. He memorably played "Hunter" in the one-off television play in ITV's "''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Ca ...

''" strand, called '' A Magnum For Schneider''. To protect his shady Government department ("The Section"), Hunter brings once-top operative and assassin David Callan ( Edward Woodward) back to kill Schneider, an international illegal arms dealer. Hunter's plan is for Callan to be caught at the scene and take the blame, thus getting the job done yet clearing The Section of involvement. But Callan gets wise when first police, then colleague Toby Meres turn up at Schneider's apartment. Callan turns the tables by leaving Meres unconscious in his place. This led to the creation of the highly regarded spy series '' Callan'' with highly charged, antagonistic exchanges between Callan and Hunter among episode highlights. Radd appeared occasionally in later series of ''Callan''. In the sixth episode of ''

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt (actor), Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Denn ...

'', " Just for the Record" in 1969, he played the role of the villain Pargiter, a deluded character intent on proving he was heir to the throne of England. In 1971, Radd's performance in ''Abelard and Heloise'', earned him a nomination for Broadway's

Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play The Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality supporting roles in a Broadway theatre, Broa ...

Death

He died in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

of a brain haemorrhage in 1976 aged 47.

Selected filmography

* ''

The Camp on Blood Island ''The Camp on Blood Island'' is a 1958 British World War II film, directed by Val Guest for Hammer Film Productions and starring André Morell, Carl Möhner, Edward Underdown and Walter Fitzgerald. The film is set in a Japanese prisoner o ...

'' (1958) – Commander Yamamitsu * '' The Iceman Cometh'' (1960) – Captain Cecil Lewis * '' The Small World of Sammy Lee'' (1963) – Big Alf * '' Up Jumped a Swagman'' (1965) – Harry King * '' Where the Spies Are'' (1966) – Stanilaus * '' Mister Ten Per Cent'' (1967) – Publicist * '' The Double Man'' (1967) – Russian General * '' The Sea Gull'' (1968) – Shamraev * '' Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?'' (1969) – Critic Bentley * '' The Kremlin Letter'' (1970) – Captain Potkin * ''

'' (1972) – Lawson * '' Divorce His, Divorce Hers'' (1973) – Angus McIntyre * ''

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

'' (1975) – Vanni * '' The Spiral Staircase'' (1975) – Oates * ''

Operation Daybreak ''Operation Daybreak'' (also known as ''The Price of Freedom'' in the U.S. and ''Seven Men at Daybreak'' during production) is a 1975 war film based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS general Reinhard Heydrich i ...

'' (1975) – Aunt Marie's Husband

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radd, Ronald 1929 births 1976 deaths English male film actors English male television actors Actors from the City of Sunderland Male actors from County Durham 20th-century English male actors English male stage actors