Trivia: Imperious, intellectual-looking British actor Peter Cushing studied for a theatrical career under the guidance of Cairns James at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Cushing supported himself as a clerk in a surveyor's office before making his first professional stage appearance in 1935. Four years later, he came to America, where he was featured in a handful of Broadway plays and Hollywood feature films. He had a small part in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) and also doubled for Louis Hayward in the "twin" scenes; he was among the rather overaged students in Laurel and Hardy's A Chump at Oxford (1940); and he was second male lead in the Carole Lombard vehicle Vigil in the Night (1940). After closing out his Hollywood tenure with They Dare Not Love (1941), he returned to stage work in England. His next film appearance was as Osric in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), which also featured his future co-star Christopher Lee in a nonspeaking bit (Cushing and Lee's paths would cross again cinematically in Moulin Rouge [1952], though, as in Hamlet, they shared no scenes).In the early '50s, Cushing became a TV star by virtue of his performance in the BBC production of George Orwell's 1984. Still, film stardom would elude him until 1957, when he was cast as Baron Frankenstein in Hammer Films' The Curse of Frankenstein. It was the first of 19 appearances under the Hammer banner; Cushing went on to play Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958) and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), roles which, like Baron Frankenstein, he would repeat time and again. Though his horror film appearances brought him fame and fortune, Cushing ruefully commented that he'd prefer not to be so tightly typecast: It is significant that his entry in the British publication Who's Who in the Theatre lists all of his theatrical credits, but only one title -- Hamlet -- in his film manifest. In 1975, after a decade's absence, Cushing made a return to the theater in Washington Square, ironically playing the role originated on Broadway by fellow Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone. Many of Cushing's later film assignments were in the tongue-in-cheek category, notably his sneeringly evil Governor Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and his backwards-talking librarian in Top Secret! (1984). Retiring from the screen in 1986, Peter Cushing penned two volumes of memoirs: An Autobiography (1986) and Past Forgetting (1988).

Trivia: British actress Kathleen Byron made her first film Young Mr. Pitt in 1941, shortly after completing her training at the Old Vic. At first a standard-issue ingenue, Byron displayed a dominant willfulness that resulted in roles as schemers and prevaricators. After big-budget films like A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and Black Narcissus (1948) - giving a rivetting performance in the latter as an insane nun - Ms. Byron was consigned to budget-feature films like The Gambler and the Lady (1952) and Profile (1954). She made several pilgrimages to Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, but her only American film was MGM's Young Bess (1953), set in England. Kathleen Byron remained in films until the 1980s, though she appeared less frequently and the roles diminished in significance.

Trivia: "I am not a star and never was. I lack that essential spark." There are precious few filmgoers who would agree with British actor Dennis Price's doleful self-assessment. The son of a military man, the Oxford-educated Price embarked upon an acting career in 1937. After several seasons in John Gielgud's acting company, Price began making films in 1944. He was often cast as handsome scoundrels, notably the charmingly homicidal heir in 1949's Kind Hearts and Coronets. A busy character actor into the 1970s, Price gained a whole new flock of fans for his appearances as Jeeves in the BBC TVer The World of Wooster. He was last seen onscreen as one of Vincent Price's victims in Theatre of Blood (1973).

Trivia: New Zealand-born actor David Warbeck made his feature film debut in Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood (1969). Warbeck went pro following studies at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and during the 1970s became a popular European star of low-budget genre pictures made in Italy, the U.S. and England. His notable films include Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) and Luci Fulci's L'Adila (1981). Warbeck made his final film appearance in Al Festa's Fatal Frames (1996). Warbeck died of cancer on July 23, 1997 in London. He was 55 years-old.

Trivia: British actor Harvey Hall played supporting roles in films between the early '60s and '70s. He also appeared on stage and television. In 1974, Hall abandoned acting and became an English teacher at an exclusive private school.