Despite a transatlantic accent which led many to believe he was Canadian, he was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of the finance minister in the colonial government, and he grew up at Haslemere in Surrey.
He attended the Embassy School of Acting in London and appeared in rep. On the outbreak of war in 1939, he joined the Royal Air Force, serving in Bomber Command as a radio operator and front gunner.
At its peak in the 1970s, ITV's wrestling coverage, on World of Sport, could command up to 12 million between the football half-time and full-time results (4–4.40 pm) on Saturdays.
A co-founder of Pyramid Films, he jointly used a pseudonym, Elton Hawke, with his business partner Hazel Adair, the co creator of the soap opera Crossroads.
[2] He used other pseudonyms to keep this part of his life from gaining public attention, but it was revealed in a 1975 episode of the TV documentary series Man Alive.