Earl Cameron

[AndrewLA]

What a totally unexpected pleasure to see that wonderful actor Earl Cameron again. He plays the Mugabe-type dictator in THE INTERPRETER, and brings his dignified and sensitive quality to a rather under-written role. There's a touching sense of a cruel man who still remembers -- too late -- the idealist he used to be. Since I left England decades ago, I'd lost track of Cameron and thought he was long retired. Now here he is again, out of the blue, in a high-profile (though not very good) Hollywood movie from Working Title.



He's pushing ninety now, but you can still see in him that same handsome, quiet, charismatic actor who appeared in so many British movies of the 50s and 60s, like POOL OF LONDON (where he was one of the stars, a black sailor involved with a white girl -- pretty daring for 1951), SAPHIRE and FLAME IN THE STREETS. I also seem to remember him playing the Sidney Poitier role from A PATCH OF BLUE in a British television production of the original story. He should have been a bigger and longer-lasting star, but the roles just weren't there for a young black actor in England the way they were for Poitier in the U.S.



Does anyone know how he was cast in THE INTERPRETER? Perhaps someone from Working Title in London remembered him from a few childhood movies...?



I'm also curious about what seems to be a gap in his credits from around the late 60s to the mid 80s. What was he doing during that time...?



Nice to have him back.

[dylan]

Earl was interviewed at the National Film Theatre three years ago. Full transcript at:



http://www.bfi.org.uk/showing/nft/interviews/cameron/

[AndrewLA]

Originally posted by dylan@May 31 2005, 09:41 AM

Earl was interviewed at the National Film Theatre three years ago. Full transcript at:



http://www.bfi.org.uk/showing/nft/interviews/cameron/

Thanks for the link, Dylan. Nice interview. Earl comes across as a charming and good-humored and sharp-minded fellow. The reference to him playing humane and wise characters is right. Poitier also tended to play those kinds of parts, but the range of his characters was greater. Interesting to speculate whether Cameron might have done better if he had tried Hollywood, where there were better opportunities for black actors and more interesting roles...

[Wetherby Pond]

Sorry to be so BFI-centric, but there's another piece on Cameron here, with links to more detailed information about individual films - plus video clips if you know anywhere nearby with a Screenonline licence (restricted to schools and libraries for copyright reasons).

[AndrewLA]

Originally posted by Wetherby Pond@May 31 2005, 11:01 PM

Sorry to be so BFI-centric, but there's another piece on Cameron here, with links to more detailed information about individual films - plus video clips if you know anywhere nearby with a Screenonline licence (restricted to schools and libraries for copyright reasons).

Excellent site. Thanks for the recommendation, Wetherby.



I was struck by the fact that Cameron was already in his thirties when he made POOL OF LONDON and over forty in SAPPHIRE. In a sense, he never was a truly young actor in the way that Poitier and Belafonte (or even Johnny Sekka) were, which probably also limited his chance at stardom. He became a character actor almost immediately.



There is that curious gap in his credits, from 1979 to 1994, when he seems to have made a comeback at the age of 77. Pretty impressive. Not many actors manage that.



In his credits, I couldn't see anything that might have been a British TV adaptation of what also became A PATCH OF BLUE, but I'm pretty certain that Cameron did star in such a version.



In looking up FLAME IN THE STREETS on the BFI site, I had a sense that the plot description was written from the point of view of the black characters' story. My memory is that events centered more around the white characters who had to come to terms with their racist attitudes -- John Mills, Brenda de Banzie and Sylvia Syms. Am I mistaken about that?



I also noticed that the BFI lists the director of FLAME IN THE STREETS as Roy Ward Baker. I thought he was plain old Roy Baker during his entire Rank period, changing it only during his later TV phase. Anyone know when he actually made the switch to Roy W...?



Oh, one last question. Is there any way to write here without re-printing the previous person's post at the beginning? It seems a bit redundant. Thanks.

[Wetherby Pond]

Originally posted by AndrewLA@Jun 1 2005, 01:24 AM

I also noticed that the BFI lists the director of FLAME IN THE STREETS as Roy Ward Baker. I thought he was plain old Roy Baker during his entire Rank period, changing it only during his later TV phase. Anyone know when he actually made the switch to Roy W.

Yes - Quatermass and the Pit. Everything before that was credited to plain Roy Baker, though it's common practice these days to call him Roy Ward Baker for everything just to make it clear that it's the same guy (and not an editor called Roy Baker who was active at roughly the same time).



As for cutting quotations, they are fully editable - I've just chopped most of your post out of mine!

[AndrewLA]

Interesting. I'd vote against that kind of revisionist thinking at the BFI (i.e., making "Roy Ward Baker" the director of FLAME IN THE STREETS, etc.). Had Baker continued as one of Britain's leading directors -- and I think it's fair to say that he was a member of this elite group, if only briefly -- I question whether he would have changed his name, editor doppelganger nothwithstanding. Baker's life and career went through a major wrench. He was on top of the world -- then he wasn't. And though he came out it all just fine in TV and Hammer, he also lost a great deal of his earlier status, prestige and salary. In that sense, I wonder if his name change also represented to him a kind of rebirth. Since the names represent two very different aspects of the same director, it's important, I think, to keep "Roy Baker" and "Roy Ward Baker" distinct in any discussion of credits and/or critical writing about him, with a simple note of explanation appended.



