Trivia: As a multi-talented film and stage performer with an intense comic flair, the diminutive and stocky Jewish-American character actor Alan Arkin built a career for himself out of playing slightly gruff and opinionated yet endearing eccentrics. Though not commonly recognized as such, Arkin's ability extends not only beyond the range of the comedic but far beyond the scope of acting. In addition to his before-the-camera work, Arkin is an accomplished theatrical and cinematic director, an author, and a gifted vocalist.Born March 26, 1934, to immigrant parents of Russian and German Hebrew descent, Arkin came of age in New York City, then attended Los Angeles City College in the early '50s and launched his entertainment career as a key member of the folk band the Tarriers, alongside Erik Darling, Carl Carlton, and Bob Carey. Unfortunately, the Tarriers never managed to find a musical foothold amid the 1960s folk boom -- which, despite the success of a European tour in 1957, encouraged Arkin to leave the group and carve out a niche for himself in another arena.Arkin instead turned to stage comedy and joined Chicago's Second City troupe, then in its infancy. (It officially began in 1959.) From there, Arkin transitioned to Broadway roles, and won a Tony and critical raves for his debut, in Carl Reiner's autobiographical seriocomedy Enter Laughing (1963). He followed it up with the lead in Murray Schisgal's surrealistic character comedy Luv, and made his onscreen debut alongside friend and fellow actor Reiner, for Norman Jewison's frenetic social satire The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! The picture not only scored with the public and press (and received a Best Picture nod) but netted Arkin a nomination for Best Actor. He lost to Paul Scofield, for the latter's role as Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons.Arkin evinced pronounced versatility by cutting dramatically against type for his next performance: that of Harry Roat, a psychopath who systematically psychologically tortures Audrey Hepburn, in Terence Young's Wait Until Dark (1967). A return to comedy with 1968's Inspector Clouseau (with Arkin in the Peter Sellers role) proved disastrous. Fortunately, Arkin took this as a cue, and shifted direction once again the following year, with his aforementioned portrayal of Singer in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter -- a gentle and beautiful adaptation of Carson McCullers' wonderful novel. For the effort, Arkin received a much-deserved sophomore Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, but lost to Charly's Cliff Robertson. The '70s brought mixed prospects for Arkin. He debuted as a film director in 1971, with a screen adaptation of Jules Feiffer's jet-black comedy Little Murders -- a theatrical work that Arkin had previously directed, to rave reviews, off-Broadway. A foray into the subject of American apathy in the face of random violence as it escalated during the late '60s and early '70s, the film tells the story of a sociopathically aggressive woman (Marcia Rodd) who wheedles an apathetic photographer-cum-avant-garde filmmaker (Elliott Gould) into marriage. The film divided journalists sharply. Despite initial reservations and objections, the film aged well with time, and has received renewed critical attention in recent years.Arkin's choice of projects over the remainder of the decade varied dramatically in quality -- from the dregs of Gene Saks' Neil Simon cinematization Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) and the tasteless police comedy Freebie and the Bean (1974) to the finely wrought, overlooked comedy-mystery The Seven-Percent Solution (1976) and Arthur Hiller's sensational farce The In-Laws (1979). Alongside his film work during the '70s, Arkin authored two best-sellers: the children's book Tony's Hard Work Day (1972) and an exploration of yoga, Half Way Through the Door: An Actor's Journey Towards the Self (1975). In the late '70s, Arkin made a rare television appearance, delighting younger viewers with a wild and gothic starring role on an episode of Jim Henson's Muppet Show.If the 1970s struck Arkin fans as something of a mixed bag, the actor's career choices suffered during the '80s, perhaps because of the paucity of solid comedic roles available in Hollywood during that decade. A brief list of Arkin's film credits during that period render it surprising that he could even sustain his own career throughout such poor choices: Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981), Improper Channels (1981), Full Moon High (1982), Bad Medicine (1985), Big Trouble (1985), and Escape from Sobibor (1987). Arkin did make two wonderful