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Lyndon Brook
Born	(1926-04-10)10 April 1926 Los Angeles, California, US
Died	9 January 2004(2004-01-09) (aged 77) London, England
Occupation(s)	actor, screenwriter
Years active	1942–1987
Spouse	Elizabeth Kentish (m. 1953)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Clive Brook (father) Mildred Evelyn (mother)
Relatives	Faith Brook (sister)

Lyndon Brook (10 April 1926 – 9 January 2004) was a British actor, on film and television.

Family and early life

Lyndon Brook was born on 10 April 1926 in Los Angeles, California, to British parents. He came from an established acting family: his father, Clive Brook, had been a star of the silent movies and had moved to Hollywood to play quintessential Englishmen in a host of films. His parents sent their son back to England to be educated at Stowe School, and he subsequently gained stage experience at Cambridge University. His elder sister, Faith, also became an actress.

Career

In 1949, Brook was given a minor part in the film Train of Events, which starred Valerie Hobson (the future Mrs John Profumo) and John Clements.

In 1951 he was asked by Laurence Olivier to join his company at the St James's Theatre, London, in Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. The double production was set up to celebrate the Festival of Britain. It was whilst appearing in these productions that he met his future wife, the actress Elizabeth Kentish.

In 1954 he played an impressionable navigator opposite Gregory Peck in The Purple Plain. The film was set during the Burma campaign and involved a lengthy trek through the jungle. It enjoyed a huge success at the box office. Two years later, Brook co-starred with Kenneth More in one of the most popular of all Second World War dramas, Reach for the Sky.

He appeared with Michael Hordern and Dirk Bogarde in The Spanish Gardener (1956), and as Richard Wagner opposite Bogarde's Franz Liszt in Song Without End (1960).

Thereafter, Brook became a regular in many popular television dramas. He appeared in I, Claudius; three times in The Avengers and The New Avengers; and one appearance in Crown Court (episode "The Getaway", in 1974). He also played George VI alongside Timothy West's Winston Churchill in the BBC's Churchill and the Generals (1979). His later film roles in the 1970s and 1980s included The Hireling, Plenty and Defence of the Realm.

Brook was a much-published author, and scripted the 1957 television series Love Her to Death, which had Peter Wyngarde in the leading role.

Death

Brook died in London on 9 January 2004.

Filmography

References

1. ^ Shorter, Eric. "Obituary: Lyndon Brook". The Guardian.
2. "Faith Brook". The Daily Telegraph. London. 13 March 2012.
3. "Train of Events (1949)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
4. ^ "Lyndon Brook". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012.
5. "Lyndon Brook – Obituaries". The Stage.
6. Erickson, Hal. "The Purple Plain (1954) – Robert Parrish – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie.
7. "Lyndon Brook". aveleyman.com.
8. Erickson, Hal. "Lyndon Brook – Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.

External links

• Lyndon Brook at IMDb
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in The Stage

• 1926 births
• 2004 deaths
• Alumni of the University of Cambridge
• English male film actors
• English male television actors
• English male stage actors
• Male actors from London
• 20th-century English male actors
• People educated at Stowe School