25 Facts About Cy Grant

Cyril Ewart Lionel Grant was a Guyanese actor, musician, writer, poet and World War II veteran.

Cyril Ewart Lionel Cy Grant was born on 8 November 1919 into a middle-class family in Beterverwagting, which was then in British Guiana.

Cy Grant's mother was a music teacher from Antigua, while his father was a Moravian minister.

In 1941, Cy Grant joined the Royal Air Force, which had extended recruitment to non-white candidates following heavy losses in the early years of the Second World War.

In 1943, on his third operation, Flight Lieutenant Cy Grant was shot down over The Netherlands during the Battle of the Ruhr.

Cy Grant parachuted to safety into a field and was helped by a Dutch family, although a policeman subsequently handed him over to the German forces, and for the next two years Grant was imprisoned in Stalag Luft III camp, 160 kilometres east of Berlin.

In 2007, Cy Grant participated in the filming of the documentary Into the Wind, in which he discusses his experiences as an RAF navigator.

Cy Grant became a member of the Middle Temple in London and qualified as a barrister in 1950.

Cy Grant's first acting role was for a Moss Empires tour in which he starred in a play titled 13 Death St, Harlem.

Cy Grant's career received a boost after he successfully auditioned for Laurence Olivier and his Festival of Britain Company, which led to appearances at the St James Theatre in London and the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.

Aware of the short supply of roles for black actors, Cy Grant decided to increase his earning potential by becoming a singer, having learnt to sing and play the guitar during his childhood in Guiana.

In 1956, Cy Grant appeared alongside Nadia Cattouse, Errol John and Earl Cameron in the BBC TV drama Man From The Sun, whose characters are mostly Caribbean migrants to London, and starred in the World War II film Sea Wife, with Richard Burton and Joan Collins.

Cy Grant's acting career continued apace and later in 1957 he appeared in Home of the Brave, an award-winning TV drama by Arthur Laurents, and travelled the following year to Jamaica for the filming of Calypso, in which he played the romantic lead.

Between 1967 and 1968 Cy Grant voiced the character of Lieutenant Green in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Cy Grant performed Caribbean calypso and folk songs in many countries, at venues including Esmeralda's Barn in London, the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, Bricktops, Rome, and for the GTV 9 station in Melbourne, Australia.

Cy Grant discussed his experiences of being among the first generation of Afro-Caribbean actors in Britain in TV's Black Pioneers, broadcast on BBC Four in June 2007, and Black Screen Britain, Part 1: Ambassadors for the Race, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.

In collaboration with Zimbabwean John Mapondera, in 1974 Cy Grant set up the Drum Arts Centre in London to provide a springboard and a national centre for black artistic talent.

Cy Grant stood down as chair of the Drum Arts Centre in 1978 following internal disagreements, giving him the opportunity to concentrate on a one-man show adapted from Aime Cesaire's epic poem Cahier d'un retour au pays natal.

In 1981, Cy Grant became director of Concord Multicultural Festivals, which in the course of the four years staged 22 multicultural festivals in cities in England and Wales, starting in Nottingham.

In 2007, Cy Grant helped open the London, Sugar and Slavery permanent exhibition hosted at the Museum of London Docklands.

In 1997, Cy Grant was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Surrey Roehampton.

Cy Grant died at University College Hospital, London, on 13 February 2010 at the age of 90.

Cy Grant was survived by his wife Dorith, their two daughters and one son, and his son from an earlier marriage, Paul.

Cy Grant had originally been invited to an award presentation in the US in 2009 at a "Caribbean Glory" event organised by Gabriel Christian to raise the profile of West Indians' contribution in two world wars, but illness had prevented Grant from attending.

The Cy Grant Trust has been set up by his family to preserve Grant's work, with a project to promote his legacy to the wider community, in partnership with London Metropolitan Archives, assisted by the Windrush Foundation and others.