Cyril Raymond

Cyril William North Raymond MBE (13 February 1899 – 20 March 1973) was a British character actor. He maintained a stage and screen career from his teens until his retirement, caused by ill health, in the 1960s. His many stage, film and television roles include Fred Jesson, the husband of Celia Johnson's Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter (1945). Life and career Raymond was the son of Herbert Linton Raymond and his second wife, Rose ( Knowles). Herbert died in 1906 at the Grand Hotel, Broad Street, Bristol, which he and his wife ran. Raymond became a pupil at Sir Herbert Tree's Academy of Dramatic Art. He made his professional debut in 1914 at the Garrick Theatre, London, playing the Second Spanish Gentleman in Bluff King Hal.