THE eldest son of one of Britain's best known film and stage actors is thought to have committed suicide outside a village hall in Kent.

Peter Grant Todd, 53, son of 86-year-old Dam Busters star Richard Todd, was found in a car parked at East Malling Village Hall in New Road at around 7.30am on Wednesday. A shotgun was by his side.

The dead man was married and lived the Wateringbury area, a few miles from Maidstone.

Richard Todd, who was one of the best-known Hollywood faces of the 1950s, also lost younger son Seamus Palethorpe-Todd in 1997. Seamus, who died aged just 20, killed himself with a shotgun.

Richard Todd, who played the part of Wing Commander Guy Gibson in the 1954 war classic, The Dam Busters, lives in Little Ponton, Lincolnshire. He has so far declined to comment on the latest tragedy.