Born 13 January 1931 in Ipswich, England, Ian Hendry's career began rather auspiciously--playing the fall guy for a circus clown. After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, things started progressing nicely when he starred as "Dr. Geoffrey Brent" in Police Surgeon (1960). This led directly to The Avengers (1961) but, after only one season, he left to pursue film. This proved a fruitful move as he found plenty of work (perhaps not surprisingly, often as doctors and police officers), although he made occasional returns to the small screen, even guest-starring in an episode of The New Avengers (1976). His career was cut short on 24 December 1984, as he died from a internal hemorrhage at age 53.