David Muir Langton (born Basil Muir Langton-Dodds; 16 April 1912 – 25 April 1994) was a British actor who is best remembered for playing Richard Bellamy in the period dramaUpstairs, Downstairs.
Early years
David Langton was born Basil Muir Langton-Dodds to a middle-class family in Motherwell, Scotland in 1912. His father was a wine merchant. Langton's family moved to England when he was four years old. He attended a prep school in Bath, Somerset, and left education at the age of 16. Langton's father had always encouraged him to go into acting and got him his first job touring with a small Shakespearean company.
At 19 years old, Langton left the theatre and went to live on Yell, a remote island in Shetland, and became a sheep farmer while attempting to become a writer. However, he later admitted this was a "disaster",[1] and when he went back to the mainland when his mother was ill, he realised he did not want to return. In 1938, Langton returned to working full-time in theatre. It was at this time that he changed his name to David Langton, as there was already an actor called Basil Langton, and his legal name was David Muir Langton.[2] However, in 1939 the war broke out and Langton soon enlisted. He first served in the Royal Artillery ending up a sergeant and was later commissioned in the Northumberland Hussars and ended up a major. Langton served in France, Germany and Belgium. He married his first wife, Rosemary, in 1940. When the war ended, they realised that the marriage had been a mistake, but stayed together for the sake of their three sons, Simon, Andrew and Robin. The eldest, Simon, a director, would later work with his father on the set of Upstairs, Downstairs. Langton and his first wife divorced in 1966.[3]
After the war
Within four days of leaving the Army following the end of the war, Langton was cast in a play called Fifty Fifty and in 1950, following some periods of unemployment, he got a part in Seagulls Over Sorrento.[3] Following the death of his father, Langton went missing and was discovered in New York City, where he was en route to see his brother Donald in Canada. He later explained that he needed a break, and soon returned to Seagulls Over Sorrento,[1] which finished its run in 1953. Following Seagulls Over Sorrento, he acted in many plays, including Agatha Christie's Rule of Three and The Devil's Disciple, where he met and formed a friendship with Tyrone Power.
Langton achieved international notice for playing husband and father Richard Bellamy in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs which began in 1971. He was given the role after a chance encounter with producer John Whitney at the Garrick Club in London.[1] During some of Upstairs, Downstairs's run, Langton actually lived in Eaton Place, the square in Belgravia where Upstairs, Downstairs was set and where exterior scenes were filmed.
Langton married his second wife, Claire Green, the former wife of TV host Hughie Green, in May 1975.
He suffered a fatal heart attack and died in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1994.[5] In his obituaries it was noted that he was 82, ten years older than his "official age". The obituaries also paid tribute to him as a "popular and easygoing man" who always "behaved like a gentleman".[1]
