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A one-time steeplejack jockey, British actor Edward Underdown began his film career in 1934, but the starring roles didn't come until the mid '40s. Tall and good looking in a bookish sort of way, Underdown built his reputation on such postwar films as The October Man (1947), The Dark Man (1952), Shadow Man (1954), and the Humphrey Bogart/John Huston/Truman Capote cult collaboration Beat the Devil (1954). In the latter film Underdown was cast as Jennifer Jones' dull, plodding husband; while this characterization worked to the benefit of Beat the Devil, unfortunately most of Underdown's '50s performances were equally dull and plodding. By the mid '60s, Edward Underdown was playing such one-scene parts as his "Air Vice Marshall" in the 1965 James Bond thriller Thunderball.