Earl Cameron (actor) - Early Career

Early Career

Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda. As a young man, he joined the British Merchant Navy, and sailed mostly between New York and South America. When the Second World War broke out he found himself stranded in London, arriving on 29 October 1939. As he himself put it in an interview for The Royal Gazette newspaper: "I arrived in London on 29 October 1939. I got involved with a young lady and you know the rest. The ship left without me, and the girl walked out too."

In 1941, a friend named Harry Crossman gave Cameron a ticket to see a revival of Chu Chin Chow at the Palace Theatre. Crossman and five other black actors had bit parts in the West End production. Cameron who was working at the kitchen of the Strand Corner House at the time, was fed up with menial jobs and asked Crossman if he could get him on the show. At first he told Cameron that all of the parts were cast, but two or three weeks later, when one of the actors didn't show up, Crossman arranged a meeting with the director, Robert Atkins, who cast Cameron on the spot.

According to Cameron, he had a less difficult time than other black actors because his Bermudian accent sounded American to British ears. For example, the following year, he landed a speaking role as Joseph, the chauffeur in the American play, The Petrified Forest by Robert E. Sherwood.

In 1946 Cameron returned to Bermuda for five months but decided to return to work as an actor in the UK. He then took a job on the London stage as an understudy in the play Deep are the Roots. This play was staged in London for some months and then went on tour. It was during this tour that Earl first met, and worked alongside, Patrick McGoohan during a production of that play in Coventry.

He understudied in Deep are the Roots with fellow understudy Ida Shepley, a well known singer. As Earl was having problems with his diction at the time Ida introduced him to a very good voice coach named Amanda Ira Aldridge. Miss Aldridge was the daughter of Ira Aldridge, a legendary black Shakespearian American actor of the 19th century. Cameron's breakthrough acting role was in Pool of London, a 1951 film set in post-war London involving racial prejudice, romance and a diamond robbery. He won much critical acclaim for his role in the film.