Esmond Knight was an accomplished British character actor (4 May 1906 - 22 February 1987), with a career spanning over half a century. For much of his career Esmond Knight was virtually blind. He had been badly injured in 1941 whilst on active service on board HMS Prince of Wales when she was attacked by the Bismarck, and remained totally blind for two years, though he later regained some sight in his right eye. During this period, Esmond dictated an early autobiography to his secretary, Annabella Cloudsley, Seeking The Bubble (Hutchinson & Co. 1943). He died of a heart attack. His daughter is the actress Rosalind Knight.

Abridged Stage Credits

• The Wild Duck - Pax Robertson's Salon, London (1925)
• Various Shakespeare productions - full season, Old Vic (1926)
• Various productions - Children's Theatre, London (1928)
• Hamlet - Queen's Theatre, London (with John Gielgud and Donald Wolfit) (1930)
• Full Season - King's Theatre, Hammersmith (1939)
• Full Season - Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon (1948-1949)
• Caesar and Cleopatra - St James's Theatre, London (with Laurence Olivier, Peter Cushing and Vivien Leigh) (1951)
• The Emperor's New Clothes - Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York (with Lee J. Cobb) (1953)
• Full Season - The Old Vic, London (1962-1963)
• The Family Reunion - Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester (with Edward Fox) (1973 & 1979)
• Moby Dick- Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester (with Edward Fox) (1983-1984)

Abridged Film Credits

• The Blue Peter (1929)
• The Bermondsey Kid (1933)
• The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)
• Contraband (1940)
• The Silver Fleet (1943)
• Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944)
• A Canterbury Tale (1944)
• Black Narcissus (1947)
• The Red Shoes (1948)
• Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948)
• Gone to Earth (1950)
• Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1954)
• The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)
• Peeping Tom (1960)
• Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
• Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
• Robin and Marian (1976)
• The Element of Crime (1984)
• The Quest for Peace (1987)

Abridged Television Credits

• Van Gogh (1937)
• Nicholas Nickleby (1957)
• A for Andromeda (1961)
• Danger Man (1961)
• The Third Man (1965)
• Doctor Who - (The Space Pirates) (1969)
• Z Cars (1969)
• She Stoops to Conquer (1971)
• Elizabeth R (1971)
• I, Claudius (1976)
• Return of the Saint (1978)
• The Borgias (1981)
• Troilus and Cressida (1981)
• Antony and Cleopatra (1981)
• A Voyage Round My Father (1982)
• Blott on the Landscape (1985)
• Fortunes of War (1987)

External links

• Biographical Website of Esmond Knight

1906 births | 1987 deaths | British actors | Doctor Who actors | British stage actors | Film actors | Superman actors | Entertainers who died in their 80s