Peter Ewen Solon (1917-1985) played the part of a 'merrie man' in Walt Disney's live action film The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). His work for Disney also included The Sword and The Rose (1953) and Rob Roy The Highland Rogue (1954). In the same year as Rob Roy, Solon also appeared alongside Richard Todd in the classic movie, The Dam Busters.
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| Ewen Solon in Robin Hood |
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| Ewen Solon with some of the Merrie Men to the right of Friar Tuck |
Although Ewen was born in Aukland, New Zealand, he worked extensively in both Britain and Australia. His big break came when he was cast as 'Sergeant Lucas' in TV's Maigret (1959). Solon helped to add believability to the series because he was able to speak fluent French.
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| Ewen Solon in Robin Hood |
Recently I received this intriguing message from Ewen Solon's nephew:
"Interesting but not totally substantiated rumour re-Ewen Solon. Ewen's ancestors hailed from Nottingham...and the story of a family connection to Robin Hood has long been passed down the family line. We do know there was a strong allegiance to the throne back then.....how do I know this? He is my uncle."Ewen looked at home amongst the forest oaks, so it would be interesting to hear more about this Solon family legend.
2 comments:
"Ewen Solon (1917-1985) a descendant of Robin Hood?"
It would be great to hear more about this family legend. Please get in touch if you know anymore.
I can remember him playing Mul-keep-Mo and Indian in the BBC TV serial 'The Cabin in the Clearing' in about 1954. As a young boy, I remember us being excited by this as television was fairly new - there was only BBC to watch it so didn't matter really what was on, but this was good. It was done probably 'live' in the studio but the sets were quite good although not in the league of what we had in this film where the sets were superb - the best I have ever seen. Ewen Solon seemed to have many small parts at that time through the early fifties and maybe before but then again many actors did. They would be in a play in the West End as well as doing a film and maybe even television.
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