Richard Gerald Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 4th Baron Acton, Baron Acton of Bridgnorth (30 July 1941 – 10 October 2010) was a British Labour Party politician and peer.

The oldest son of John Lyon-Dalberg-Acton and Daphne Strutt, daughter of Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh, he was educated at St George's College in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) and at Trinity College, Oxford, from which he emerged with a Bachelor of Arts in 1963 (later, he would receive a Master of Arts from the same institution).

He served a term as director of Coutts & Co before being admitted to Inner Temple in 1976 and practising law for about four years.

He then served as a Senior Law Officer of the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of Zimbabwe from 1981 until 1985.

[1] However, on 17 April 2000, he was created a life peer as Baron Acton of Bridgnorth, of Aldenham in the County of Shropshire,[2] enabling him to return to the House.