David Lyon

Born: 1941-05-16

David Laurie Lyon (16 May 1941 – 7 June 2013) was a British stage, television, and film actor. Of Scottish descent, David Lyon was born in 1941 to Joe Lyon, a diamond merchant, and his wife Margaret. David spent much of his childhood in Sierra Leone where his father worked, before being sent home to be educated at Crofton House in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. He won a scholarship to Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, but was forced to leave education at the age of 16 when his father was declared bankrupt. He first worked in Glasgow for Royal Insurance, before moving south to England to work as a flooring salesman in Birmingham. At the age of 30 he decided to switch careers to acting. Lyon studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama as a mature student, and did not take paid acting work until 1975 at the Manchester Library Theatre. From 1976, he performed regularly for two decades with the Royal Shakespeare Company. With them, he appeared in plays which include: Much Ado About Nothing, King John, Henry VI, The Winter's Tale, Troilus and Cressida, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. With the RSC he also performed in several modern plays, including The Innocent (1979) and After Aida (1985–86). He also worked steadily in television after 1980, and in a few feature films as well. In 1983 he had a lead role as the newsreader in the feature film The Ploughman's Lunch, and was Lieutenant Colonel Vernon Erskine-Crum in the serial Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy. He was a cast member of the television series The Gemini Factor (1987), and was Commander Brian Huxtable in the BBC crime drama series Between the Lines (1992). In the original BBC version of the political thriller House of Cards (1990), he played the "thoroughly decent" Prime Minister Henry Collingridge, opposite Ian Richardson as the Machiavellian Francis Urquhart. He was also a familiar face on series such as The Bill, Lovejoy, Taggart, Holby City, Midsomer Murders, Silent Witness, and Poirot. Lyon lived for many years with fellow RSC actor Zoë Wanamaker. He met his future wife Sandra Clark in 1975 at his first acting job at the Library Theatre in Manchester, but she was married to someone else at the time. In 1988 he encountered Clark again when they played Capulet and Lady Montague in Romeo and Juliet in Stratford-upon-Avon. They wed in 1989, and Lyon had two step-children from Clark's previous marriage.


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Defence of the Realm

as Political Pundit
Released: 1986-05-09

A reporter named Mullen 'stumbles' onto a story linking a prominent Member of Parliament to a...

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Greenfingers

as Home Secretary
Released: 2001-07-27

Clive Owen stars as a prison inmate who goes into an experimental "open" prison where the...

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The Ploughman's Lunch

as Newsreader
Released: 1983-05-30

As England begins its military engagement in the Falklands, a BBC news journalist attempts to...

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Macbeth

as Angus
Released: 1983-11-05

Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan in order to gain his crown, but the bloodbath doesn't stop...

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Empire State

as Mr. Cavendish
Released: 1987-03-01

In the docklands of East London stands the Empire State, a nightclub full of magic and mystery....

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The War That Never Ends

as Camarinean Representative
Released: 1991-03-28

The Peloponnesian Wars (Athens versus Sparta for twenty-seven years) told in the format of news...

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Ping Pong

as Peter
Released: 1987-07-17

After restaurateur Sam Wong dies in a telephone booth after making a call, law clerk Elaine Choi...

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The Price

as Simon
Released: 1985-01-10

Geoffrey Carr is a wealthy, key player in Britain's emerging computer industry, and newly...

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Death Has A Bad Reputation

as Patrick Cowlishaw
Released: 1990-01-01

A British agent is chasing after famous terrorist Carlos when he resurfaces in Europe.

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Codename: Kyril

as Burrows
Released: 1988-03-29

At the height of the cold war, a known Russian spy ("Kyril") is sent to the UK under falsely...

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Richard II

as Thomas Mowbray
Released: 1997-01-01

The incompetent Richard II is deposed by Henry Bolingbroke and undergoes a crisis of identity...

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The Disappearance of Harry

as Harry Webster
Released: 1982-12-08

Harry Webster (David Lyon) is an apparently normal husband and father who resides in...

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The Workshop

as Machinist
Released: 1982-02-19

It is 1945 - just a year since the allied troops entered Paris - and Simone arrives for her...

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Tell Me That You Love Me

as Leslie Boyd
Released: 1991-09-08

Laura Simms has an exciting job as a top magazine editor, but her love life's a disaster. Her...

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Midsomer Murders

as Alan Thorpe
First aired: 1997-03-23

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed...

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Agatha Christie's Poirot

as Marcus Hardman
First aired: 1989-01-08

From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet...

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Lovejoy

as John Welland Smythe
First aired: 1986-01-10

The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East...

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Pie in the Sky

as Tom Watson
First aired: 1994-03-13

Pie in the Sky is a British offbeat police comedy drama programme starring Richard Griffiths and...

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House of Cards

as Henry Collingridge
First aired: 1990-11-18

Frustrated at a new moderate Conservative government and deprived of a promotion to a senior...

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Reilly: Ace of Spies

as Dichter Daerenthal
First aired: 1983-09-05

Reilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a...

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