Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions in both the West End of London and on Broadway in New York City. He came to wider attention from 1967 in the title role of the British television spy drama Callan, earning him the 1970 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. Woodward starred as Police Sergeant Neil Howie in the 1973 cult British horror film The Wicker Man, and in the title role of the 1980 Australian biopic Breaker Morant. From 1985 to 1989, Woodward starred as ex-secret agent and private investigator Robert McCall in the American television series The Equalizer, earning him the 1986 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Drama Actor. Early life Woodward was born on 1 June 1930 in Croydon, Surrey, the only child of parents Edward Oliver Woodward, a metalworker, and Violet Edith Woodward (née Smith). As a boy, he was bombed out of his home three times during the Blitz. He attended Eccleston Road, Sydenham Road, and E Wallington, as well as Kingston Day Commercial School and Elmwood High School, Hackbridge, all in Surrey. He then attended Kingston College. Career Theatre After leaving school at the age of 15, Woodward wanted to train as a journalist, but took work in a sanitary engineer's office and then at the age of 16 entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). After the Second World War, he became an associate member of that academy. He was torn between becoming an actor and a professional footballer, and was on the books of Leyton Orient FC and Brentford FC, making three appearances in the football league for the latter, but a serious knee injury kept him out of the game for over a year. Woodward's professional acting debut was in the Castle Theatre, Farnham, in 1946. After graduation from RADA, he worked extensively in repertory companies as a Shakespearean actor throughout England and Scotland, making his London stage debut in R. F. Delderfield's Where There's a Will in 1955 and also appeared in the film adaptation that same year, his first film, and then Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet (1955). Having established himself, he also worked in Broadway theatre in New York City and in Australia.