Ernest Lytton Leslie Forwood (3 October 1915 – 18 May 1988), known professionally as Anthony Forwood, was an English actor.
Ernest Lytton Leslie Forwood was born on 3 October 1915 in Weymouth, England.[1] The Forwood family were landed gentry; Forwood's great-grandfather, Thomas Friend Brittain Peploe Forwood, resided in Thornton Manor in Cheshire and was the forefather of the Forwood Baronetcy. Forwood's great-uncles were English merchants, shipowners and politicians Sir Arthur Forwood, 1st Baronet and Sir William Bower Forwood; his father was Leslie Langton Forwood, a captain in the Royal Navy.[2]
After years of theatre, including the revue This World of Ours in 1935; Forwood gained his first film acting role in 1949, when he starred in Ralph Thomas' Traveller's Joy.[3][4][5] That same year he appeared in the thriller The Man in Black with Sid James.
In 1952, he received a number of roles including Appointment in London with Dirk Bogarde; he eventually became his longtime partner and manager.[6] Ralph Thomas, who had directed Forwood in his first film role, directed Bogarde in Doctor in the House and several of its sequels.[7]
Forwood appeared with Boris Karloff in the mystery Colonel March Investigates and played Will Scarlet in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952).[5] One year later he acted in the Oscar-nominated Knights of the Round Table, a film starring such high-profile actors as Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Stanley Baker, and in Terence Fisher's Mantrap (1953).[8][9] His last role came in 1956 in Colonel March of Scotland Yard.[7]
In 1942, Forwood married actress Glynis Johns, but they divorced in 1948. Their only child was actor Gareth Forwood (1945–2007).[10]
Forwood later lived with his long-term lover,[11] actor Dirk Bogarde, in Amersham, England, and then in France before the couple returned to England shortly before Forwood died in London in 1988.[12]
By 1987, Forwood was dying of liver cancer and Parkinson's disease. At this time Bogarde, a heavy smoker, had a minor stroke. On 18 May 1988, Forwood died aged 72 in Kensington and Chelsea, London. His body was cremated.[1]