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Robert Eddison
Robert Leadam Eddison, OBE (10 June 1908 – 14 December 1991) was a British actor, who despite his lengthy career as a classical stage actor, is probably most widely remembered in the role of the Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He also played Merlin in the BBC television series The Legend of King Arthur, and the tragic ferryman in The Storyteller episode "The Luck Child".
Eddison was an award-winning actor, known for his mellifluously resonant, baritone voice and long, lean 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) figure. Throughout his 60-year career he was constantly in demand as an actor and worked with many of Britain's greatest stage actors, often during the early formative years of their careers, including Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith.
Eddison was born in Yokohama, Japan, to Edwin Eddison and Hilda Muriel Leadham. He had a twin brother,[citation needed] Talbot Leadam Eddison, who later became a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and received the Distinguished Service Cross and The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Another brother became a director of an engineering company, while the youngest brother was Roger Eddison.[citation needed]
From the age of five, Eddison knew that he wanted to be an actor. Both of his parents were members of the Yokohama Dramatic Club, where he often saw them both perform on stage. He recalls in his later memoir how "As they bent down to kiss me goodnight...the smell of the make-up and powder totally bewitched me. My father's make-up box had the same smell of spirit-gum and its effect on me was very potent".[citation needed]
His father was a civil engineer and died in 1917. Consequently, his mother decided to return to England with her four sons by way of British Columbia, Canada. It was here that Eddison along with his twin brother went to boarding school in Victoria for the next few years. After the Armistice in 1919, the family arrived back in England. Although his mother's family originally came from Leeds, she settled in Haywards Heath, Sussex.
Eddison, aged 14, along with his three other brothers, were all educated at Charterhouse School. He was extremely disappointed to discover that there was no dramatic society, especially considering that its past alumni included such theatre luminaries as Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Cyril Maude, Richard Goolden and Max Beerbohm.
It was anticipated that he would follow in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather and paternal uncle and become a doctor, consequently yet uncertain, Eddison later studied at Trinity College, Cambridge where he read medicine. During his time there he developed his passion for acting and the theatre. He was a member of the ADC and of The Marlowe Society and from 1929 to 1930 served as President of the Cambridge Amateur Dramatics Club. As President, he later recalled how he shamefully blackballed Alastair Cooke due to "A very suspect Lancashire accent". During his time there he played Virginia alongside George Rylands in Coriolanus and as Beatrice opposite Michael Redgrave as Florindo in Goldoni's A Servant of Two Masters.
It was whilst at Cambridge that Eddison made his professional debut at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge in Lady Audley's Secret on 23 June 1930 opposite Flora Robson as Lady Audley. Eddison later said he viewed this as his first professional credit, however "In fact, I drew no salary, but a silver cigarette-case at the end of the ten weeks."
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Robert Eddison
Robert Leadam Eddison, OBE (10 June 1908 – 14 December 1991) was a British actor, who despite his lengthy career as a classical stage actor, is probably most widely remembered in the role of the Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He also played Merlin in the BBC television series The Legend of King Arthur, and the tragic ferryman in The Storyteller episode "The Luck Child".
Eddison was an award-winning actor, known for his mellifluously resonant, baritone voice and long, lean 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) figure. Throughout his 60-year career he was constantly in demand as an actor and worked with many of Britain's greatest stage actors, often during the early formative years of their careers, including Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith.
Eddison was born in Yokohama, Japan, to Edwin Eddison and Hilda Muriel Leadham. He had a twin brother,[citation needed] Talbot Leadam Eddison, who later became a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and received the Distinguished Service Cross and The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Another brother became a director of an engineering company, while the youngest brother was Roger Eddison.[citation needed]
From the age of five, Eddison knew that he wanted to be an actor. Both of his parents were members of the Yokohama Dramatic Club, where he often saw them both perform on stage. He recalls in his later memoir how "As they bent down to kiss me goodnight...the smell of the make-up and powder totally bewitched me. My father's make-up box had the same smell of spirit-gum and its effect on me was very potent".[citation needed]
His father was a civil engineer and died in 1917. Consequently, his mother decided to return to England with her four sons by way of British Columbia, Canada. It was here that Eddison along with his twin brother went to boarding school in Victoria for the next few years. After the Armistice in 1919, the family arrived back in England. Although his mother's family originally came from Leeds, she settled in Haywards Heath, Sussex.
Eddison, aged 14, along with his three other brothers, were all educated at Charterhouse School. He was extremely disappointed to discover that there was no dramatic society, especially considering that its past alumni included such theatre luminaries as Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Cyril Maude, Richard Goolden and Max Beerbohm.
It was anticipated that he would follow in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather and paternal uncle and become a doctor, consequently yet uncertain, Eddison later studied at Trinity College, Cambridge where he read medicine. During his time there he developed his passion for acting and the theatre. He was a member of the ADC and of The Marlowe Society and from 1929 to 1930 served as President of the Cambridge Amateur Dramatics Club. As President, he later recalled how he shamefully blackballed Alastair Cooke due to "A very suspect Lancashire accent". During his time there he played Virginia alongside George Rylands in Coriolanus and as Beatrice opposite Michael Redgrave as Florindo in Goldoni's A Servant of Two Masters.
It was whilst at Cambridge that Eddison made his professional debut at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge in Lady Audley's Secret on 23 June 1930 opposite Flora Robson as Lady Audley. Eddison later said he viewed this as his first professional credit, however "In fact, I drew no salary, but a silver cigarette-case at the end of the ten weeks."