Mark Lester, Child Actor Turned Doctor

Mark Lester is best remembered as the lead in the 1968 movie musical "Oliver!". But I remember him for another role, in the 1970 movie "Sudden Terror", in which he played a lad who witnessed an assassination and then, in a "boy who cried wolf" theme, tries to convince adults that the assassins are stalking him. The movie is very suspenseful and worth seeing.

In the early 1980s, I wrote to Mr. Lester, in England, sending him a photo, along with a self-addressed envelope and return postage (in the form of what were called Postal International Reply Coupons - people in other countries could exchange them for postage), and within a month, he returned the photo, signed to me. The red ink is not clearly visible on the upper left in this dark scene still, but it reads: "To Bill, Best Wishes, Mark Lester".

Mr. Lester left the movie business after a few more years, and attended college and became an osteopath (a specialist in muscular and skeletal systems). In 1993, he established his own clinic.