Born: 21st April 1927 (as Gerald Robert Flood)
Died: 12th April 1989 (aged 61 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1983-1984

Gerald Flood was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire and raised in Farnham, Surrey. For his National Service, he joined the Royal Air Force as a wireless operator and wound up in Singapore, where he became involved in amateur dramatics. Hoping to train as an actor following his demobilisation, Flood was unable to fund his studies and instead became a filing clerk. In 1949, however, he joined a repertory company in Farnham. There he met Anne Greenhalgh, whom he married in 1950; they would have two sons, Simon and Timothy. A succession of repertory jobs led to Flood's first television appearance, in a 1957 edition of BBC Sunday-Night Theatre.

Flood was soon securing lead roles, starting with the 1960 science-fiction serial Pathfinders In Space and its sequels. Other television credits during the Sixties included Plateau Of Fear, Crane, The Rat Catchers and Two In Clover. Flood also made his movie debut in the 1964 thriller Smokescreen. Having largely taken a sabbatical from the theatre to concentrate on establishing himself on television, Flood returned to the stage in the late Sixties with the first of more than six hundred appearances as Robert Danvers in the Terence Frisby comedy There's A Girl In My Soup.

On the silver screen, Flood had a supporting role in the 1970 George C Scott classic Patton

Flood remained prolific during the Seventies, with roles in everything from Bachelor Father to Tom Brown's Schooldays to Scoop to Second Time Around. On the silver screen, he had a supporting role in the 1970 George C Scott classic Patton, as well as the 1974 horror Frightmare. Television work in the early Eighties included episodes of Third Time Lucky. Flood's involvement with a 1982 tour of Relatively Speaking attracted the attention of Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner, who subsequently offered him the dual roles of King John and the voice of the android Kamelion in 1983's The King's Demons. Kamelion was intended to be a new companion for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, but problems with the prop led to his hasty exit from the series. As a result, Flood played the role on only two further occasions: in Planet Of Fire, which witnessed the destruction of Kamelion, and The Caves Of Androzani, when the robot appeared as a hallucination during the Doctor's regeneration.

Sadly, alcohol took an increasingly prevalent role in Flood's life as the Eighties wore on, leaving him in a poor financial state. A rare television appearance came in an episode of Bleak House. Flood's health deteriorated, and he died of a heart attack on April 12th, 1989. His final work, the pilot episode of the sitcom Mornin' Sarge, aired the following June.