CineScope
David Lyon picture

David Lyon

Acting
Known For

72 Years Old

David Laurie Lyon (16 May 1941 – 7 June 2013) was a British stage, television, and film actor. Of Scottish descent, David Lyon was born in 1941 to Joe Lyon, a diamond merchant, and his wife Margaret. David spent much of his childhood in Sierra Leone where his father worked, before being sent home to be educated at Crofton House in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. He won a scholarship to Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, but was forced to leave education at the age of 16 when his father was declared bankrupt. He first worked in Glasgow for Royal Insurance, before moving south to England to work as a flooring salesman in Birmingham. At the age of 30 he decided to switch careers to acting. Lyon studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama as a mature student, and did not take paid acting work until 1975 at the Manchester Library Theatre. From 1976, he performed regularly for two decades with the Royal Shakespeare Company. With them, he appeared in plays which include: Much Ado About Nothing, King John, Henry VI, The Winter's Tale, Troilus and Cressida, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. With the RSC he also performed in several modern plays, including The Innocent (1979) and After Aida (1985–86). He also worked steadily in television after 1980, and in a few feature films as well. In 1983 he had a lead role as the newsreader in the feature film The Ploughman's Lunch, and was Lieutenant Colonel Vernon Erskine-Crum in the serial Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy. He was a cast member of the television series The Gemini Factor (1987), and was Commander Brian Huxtable in the BBC crime drama series Between the Lines (1992). In the original BBC version of the political thriller House of Cards (1990), he played the "thoroughly decent" Prime Minister Henry Collingridge, opposite Ian Richardson as the Machiavellian Francis Urquhart. He was also a familiar face on series such as The Bill, Lovejoy, Taggart, Holby City, Midsomer Murders, Silent Witness, and Poirot. Lyon lived for many years with fellow RSC actor Zoë Wanamaker. He met his future wife Sandra Clark in 1975 at his first acting job at the Library Theatre in Manchester, but she was married to someone else at the time. In 1988 he encountered Clark again when they played Capulet and Lady Montague in Romeo and Juliet in Stratford-upon-Avon. They wed in 1989, and Lyon had two step-children from Clark's previous marriage.

Born

Sierra Leone on 16th May 1941

Died

7th June 2013

All Credits

Midsomer Murders Image
Midsomer Murders
Alan Thorpe
Agatha Christie's Poirot Image
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Marcus Hardman
Lovejoy Image
Lovejoy
John Welland Smythe
Performance Image
Performance
Earl of Salisbury
Performance Image
Performance
Thomas Mowbray
Performance Image
Performance
Albany
House of Cards Image
House of Cards
Henry Collingridge
Reilly: Ace of Spies Image
Reilly: Ace of Spies
Dichter Daerenthal
Pie in the Sky Image
Pie in the Sky
Tom Watson
The Chief Image
The Chief
Cllr. Tom Brewster
Greenfingers Image
Greenfingers
Home Secretary
Empire State Image
Empire State
Mr. Cavendish
Defence of the Realm Image
Defence of the Realm
Political Pundit
The Ploughman's Lunch Image
The Ploughman's Lunch
Newsreader
Codename: Kyril Image
Codename: Kyril
Burrows
Macbeth Image
Macbeth
Angus
Ping Pong Image
Ping Pong
Peter
Richard II Image
Richard II
Thomas Mowbray
The Price Image
The Price
Simon
The War That Never Ends Image
The War That Never Ends
Camarinean Representative
The Disappearance of Harry Image
The Disappearance of Harry
Harry Webster
Death Has A Bad Reputation Image
Death Has A Bad Reputation
Patrick Cowlishaw
Tell Me That You Love Me Image
Tell Me That You Love Me
Leslie Boyd
The Workshop Image
The Workshop
Machinist
No Image
Reasonable Force
Matheson