Vernon Sewell was educated at Malborough College. He was one of the crew of "castaways" with Michael Powell on the Shetland island of Foula to make The Edge of the World (1937). He later became one of the mainstays in the "B" movie niche of the British film industry, and in his almost 40-year career he turned out everything from spy thrillers to horror films to "sexploitation" fare.