Interview with actor Earl Cameron - Pinder in Thunderball

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2012-10-10

For the 50th anniversary of James Bond on the big screen, From Sweden with Love (Anders Frejdh) caught up with Earl Cameron, the acclaimed actor from Thunderball (1965).

>READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH EARL CAMERON HERE

About Earl Cameron

Born in Bermuda in 1917, Earl Cameron arrived in London in 1939 after joining the Bermudan merchant navy. While working as a dishwasher at the Strand Corner House ("The only job a young black man could get at the time"), Cameron went along to watch a friend, who had a small in part in the 1942 Palace Theatre production of Chu Chin Chow. He was sufficiently impressed to suggest to the friend that acting was something he might like to try. As luck would have it, an extra failed to show for a performance and so Cameron was allowed his first, and by his own account, 'petrified' venture into the spotlight.

Cameron secured his first speaking role as Joseph, in the 1942 Globe production of The Petrified Forest, mainly because his Bermudan accent sounded American. Other stage work followed and soon, armed only with a few elocution lessons, he began to compile what remains a substantial body of film and television work. In his first feature, Pool of London (1951), Cameron became the first black British actor to secure a leading role in a feature film.

In 1965 he played Pinder, Bond’s second ally in Thunderball (1965), who operates the Bahamas branch of the British Secret Service. Pinder first meets Bond and Leiter where he takes them to his headquarters behind a shop in the marketplace of Nassau. There, Q provides Bond with the latest gadgets, and photos taken from the Infra-Red Camera are developed. From there plans are made to infiltrate Emilio Largo’s estate Palmyra.

Earl Cameron’s other film credits include Flame In The Streets (1961), Guns at Batasi (1964), The Sandwich Man (1966) and Cuba (1979), the latter with Sean Connery in the leading role. His numerous television appearances include Waking The Dead (2003), Kavanagh QC (1997), Lovejoy (1994), The Zoo Gang (1974), Dixon of Dock Green (1968), The Prisoner (1967), Dr Who (1966), Danger Man (1961) and The Buccaneers (1956).

Photo above:
Earl Cameron as Pinder, with Sean Connery as James Bond, in a scene from Thunderball. Photo courtsey of Bondstars. © EON Productions. All rights reserved.

For a full listing of Earl Cameron's career in films, check out his profile on IMDB:

www.imdb.com/name/nm0131565/

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Interview with actor Earl Cameron - Pinder in Thunderball

About Earl Cameron

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