(Thanks for the tip about editing quotes. It worked!)

[Bobj]

I was at that NFT interview with Earl Cameron. I was struck by his total modesty.

There are some actors who never seem to get the praise they deserve.

Pool of London is one of my favourite British movies and a truly magnificent piece of work.

[Moor Larkin]

Earl gets his gong!



http://bahainews-uk.info/2009/06/02/...-receives-cbe/

[cornershop15]

Congratulations to Earl. I'm afraid his brief appearance as a Supervisor in The Prisoner episode The Schizoid Man is still the first thing that comes to mind when I see his name:







He still attends fan club conventions for the show, I believe, including those in Portmerion. I'd like to see his film Sapphire one day - it's eluded me for years.

[smudge]

Sapphire is an excellent film - it had an official release on DVD in Australia (it will play on UK machines). Check out EBay, Cornershop...



Earl and his wife are amongst the nicest people it has ever been my pleasure to meet - simply lovely, warm folks - I was so chuffed when he got his gong!



Smudge

[cornershop15]

Thanks, Smudge. It must have been a nice day for him and his wife. Where did you meet him?



Surely this film will get a GB release in the not-too-distant future?

[smudge]

Thanks, Smudge. It must have been a nice day for him and his wife. Where did you meet him?



Surely this film will get a GB release in the not-too-distant future?

I first met him at Memorabilia at the NEC - it wasn't the usual 'sign and quick chat'; both he and his wife were very happy to talk and Earl had great recall of the stuff he'd done - we nattered for a while.



I then saw him again at the Prisoner event which he did at Portmeirion and we had another little chat, at the end of which I told him I thought he was one of the coolest people on the planet - much to his amusement.



Just lately I saw him again at the NEC and when it was quiet nipped across to congratulate him on his recent honour. He recalled that we'd met at Portmeirion and gave me a beaming smile when I praised him on getting his gong.



Many years ago, not long after I'd first started taking this hobby a little more seriously, I managed to track Earl down (I don't remember how) and wrote to him about POOL OF LONDON. Not only did he send me a personalised signature on an 8 x 10, he also replied to my questions on an audiocassette - I must still have it somewhere...



As for a UK release for Sapphire, that will lie with Granada Ventures, I think, as part of the Rank back catalogue, so if I were you I'd still seek out the Aussie one on EBay.



Smudge

[cornershop15]

Thanks. Sapphire could also be shown on TV as well.



Earl certainly seems a nice guy, at 92 he's a year older than Alfred Burke. I know that he's a member (if that's the word) of the Baha'i faith, something he has in common with Carole Lombard.

[torinfan]

I remember Earl from "The Message" a film I saw in an Islamic history course back in college. It really is a good film despite the controversy (and the actors addressing the camera!) that originally surrounded it.



Hi Cornershop :)

[Rick C]

Important mention regarding an upcoming BBC Radio feature on "Pool of London", this Friday, 19 June on Radio 4 @ 4.30 pm.



The "Film Programme" is normally repeated the following Sunday, and also usually for re-playing on the BBC i-player system afterwards.



Have posted a mini-advert for one of Mr.Cameron's other films, "The Heart Within" which came out as a second feature to "Hell Drivers" in 1957 and is posted on the "Hell Drivers DVD" thread therefore.

[cornershop15]

As Kassawari in the episode The Galloping Major:







Original ITV transmission: 3rd November 1964, when Sandie Shaw was at No. 1 in the charts with

(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me - WELL cool .



Unusual to see several well-known black actors together in a British show of the Sixties. Aside from Earl, there was Errol John, his co-star in many shows as well as the film Guns at Batasi just before this; Edric Connor, who I remember from The Avengers); and William Marshall, the star of Blacula. Not so cool!

[cornershop15]

An impressive shot of Earl, enlarged from an

article about the play in the TVTimes of 22nd

June 1968. Looks like he's reading the news!



Earl played a lawyer in this curiosity and this

also featured Erroll John. Tandy Cronyn, the

daughter of Jessica and Hume (respectively!)

and UFO actress Dolores Mantez co-starred.



I'll put up the full article at the 'Lost ITV Plays'

thread, along with the listing, some time soon.

[Mark O]

'Sapphire' is a very good film, shot in colour and a snapshot of 50's Britain, it has been shown on TV a few times but not in recent years, I'd not heard the of term 'Lilywhite' before seeing this film which kept me guessing who the Murderer might be until the very end.

[CaptainWaggett]

'Sapphire' is a very good film, shot in colour and a snapshot of 50's Britain, it has been shown on TV a few times but not in recent years, I'd not heard the of term 'Lilywhite' before seeing this film which kept me guessing who the Murderer might be until the very end.

Interestingly the print shown on tv is better than the one the BFI have which is almost unwatchable (one of those Technicolour prints in which thye only colour is red - we gave up after 20 minutes and got our money back). But it's a shame it's slipped off the Film4 schedule because it's fascinating and, as you say, has an unexpected solution to the mystery.