William Sylvester January 31 1922 January 25 1995 was an American TV and film actor His most famous film credit was Dr Heywood Floyd in Stanley Kubricks 2001 A Space Odyssey 1968 Born in Oakland California and married at one time to the British actress Veronica Hurst he moved to England after the Second World War and became a staple of British B films at a time when American and Canadian actors were much in demand in order to give indigenous films some appeal in the US As a result he gained top billing in one of his very first films House of Blackmail 1953 directed by the veteran filmmaker Maurice Elvey for whom he also made What Every Woman Wants the following year He also starred in such minor films as The Stranger Came Home 1954 for Hammer Dublin Nightmare 1958 Offbeat 1960 Information Received 1961 Incident at Midnight Ring of Spies and Blind Corner all 1963 There were also lead roles in four British horror films Gorgo 1960 Devil Doll 1963 Devils of Darkness 1964 and The Hand of Night 1966 Among his many TV credits were a 1959 BBC version of Shakespeares Julius Caesar playing Mark Antony The Saint The Baron The High Chaparral Harry O and The Six Million Dollar Man His later films included You Only Live Twice 1967 and back in the USA after his prominent role for Kubrick Busting 1973 The Hindenburg 1975 and Heaven Can Wait 1978 He died in Sacramento California in 1995 aged 72
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