Уильям Трэверс: Актер, защитник животных и основатель фонда «Born Free»

British actor and activist

William Inglis Lindon Travers

After leaving the army, Travers decided to become an actor. He began working on stage in 1949 appearing in John Van Druten's The Damask Cheek, and a year later made his film debut in Conspirator (1949). He had a slightly bigger part in The Browning Version (1951) and a good role on TV in "Albert" (later filmed as Albert R. N.) for BBC Sunday Night Theatre (1951).

His most famous film role was that of game warden George Adamson in the highly successful 1966 film Born Free, about which experience the two co wrote the book On Playing with Lions. He co starred with McKenna and the experience made him and his wife conscious of the many abuses of wild animals in captivity that had been taken from Africa and other natural environments around the world. He played the title role in a British TV version of The Admirable Crichton (1968), alongside his wife, and had a small part in Peter Hall's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968). Travers and McKenna made another "animal movie", Ring of Bright Water (1969) for which he also wrote the script. They followed this with An Elephant Called Slowly (1970), which Travers helped write and produce with James Hill, who directed. In 1969, he played Captain Hook on a stage production of Peter Pan. Travers worked as an actor only on Rum Runners (1971) with Brigitte Bardot and Lino Ventura. He directed and appeared in a documentary, The Lion at World's End (1971), about Christian the lion, an animal bought in Harrods and then returned to Africa. He was reunited with James Hill on The Belstone Fox (1973) and co wrote a documentary, "The Wild Dogs of Africa", for The World About Us (1973). He later produced "The Baboons of Gombe" (1975) for the same show.

Travers appeared in "Tramps and Poachers", an episode of To the Manor Born (1980). In The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984) he and McKenna played the parents of Edwin Flack. One of his last credits was "Highland Fling" on Lovejoy (1992).

The importance of animal rights led to Travers and his wife becoming involved in the "Zoo Check Campaign" in 1984 that evolved to their establishing the Born Free Foundation in 1991. Travers spent his last three years travelling around Europe's slum zoos and a TV documentary that he made exposed the appalling suffering of thousands of animals.

Travers died from a coronary thrombosis in his sleep at his home in the village of South Holmwood, near Dorking, Surrey, aged 72. He was survived by his wife and children. as does their son, Will Travers, who is president of the Born Free Foundation.