William Inglis Lindon Travers[1] MBE (3 January 1922 – 29 March 1994) was a British actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist.

Travers was born in Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England,[2] the son of Florence (née Wheatley) and William Halton Lindon-Travers,[1] a theatre manager.

On 7 November 1946, Travers was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "in recognition of gallant and distinguished service whilst engaged in Special Operations in South East Asia".

[5] He began working on stage in 1949 appearing in John Van Druten's The Damask Cheek, and a year later made his film debut in Conspirator (1949).

[6][8] Travers appeared in Hindle Wakes (1952), The Planter's Wife (1952), The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), It Started in Paradise (1952), Mantrap (1953), Street of Shadows (1953), and The Square Ring (1953).

[16] However his MGM films all performed disappointingly at the box office – Barretts and Seventh Sin were notable flops – and enthusiasm for Travers in Hollywood cooled.

[11] Travers returned to the UK in March 1957 to attend to divorce proceedings and marry Virginia McKenna after which he went back to America in October, for "A Cook for Mr. General" for Kraft Theatre (1958) on TV.

In America he recorded "Born a Giant" for Our American Heritage (1960) on TV, then returned to Britain where Travers and McKenna reteamed on a thriller, Two Living, One Dead (1961).

He co-starred with McKenna and the experience made him and his wife conscious of the many abuses of wild animals in captivity that had been taken from Africa and other natural environments around the world.

[26] He played the title role in a British TV version of The Admirable Crichton (1968), alongside his wife, and had a small part in Peter Hall's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968).

[39] The importance of animal rights led to Travers and his wife becoming involved in the "Zoo Check Campaign" in 1984 that evolved to their establishing the Born Free Foundation in 1991.

[40] Travers spent his last three years travelling around Europe's slum zoos and a TV documentary that he made exposed the appalling suffering of thousands of animals.

[2] His widow, Virginia McKenna, carries on his work to help suffering animals,[41] as does their son, Will Travers, who is president of the Born Free Foundation.