Bond Actor With Ties to Doctor Who....Day 28 of Bond 365

It’s Hump Day. I hope everyone is having a good week? I’m going to keep today’s post short, since I’m still working towards a quick deadline for a short story that is due this weekend. Let’s jump on in!

Bernard Horsfall

Passed away this day in 2013

Campbell in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Bernard Horsfall as Shaun Campbell

Bernard Horsfall career encompassed stage, television and film and spanned over a half century. He played a wide range of characters, including four roles in the series Doctor Who and several Shakespearean roles on stages with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Stratford-upon-Avon as well as at the Old Vic in London. Of interest is Horsfall’s role as Campbell in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969. In this role, he had multiple scenes with both George Lazenby’s James Bond and Telly Savalas’ Blofeld. Campbell does quite a bit of leg work for Bond throughout the film, but came to a torturous demise at the hands of Blofeld’s henchmen. His manner of hanging may remind viewers of another similar demonic hanging, which occurred in a New York City bookstore in The Ninth Gate starring Johnny Deep.

The armchair historian in me was piqued when I read in Horsfall’s obituary in The Guardian that he had claimed to be the descendant of William the Conqueror (25 generations removed). I seriously wonder what stories may have been handed down in the family and all the names recorded in the family bible (almost 1,000 years’ worth). He spent some time with his uncle who was living in Canada and his uncle had been a pilot in World War I and flew with T.E. Lawrence. I can well imagine that during Horsfall’s visit, his ears were filled with even more stories!

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