Ernest Lytton Leslie Forwood was born on 3 October 1915 in Weymouth, Dorset.

[2] After years of theatre, including the revue This World of Ours in 1935; Forwood gained his first film acting role in 1949, when he starred in Ralph Thomas' Traveller's Joy.

In 1952, he received a number of roles including Appointment in London with Dirk Bogarde; he eventually became his life partner and manager.

[7] Forwood appeared with Boris Karloff in the mystery Colonel March Investigates and played Will Scarlet in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952).

[5] One year later he acted in the Oscar-nominated Knights of the Round Table, a film starring such high-profile actors as Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Stanley Baker, and in Terence Fisher's Mantrap (1953).