Boyd caught his first break as a doorman at the Odeon Theatre. The Leicester Square Cinema across the street recruited him to usher attendees during the British Academy Awards in the early 1950s. During the awards ceremony he was noticed by actor Sir Michael Redgrave, who used his connections to introduce Boyd to the director of the Windsor Repertory Group. At this point Boyd's stage career in the U.K. began to flourish with performances in "The Deep Blue Sea" and "Barnett's Folly"   Boyd's first role which brought him acclaim was as an Irish spy in the movie "The Man Who Never Was", based on the book by Ewen Montagu. The movie was released in April 1956. Shortly thereafter he signed a ten-year contract with 20th Century Fox studios, who began prepping him for Hollywood. But it was a while until Boyd actually set foot on a Hollywood back-lot. Boyd's next stop was Portugal to make "A Hill in Korea", which also featured future stars Michael Caine and Robert Shaw. In June 1956, Boyd was cast in the nautical, ship-wreck adventure "Abandon Ship!" for Columbia Studios starring Tyrone Power. This was filmed in the summer of 1956 in London where the British Navy built a huge 35,000 gallon water tank for the movie. In November 1956, for Twentieth Century Fox, Boyd traveled to the British West Indies as part of a large ensemble cast in Darryl Zanuck's racially provocative film "Island in the Sun starring Dorothy Dandridge", based on the Alec Waugh novel. Boyd portrayed a young English aristocrat who becomes the lover of Joan Collins. Boyd was loaned out to the J. Arthur Rank production of "Seven Thunders (Beast of Marseilles)", a World War II romance set in Nazi-occupied Marseilles. This movie was filmed on location in Marseilles and at Pinewood Studios in London in the spring of 1957  and featured Boyd in his most prominent starring film role yet. Around the same time French actress Brigitte Bardot was given the opportunity to cast her own leading man in her next movie after her success in Roger Vadim's "And God Created Woman", and she chose Boyd. From August to October 1957, Bardot, Boyd and Alida Valli filmed the lusty romance "The Night Heaven Fell", directed by Roger Vadim in Paris and in the region of Málaga, Spain, specifically the small, white-washed town of Mijas.