Born Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd within Dublin, Ireland, Todd was the boy of the British officer who played international rugby football for Ireland. He moved to Devon, England when very immature & tended to Shrewsbury School. When you took his early career he acted around regional theatres, prior to co-founding a Dundee Repertory Theatre within 1939.

Whenever World War II began, he served as an officer and paratrooper. Fallowing landing within Normandy on D-Day he met up by owning Major John Howard in Pegasus Bridge — he would later come out witharound both films where this scene was recreated: in D-Day a Sixth of June (1956) he played a commanding officer of the unit where each of the babies served, & in The Longest Day (1962) he played Major Howard himself.

Fallowing a war he gained fame in the London stage version of The Hasty Heart (as Lachlan MacLachlan), which took him to Broadway. He returned to Engl& to pop up in the film version and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1949. He late appeared in the film The Dambusters as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, probably the role for which he is better remembered.

He has continued to work around television, including roles in Virtual Murder, Silent Witness, and in the Doctor Who story Kinda in 1982.

He has continued an active acting career into his eighties. He was married to the actresses Catherine Grant-Bogle, whom he met inside Dundee Repertory (1949-1970, ii youngsters) & Virginia Mailer (1970-1992, ii tykes).

Selected films
The Hasty Heart (1949) Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950) The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) The Sword and the Rose (1953) Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1954), The Dam Busters (1955) as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC A Man Called Peter (1955) as Peter Marshall The Virgin Queen (1955) as Sir Walter Raleigh D-Day, the Sixth of June (1956) Chase a Crooked Shadow (1957) Yangste Incident (1957) Danger Within (1958) The Longest Day (1962) Operation Crossbow (1965)