British actor Edward Woodward starred as the ill-fated Sgt. Howie, a repressed and religious police officer, in Anthony Shaffer’s occult thriller The Wicker Man in 1973. Sent to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle to search for a missing girl, he becomes enmeshed in an arcane pagan ritual that results in his own sacrifice in a burning wicker effigy to ensure a bountiful harvest. Christopher Lee co-starred as Lord Summerisle, and Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, and Ingrid Pitt were featured as enticing pagan ladies.
Woodward was born in Croydon, England, on June 1, 1930. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made his professional stage debut in 1946. A Shakespearean stage actor, he also appeared frequently in films and television from the early 1960s. He was featured in episodes of The Saint, The Baron, Mystery and Imagination, and Sherlock Holmes, and was Auguste Dupin in a 1968 production of Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
He starred as David Callan, a reluctant British spy and assassin, in A Magnum for Schneider, a 1967 episode of Armchair Theatre. Woodward’s haunting portrayal of the character led to the popular series Callan from 1967 to 1972, and a 1974 feature film. He reprised the role in a 1981 tele-film Wet Job.
Woodward was featured as Dr. Holstrom in the 1970 horror film Incense of the Damned (aka Bloodsuckers) with Patrick Macnee and Peter Cushing. He starred as Lt. Harry `Breaker’ Morant in Bruce Beresford’s 1980 Australian film Breaker Morant, and Australian officer who becomes a tragic scapegoat for the British Empire during the Boer War. His other film credits include the low-key supernatural thriller The Appointment (1981).
He starred as Jim Kyle, a rebel in a near-future England controlled by a tyrannical bureaucracy in the television series 1999 from 1978 to 1979, and was the Ghost of Christmas Present in 1984 television adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Woodward was best known for his role as Robert McCall, a former secret agent who dedicates himself to right the wrongs suffered by ordinary folks in the U.S. series The Equalizer from 1985 to 1989. He suffered a massive heart attack during the third season, but recovered to continue as McCall through a fourth. He earned a Golden Globe Award and five Emmy nominations during the course of the series.
He also starred as Merlin the magician in a 1985 television production of Arthur the King, and appeared in a two-part episode of the revised Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1988. He was also seen in such tele-films as the Cold War thriller Codename: Kyril (1988) and the Agatha Christie mystery The Man in the Brown Suit (1989). He starred as master detective Sherlock Holmes in the 1990 tele-film Hands of a Murderer, and was detective turned mystery writer Maxwell Beckett in the short-lived television series Over My Dead Body from 1990 to 1991. He was featured as the Lilliputian Drunlo in the 1996 television adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels.
He joined his son, Peter Woodward, in The Long Road episode of the Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade as the Technomage Alwyn in 1999, and appeared as Mr. Jones/Philip/Flavius in several episodes of the spy series La Femme Nikita in 2001. He was featured in The X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunman as the voice of an intelligent chimpanzee, and guest-starred in the horror anthology series Dark Realm, in the episode Emma’s Boy, in 2001.
Woodward was featured as Tom Weaver, a leader of the elderly vigilantes in the 2007 action comedy Hot Fuzz starring Simon Pegg, and starred as Rev. Densham in the 2009 film A Congregation of Ghosts.
Woodward died of pneumonia in a Cornwall, England, hospital on November 16, 2009, at the age of 79.
An absolutely brilliant actor, especially as CALLAN. Very sadly missed