Eaton joined the Army in 1940, and served with distinction during World War II, eventually becoming a major in charge of a searchlight battery.

[3] The following year Eaton played the Second Priest in Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral in 1940 and he followed this with what was his first comedy role, in The Body Was Well Nourished by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder.

[5] Eaton enjoyed a series of good, if small, roles, appearing alongside Vivien Leigh at the Phoenix Theatre in 1945 in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth.

[2] In addition to working on the long-running BBC radio comedy Take It from Here, Eaton appeared in more than twenty-five films and over fifty television productions.

[8] He featured in the Australian soap The Young Doctors in 1979 as Roland Perry, a rich friend of principal character Ada Simmonds.