Trivia

Saw action in World War II with the Grenadier Guards in North Africa where, leading a successful attack on a German gun emplacement, he was seriously injured by a bullet to the leg. He was at one point captured and sent to a POW camp in Italy.

Bond was a conservative Equity council member and eventual president, where he came up against the extreme left-wing faction led by Vanessa Redgrave and Corin Redgrave for control. An opponent of apartheid, he nonetheless insisted on his right to go to South Africa to perform before segregated audiences. The dispute climaxed in April 1985 with his resignation.

Met first wife Ann Grace while both were performing with the Colchester Repertory Company. They married in 1942 and had one son. A young widow at the time of their marriage, she also had a son, Larry, from her earlier marriage.

In 1938 Bond auditioned successfully for a one word part as a robot in what turned out to be the first televised science fiction program in history, the BBC production of Karel Capek's "R.U.R.''. The one word was "Yes".

Quit school at 16 determined to become a journalist but quickly tired of learning shorthand and discovered that the stage was more to his liking. When he announced this change of career, his father agreed to a one-year moratorium on getting a proper job.

Began his acting career in the late 1930s and appeared in light comedies.

Entered films in post-war years and joined the Rank Studios.

A memoir published in 1990, Steady, Old Man! Don't You Know There's a War On? (ISBN 978-0850520460), tells the story of his war years (WWII) spent as a junior officer with the Third Battalion, Grenadier Guards. Wounded, awarded a Military Cross and ultimately captured in Florence as a result of inaccurate intelligence he wrote the book he said, "Because so many of his younger friends to whom the war is a matter of history, rather than a memory, kept asking him what it was like".

He wrote a stage play called "Akin to Death" (1954) and the television drama "Unscheduled Stop" in 1968.

A memorial service was held for him at St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden on 18th January 2007.