He trained as an actor at
RADA in London, and had a considerable amount of stage experience before the Second World War. He acted in repertory, and at the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. During the War he served as a
sergeant pilot in the
Glider Pilot Regiment of the British airborne forces. He resumed acting after the War, and entered films in the early 1950s. On film, he appeared in
The Man in the White Suit (1951, as Harry),
The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955, as the villain De La Marck),
The 39 Steps (1959, as Kennedy),
Ben-Hur (1959, as Marius, an associate of Messala),
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962, as John Williams),
Arabesque (1966, as Kyle Webster) and
Battle of Britain (1969, as
Flight Sergeant Arthur). Lamont is particularly memorable in his role as the wry, urbane Viceroy in
Jean Renoir's
The Golden Coach (1952). From 1958 to 1960, Lamont was a semi-regular as David MacMorris in the
CBS western television series,
The Texan, starring
Rory Calhoun. Lamont also appeared in guest roles in a range of popular British programmes from the 1950s to the 1970s, including
The Adventures of Robin Hood,
Dixon of Dock Green,
Danger Man,
The Avengers,
Callan,
Secret Army,
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased),
The Persuaders!, ''
Robin's Nest and Doctor Who''. '' (1952) In 1953, he appeared in the major role of astronaut Victor Carroon in
Nigel Kneale's ground-breaking BBC science-fiction serial
The Quatermass Experiment, and fourteen years later returned to the series when he played the role of Sladden in the
Hammer Films version of the third serial,
Quatermass and the Pit. He died in 1978 in
Tunbridge Wells,
Kent, of a
heart attack at the age of 60. He was working at the time on "Hostage", an episode of the
BBC science-fiction series ''
Blake's 7''. Although he had completed location work for the episode, he died before the studio scenes had been shot, necessitating a re-mount of the location material performed by his replacement
John Abineri. He was married to the Irish actress
Patricia Driscoll until his death in 1978. They had two children together. ==Filmography==