CaribWorldNews, LONDON, England, Tues. Feb. 16, 2010: A Guyanese actor, singer and writer, who made history in the U.K. by becoming  the first black person to appear regularly on British television, has passed away at the age of 90.

Cy Grant, widely known for his stint on the BBC`s Tonight Show, died in London on Saturday, his daughter Diana said, but gave no further details of his death.  Grant was born in the village of Beterverwagting, Demerara, British Guiana (modern-day Guyana). At the age of 11, he moved with his family to New Amsterdam, Berbice. After leaving high school, Grant worked as a clerk in the office of a stipendiary magistrate but was unable to study law overseas because of lack of funds

In 1941 he joined the Royal Air Force, which had begun to admit non-white candidates following great losses in the Battle of Britain the previous year. One of around 500 young men recruited from the Caribbean for aircrews, he was commissioned as an officer after training in England as a navigator. He joined 103 Squadron based at Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire, one of a seven-man crew of a Lancaster Bomber.

On his third mission, Flight Lieutenant Grant was shot down over the Netherlands during the 1943 RAF offensive, Battle of the Ruhr. He parachuted to safety in a field but was captured by the Germans and was made a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III camp, 160 km east of Berlin. He was finally liberated by Allied Forces in 1945.

After World War II, he decided to pursue his original ambition and study law, seeing it as a way to challenge racism and social injustice. He became a member of the Middle Temple in London and qualified as a barrister in 1950. Despite his distinguished war record and legal qualifications he was unable to find work at the Bar and decided to take up acting. Apart from earning him a living, he saw acting as way to improve his diction for when he finally entered Chambers.

His first role was for a Moss Empire tour in which he starred in a play called 13 Death St., Harlem. He career received a boost after successfully auditioning for Laurence Olivier and his Festival of Britain Company, which led to appearances at the St. James Theatre in London and the Ziegfield Theatre, New York.

But faced with limited roles for black actors, he decided to increase his earning potential by becoming a singer, having learnt to sing and play the guitar as a youngster in Guiana. This proved very successful and he was soon appearing in revues and top cabaret venues like Esmeralda`s Barn, singing Caribbean and other folk songs, as well as on BBC radio (The Third Programme and the Overseas Service) and on his own Associated TeleVision series, For Members Only.

In 1956, he co-starred with Nadia Cattouse and Errol John in a BBC TV drama Man from the sun, about Caribbean migrants, and appeared in the World War II film Sea Wife, alongside Richard Burton and Joan Collins (1957).

In 1957, Grant was asked to take part in the BBC`s daily topical show, Tonight, to sing the news in calypso. The journalist Bernard Levin provided the words and Grant strung them together. Tonight was hugely popular and turned Grant, the first black face to appear regularly on TV, into a household name. But he left after two and a half years, anxious not to become typecast.

His acting career continued apace and in 1957 he appeared in Home of the Brave, an award-winning TV drama by Arthur Laurents, and travelled the following year to Jamaica for the filming of Calypso in which he played the romantic lead.

Grant`s general frustration with the lack of good roles for black actors was briefly tempered in 1965 when he played the lead in Othello at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester, a role for which white actors at the time routinely `blacked up.` Between 1967 and 1968 he also voiced the role of Lieutenant Green in Gerry Anderson`s Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, becoming the first regular black male character in televised science fiction.

A brief return to the Bar in 1972 reflected Grant`s disenchantment with show business as well as his growing politicization. After spending six months at a Chambers in the Middle Temple, he decided he no longer had any passion for the law and resolved to challenge discrimination through the arts,

Grant performed Caribbean folk songs and calypso all over the world, including Esmeralda`s Barn in London (residency, 1950s); the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi (1973); Bricktops, Rome (1956); and for GTV 9, Melbourne. In addition, he entertained British forces in Cyprus, the Maldives, Singapore and Libya. His concert appearances include the Kongresshalle of the Deutsches Museum in Munich (1963), and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (1971). In 1989 he helped organise the One Love Africa, Save The Children International Music Festival, in Zimbabwe.

Grant also recorded five LPs. His 1964 LP Cool Folk (World Record Club), which features Where have all the flowers gone? Yellow Bird, O Pato, Blowing in the Wind, Work Song, and Every Night When the Sun Goes Down, is a collector`s item.

His other LPs are Cy Grant (Transatlantic Records); Cy & I, with Bill LeSage (World Record Club); Ballads, Birds & Blues, (Reality Records); and Cy Grant Sings (Donegall Records).

Two of his best known singles are King Cricket and The Constantine Calypso, recorded in 1966 for Pye in celebration of Garfield Sobers and Learie Constantine respectively, two of the West Indies` most famous cricketers. Both songs were featured in the BBC2 series Empire of Cricket (June 2009).

He is the author of RING OF STEEL, pan sound and symbol (Macmillan 1999). He was the Chairman/cofounder of DRUM, the London based Black arts centre in the 70`s and Director of CONCORD Multicultural Festivals in the 80`s. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Surrey, Roehampton and a member of The Scientific & Medical Network. Check out his website at http://nestene1.users.btopenworld.com/cygrant/index_01.html