Harry Baird (actor) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Harry Baird
Baird as strongman Ubaratutu in Thor and the Amazon Women (1963)
Born	(1931-05-12)12 May 1931 Georgetown, British Guiana
Died	13 February 2005(2005-02-13) (aged 73) London, England
Occupation	Film, television and stage actor
Years active	1954–1975
Known for	Sapphire (1959) The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968)
Television	UFO (1970)

Harry Baird (born May 12, 1931 – died February 13, 2005) was an actor from Guyana. He became well-known in the 1960s and acted in over 36 movies. Many people remember him as the bus driver in the last scene of the movie The Italian Job.

Harry Baird's Life and Acting Career

Harry Baird was born in Georgetown, which was then called British Guiana. He went to school in Canada and Britain. When he was 17, he moved to London to join his brother. Harry loved movies, so he started training at the YMCA to become an actor.

Early Acting Roles

Harry's first movie role was in 1955. He played a boxer named Jamaica in a film called A Kid for Two Farthings. A year later, he acted in a play called Kismet in London. In 1961, he also appeared in the play The Blacks.

After these early roles, Harry mostly worked in movies and on television. He also acted in other plays like A Wreath for Udomo in 1961.

Becoming a Star

Harry's first main role was in a TV series called White Hunter in 1958. He played a character named Atimbu. For a while, he often played similar roles in smaller movies that were set in Africa.

However, Harry got a very important role in 1959. He acted in the movie Sapphire, which was a drama about race. It was hard for black actors to get big roles in Britain back then. Still, Harry appeared in popular TV shows like Danger Man and UFO. In UFO, he played Lieutenant Bradley, but he left the show partway through.

Famous Movies and Later Life

Harry Baird's only main role in a movie was in the 1968 drama The Story of a Three-Day Pass. In this film, he played an American soldier who fell in love with a French woman in Paris.

He also had roles in other well-known movies. These included The Whisperers (1967), The Touchables (1968), and the horror film The Oblong Box (1969). One of his most famous roles was in The Italian Job (1969), where he worked with his friend Michael Caine. Harry had also acted with Michael Caine's wife, Shakira Baksh, in the TV show UFO.

Harry's last movie appearance was in Four of the Apocalypse in 1975.

In the 1970s, Harry was diagnosed with an eye condition called glaucoma. This condition sadly caused him to lose his eyesight. Harry Baird passed away from cancer in London in 2005.

Selected Filmography