Hired straight from Rada to play the unruly pupil Bert Denham opposite Sidney Poitier as a good-natured teacher in James Clavell’s 1967 schoolroom drama To Sir, with Love, the handsome young actor Christian Roberts could not believe his luck. He was being paid a princely £75 a week and was dating his co-star Judy Geeson. The film did well — made for $600,000, it netted $14 million at the box office in its first year — and he was put on a five-year contract by Columbia Pictures.
His second feature, the black comedy The Anniversary (1968), proved a reality check when he encountered an imperious leading lady in Bette Davis. Fearing she would be upstaged in her role as his mother, she demanded cuts