Early work After leaving the army, Travers decided to become an actor. He began working on stage in 1949 appearing in
John Van Druten's
The Damask Cheek, and a year later made his film debut in
Conspirator (1949). He had a slightly bigger part in
The Browning Version (1951) and a good role on TV in "Albert" (later filmed as
Albert R.N.) for
BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1951).
Supporting player Travers appeared in
Hindle Wakes (1952), ''
The Planter's Wife (1952), The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), It Started in Paradise (1952), Mantrap (1953), Street of Shadows (1953), and The Square Ring (1953). He was in "The Heel" for Douglas Fairbanks Presents''. He was a supporting player in
Counterspy (1953), and appeared in
Romeo and Juliet (1954) as Benvolio,
Geordie and MGM Travers's breakthrough came when he was cast in the title role of
Geordie (1955), MGM cast him in the expensive epic
Bhowani Junction (1956), with Granger and
Ava Gardner. He followed this as the romantic lead in a remake of
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957), opposite
Jennifer Jones. but the role went to
Dirk Bogarde. Travers briefly returned to Britain to make a comedy,
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), with his second wife
Virginia McKenna, whom he had married in 1957. Back in Hollywood, he was
Eleanor Parker's character's love interest in
The Seventh Sin (1957), a remake of a
Greta Garbo film. and he wrote a swashbuckler to star himself,
The Falcon. However his MGM films all performed disappointingly at the box office –
Barretts and
Seventh Sin were notable flops – and enthusiasm for Travers in Hollywood cooled. He tried to get up a war film set in Greenland,
The Sledge Patrol, but it does not appear to have been made. He and Launder tried to repeat the success of
Geordie with
The Bridal Path (1960), but the film was not a success. In the second half of 1959, Travers made a British monster film,
Gorgo. In America he recorded "Born a Giant" for
Our American Heritage (1960) on TV, then returned to Britain where Travers and McKenna reteamed on a thriller,
Two Living, One Dead (1961). He then starred in a race car drama for MGM,
The Green Helmet (1961), and a comedy with
Spike Milligan,
Invasion Quartet (1961). Travers starred in a TV adaptation of
Lorna Doone (1963). He returned to Hollywood to do some episodes of
The Everglades,
Rawhide ("Incident at Two Graves") and
Espionage ("A Camel to Ride"). Back on Broadway he played the title role in
Abraham Cochrane which had a short run.
Born Free His most famous film role was that of game warden
George Adamson in the highly successful 1966 film
Born Free, about which experience the two co-wrote the book
On Playing with Lions. He co-starred with McKenna and the experience made him and his wife conscious of the many abuses of wild animals in captivity that had been taken from Africa and other natural environments around the world. He played the title role in a British TV version of
The Admirable Crichton (1968), alongside his wife, and had a small part in
Peter Hall's adaptation of ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1968). Travers and McKenna made another "animal movie",
Ring of Bright Water (1969) for which he also wrote the script. They followed this with
An Elephant Called Slowly (1970), which Travers helped write and produce with James Hill, who directed. In 1969, he played
Captain Hook on a stage production of
Peter Pan. Travers worked as an actor only on
Rum Runners (1971) with
Brigitte Bardot and
Lino Ventura. He directed and appeared in a documentary, ''The Lion at World's End
(1971), about Christian the lion, an animal bought in Harrods'' and then returned to Africa. He was reunited with James Hill on
The Belstone Fox (1973) and co-wrote a documentary, "The Wild Dogs of Africa", for
The World About Us (1973). He later produced "The Baboons of Gombe" (1975) for the same show.
Later years Travers appeared in "Tramps and Poachers", an episode of
To the Manor Born (1980). In
The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984) he and McKenna played the parents of
Edwin Flack. One of his last credits was "Highland Fling" on
Lovejoy (1992). ==Animal rights campaigner==