Actor. Born in Glasgow, son of a commercial traveller, Bond was educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School (London) but left at sixteen determined to build his career in journalism. He came to acting through the Finchley Amateur Dramatic Society. During World War II, he fought in North Africa but was captured and spent much of the last year of the war in a German prison camp. He was awarded the Military Cross.
Successful on the stage and in television, Bond also starred in several notable films including Nicholas Nickleby (1947), Scott of the Antarctic (1948), in which he took the role of Captain Oates, Christopher Columbus (1949), The Hour of 13 (1952), Gideon's Day (1958) and Alistair Maclean's When Eight Bells Toll (1971), much of which was filmed on Mull.
Bond regained prominence as an outspoken President of the actors' union Equity during controversial years in the mid-1980s when he faced a left-wing takeover bid and the challenge of how best to resist the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
