One of Walt Disney’s biggest contract stars of his Studio’s early forays into live-action filmmaking, Richard Todd, has died peacefully at his home in Lincolnshire, England, age 90, after losing a fight with cancer. With Disney’s wartime profits tied up in Britain, Walt decided to make a series of films in the UK, with Todd becoming the lead in three of them (The Story Of Robin Hood And His Merrie Men, The Sword And The Rose and Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue) in the 1950s. Todd then landed the role of his lifetime, as Wing Commander Guy Gibson in the British war classic The Dam Busters (1955), and had also been a war hero in his own right. Todd remained a popular face in films (D-Day The Sixth Of June, The Longest Day) and television, and attended a screening of The Dam Busters near the studio where the film had been made [pictured] just last year as part of The Elstree Film Festival, when he reminisced about making the film and his Disney experiences. He was made a Disney Legend in 2002. The Guardian Online prints a full obituary.