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Edward Woodward OBE, was a successful actor who appeared in theatre, TV and film productions on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the post-World War II period, Woodward became an associate member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art while taking amateur roles.
Woodward's professional acting debut was in the Castle Theatre, Farnham, in 1946.
Winning a scholarship to RADA enabled Woodward to leave the job he had taken in a sanitary engineer's office.
After graduation from RADA, he worked extensively in repertory companies as a Shakespearean actor throughout England and Scotland, making his London stage debut in R. F. Delderfield's Where There's A Will in 1955. He also appeared in the film adaptation that same year in addition to Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.
He was reputedly torn between becoming an actor or a professional footballer. He was on the books of Leyton Orient FC and Brentford FC, making three appearances in the Football League for the latter; however, a serious knee injury kept him out of the game for over a year.
He came to wider attention from 1967 in the title role of the British television spy drama Callan, earning him the 1970 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.
Woodward starred as Police Sergeant Neil Howie in the 1973 cult British horror film The Wicker Man and in the title role of the 1980 Australian biopic Breaker Morant.
It's weird, you do a film, it's just a job, you forget about it, and that's usually that. But there's something about The Wicker Man that's different. It keeps coming back, keeps lodging in your brain. There has never been anything like it and there won't be again.
From 1985 to 1989, Woodward starred as British ex-secret agent and vigilante Robert McCall in the American television series The Equalizer, earning him the 1986 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Drama Actor.
He estimated that during his long and varied career he had made between 2,000 and 3,000 appearances in television productions.
Woodward was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions: in February 1971 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the bar of London’s White House Hotel and in February 1995, when Michael Aspel surprised him during a photoshoot at Syon House in West London.
In 2007 he played Edgar Wright a member of a murderous neighbourhood watch group in the comedy film Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
His capability as tenor enabled him to record twelve albums of romantic songs, as well as three albums of poetry and fourteen audiobooks to tape. His vocal ability and acting skill enabled him to make a number of appearances when time allowed on the BBC's Edwardian era music hall programme, The Good Old Days.
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