Bermudian acting legend Earl Cameron has died aged 102.

Earl Cameron appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who story The Tenth Planet, the final story featuring the First Doctor. He played Glyn Williams, one of two astronauts on the Zeus IV when it conducted an orbital atmosphere survey mission. He was the first Black actor to portray an astronaut on any film or TV series in the world.

Mr Cameron was one of the first black performers to break into mainstream British entertainment.

The father of five, originally from Pembroke, lived in Warwickshire with Barbara, his second wife.

He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 2009 for his accomplishments, which included being the first black actor to star in a British feature film.

Mr Cameron’s career was launched in 1951 by the film Pool Of London, a classic thriller that was not shown in his home country.

It was the first British film to portray an interracial relationship.

Mr Cameron told The Royal Gazette in 2018: “To be honest, it didn’t strike me as breaking ground on the racial issue.

“Coming from Bermuda in 1939, which was a very racist island, the degree of racism in England didn’t surprise me. I had grown up with it.”

Mr Cameron arrived in London in 1939 after he joined the British Merchant Navy.

He said his acting career starting almost by accident.

He added: “When I arrived in London, I had no qualifications for anything.

“It was a period when it was almost impossible for a black person to get any kind of job.”

Mr Cameron went to see a friend in a show and, after he spotted some black actors in the cast, asked him if he could have a part.

Mr Cameron said: “He said no way. The show was cast but, strangely enough, three weeks later, he came by late one afternoon and said my big chance had come.”

“He said a guy on the show hadn’t shown up, it was the third time he had missed a matinee so the director said to get someone else.”

Mr Cameron made his debut in the chorus that night.

Mr Cameron returned to Bermuda after the Second World War.

But just five months later he was back on a ship, heading to New York and then to London, where he won a role as an understudy in Deep are the Roots — his first big break.

He starred with actors such as Sir Sean Connery, in the James Bond movie Thunderball, and with Sir Richard Attenborough, and Sir Sidney Poitier A Warm December.

The veteran actor was honoured again in 2012 when the City Hall Theatre was named after him, and in 2016 he was inducted into the UK’s Screen Nation Hall of Fame.