Donald Houston

Donald Houston

Hardworking Welsh actor Donald Houston would sometimes indulge his Welsh accent as well as hide it behind an English public school veneer. Houston had a solid career as a character actor in English film and television, with good parts in several well-known films, including 633 Squadron, The Longest Day, and The Sea Wolves. His forte tended to be authority figures, often military, such as the brilliant but tough David Caulder, the head of Moonbase 3 in a British miniseries. He could also handle comedy well, as he proved with Doctor in the House and the later Doctor in Distress, both significant successes in Europe. Though preferring to take good parts, he was certainly not above journeyman work in films such as Tales That Witness Madness and Maniac -- indeed, much of his early work consists of potboilers. He died quietly in Portugal, well-liked by the British but not too well-known in America. ~ Steven E. McDonald, All Movie Guide