Earlston Cameron, CBE (8 August 1917–3 July 2020), known as Earl Cameron, was a Bermudian actor who lived and worked in the United Kingdom. After appearing on London’s West End stage, he became one of the first black stars in the British film industry.

With his appearance in 1951’s Pool of London, Cameron became one of the first black actors to take up a starring role in a British film after Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, and Elisabeth Welch in the 1930s.

Childhood and Early Career

Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda, and grew up on Princess Street, Hamilton. His father was a stonemason who died in 1922, after which Cameron’s mother worked at various jobs to support the family. As a young man, Cameron joined the British Merchant Navy.

He struggled to get work as a black man, being reluctantly employed as a hotel dishwasher and having to take any casual labor that was offered him. In 1941, his friend Harry Crossman sent Cameron a ticket to see a revival of Chu Chin Chow at the Palace Theatre.

Cameron was fed up with doing menial jobs in the kitchen of the Strand Corner House and asked Crossman if he could get him on the show. He informed Cameron that all the parts had been cast, but two or three weeks later, when one of the actors did not show up, Crossman arranged a meeting with the director Robert Atkins, who cast Cameron on the spot. He played a speaking role as Joseph, the chauffeur in the American play The Petrified Forest by Robert E. Sherwood.

Film Career

Cameron’s first starring role was in the 1951 film Pool of London, by Basil Dearden, a post-war, London-based film that incorporates racial prejudice, romance—the merchant sailor who falls in love with a young white woman, played by Susan Shaw—and a diamond robbery. He received much critical acclaim for his role in the movie, which is rated as “the first major role for a black actor in a British mainstream film.”.

The first of his major film roles was in Simba, which he starred in in 1955. The drama was set against the background of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. Cameron was cast as Peter Karanja, a doctor struggling to reconcile his admiration for Western civilization with his Kikuyu heritage. That same year Cameron played the Mau Mau general Jeroge in Safari.

Cameron’s later film appearances include a major role in Sidney Pollack’s The Interpreter (2005) as dictator Edmond Zuwanie, who is a fictionized version of Robert Mugabe (then leader of Zimbabwe). He appeared in a cameo as a portrait artist in the 2006 film The Queen (directed by Stephen Frears), alongside Helen Mirren.

• • Pool of London (1951)

• • Simba (1955)

• • Safari (1955)

• • The Heart Within (1957)

• • Sapphire (1959)

• • The Message (1976)

• • Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)

• • Flame in the Streets (1961)

• • Tarzan’s Three Challenges (1963)

• • Guns at Batasi (1964)

• • Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)

• • A Warm December (1973)

• • Dr. No (1962) (considered for a role, not cast)

• • Thunderball (1965)

• • Cuba (1979)

• • The Interpreter (2005)

• • The Queen (2006)

• • Inception (2010)

• • Up on the Roof (2013)

Television Career

Cameron acted in a plethora of television series, but among his earliest starring roles was as a West Indian cab driver in the UK in the BBC 1960 TV drama, The Dark Man. The play explored the responses and prejudices he encountered in his job. In 1956 he had a minor role in another BBC drama looking at workplace racism, A Man From The Sun, where he played community leader Joseph Brent, other actors including Errol John, Cy Grant, Colin Douglas, and Nadia Cattouse.

Cameron also guest-starred in several successful series, such as Danger Man, or, as the US called it, Secret Agent, and co-starred with that series’ leading actor, Patrick McGoohan. In addition, he reunited with Patrick McGoohan for his stint as the Haitian supervisor of a “nose” (face) transplantation experiment in an episode of The Prisoner in 1967.

• • The Dark Man (BBC, 1960)

• • A Man From The Sun (BBC, 1956)

• • Danger Man (also known as Secret Agent in the US)

• • The Prisoner – Episode: The Schizoid Man (1967)

• • Emergency – Ward 10

• • The Zoo Gang

• • Crown Court—Two stories in 1973

• • Jackanory—Read five Brer Rabbit stories (1971)

• • Dixon of Dock Green

• • Doctor Who – Serial: The Tenth Planet

• • Waking the Dead

• • Kavanagh QC

• • Babyfather

• • EastEnders – Role: Mr. Lambert

• • Dalziel and Pascoe

• • Lovejoy

• • Neverwhere (BBC2, 1996)

What Religion Did Earl Cameron Follow?

From 1963, Cameron was a practitioner of the Baháʼí Faith, joining the religion at the time of the first Baháʼí World Congress, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In the mid-to-late 1970s, Cameron stopped acting for a time. He and his family moved to the Solomon Islands, as he sought to dedicate himself more fully to the Bahá’í faith. During this time, he ran an ice cream business in Honiara. Following the death of his wife, Audrey, in 1994, Cameron returned to the UK and resumed his acting career.

How Many Children Did Earl Cameron Have?

In 2007, the Baháʼí community hosted a reception in London to celebrate his 90th birthday. He resided in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. He was survived by his second wife, Barbara Bower. His first wife, Audrey Godowski, whom he married in 1959, died in 1994. He had six children, five by his first marriage

Awards

• • He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours

• • In 2012, The Earl Cameron Theatre in Hamilton, Bermuda, was named after him in a ceremony he attended in December.

• • The University of Warwick gave Cameron an honorary doctorate in January 2013.

• • In 2015, the British Film Institute featured a special presentation and screening to honor Cameron’s work

• • In 2019, the Earl Cameron Award was created in his name by the Bermuda Arts Council, under the category of “a Bermudian professional who has demonstrated exceptional passion and talent in the field of theatre, cinematography, film or video production

How Old Was Earl Cameron When He Died?

Cameron died at his Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, home, of natural causes, on 3 July 2020, aged 102, surrounded by his wife and family.