Biography
Esmond Knight was an English actor. Born in East Sheen, Surrey, he began his stage career in 1925 and appeared in his first film, 77 Park Lane, in 1931. He worked frequently with directors Michael Powell and Laurence Olivier.
Knight served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Wounded in 1941 during the Battle of the Denmark Strait, he lost the sight in one eye and was almost totally blind in the other for two years, though he later regained partial vision. He dictated his autobiography Seeking the Bubble (1943) while blind. His later film roles include Henry V (1944), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) as Livy, Hamlet (1948), Peeping Tom (1960) and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965).
His daughter is the actress Rosalind Knight. He died in London in 1987.