contributions to overlooked '80s comedies, however: 1980's Simon and 1985's Joshua Then and Now. In the first picture, directed by fellow Tarrier vocalist (and former Woody Allen co-scenarist) Marshall Brickman, Arkin plays Simon Mendelssohn, a college professor who falls prey to a nutty government think tank run by Max Wright and Austin Pendleton. Although the film remained an obscurity, Joshua delivers some of Arkin's most impressive onscreen work to date, and doubtless enabled him to pull from his own Jewish heritage in developing the character.The public's decision to snub these two pictures may have foreshadowed Arkin's work in the '90s, when he appeared in several fine, but equally overlooked, efforts. These included: Havana (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Indian Summer (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), the aforementioned Mother Night (1996), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), and Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). He delivered a searing performance as the "loser" salesman who robs his company of much-sought-after leads, in James Foley's David Mamet cinematization Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and offered the only memorable contribution to Andrew Davis' fable Steal Big, Steal Little (1995), as "an opportunist who weighs in with the underdogs and learns the true meaning of decency and friendship...[striking] the perfect blend of cynicism, sincerity, and simpatico." Arkin maintained a comparatively lower profile during the early years of the millennium, aside from outstanding contributions to the otherwise dull farce America's Sweethearts (2001), the gripping telemovie The Pentagon Papers (2003), and the historical biopic And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003). In early 2007, Arkin received his first Academy Award nod in 38 years: a Best Actor nomination that he subsequently won for his hilarious turn in the road comedy Little Miss Sunshine. In that movie, Arkin played the grandfather of an über-dysfunctional family, who is ejected from a nursing home for his freewheeling lifestyle. The character's passions include porn and heroin -- elements that, as used by the film's directors, enable Arkin to provide much of the film's fresh and inspired humor. The part earned him rave reviews, and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.He appeared in the dog film Marley & Me in 2008, and that same year reteamed with Steve Carell for the big-screen version of Get Smart. He was the executive producer and co-star of the shaggy-dog crime tale Thin Ice in 2010, and the next year he had a brief cameo as a studio tour guide in The Muppets, and appeared in The Change-Up. He had a major part in Ben Affleck's Argo, a thriller about agents attempting to save American hostages held by Iranians by pretending to be making a Hollywood blockbuster. His portrayal of a showbiz producer who helps pull of the scheme, Arkin captured another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.Alan Arkin has married and divorced three times, to Jeremy Yaffe, to Barbara Dana, and to Suzanne Arkin. In addition to the legacy engendered by his own career resumé, Arkin has fathered something of an acting dynasty; his three sons, Adam, Matthew, and Tony, are all gifted and accomplished actors, with Adam Arkin (Northern Exposure, Chicago Hope) maintaining a somewhat higher profile than his brothers.

Trivia: Italian actress Delia Boccardo was what publicity people usually dub an "international film actress." This is a catch-all term that usually translates to "she speaks seductively in an accent and looks terrific in low-cut gowns." Her first English-speaking appearance was as leading lady in Inspector Clouseau (1968) in which Alan Arkin briefly spelled Peter Sellers as the bumbling French detective. Additional European-filmed appearances by Boccacio include The Adventurers (1974) and Snow Job (1979). In the early 1980s, Delia Boccardo began to receive a few intriguing parts: she was Athena in the 1983 Hercules, starring Lou Ferrigno, while in the Russian/Italian coproduction Nostalgia (1983), she was the neglected wife of an inveterate romantic who ends up setting himself afire!

Trivia: RADA-trained British stage actor Frank Finlay was 31 when he made his London stage debut. The following year, he scored his first significant theatrical success, playing an elderly Jewish patriarch in Chicken Soup With Barley. In 1962, the RADA-trained Finlay made the first of his infrequent film appearances in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. In 1964, Finlay toured with the National Theatre of Great Britain, playing Iago opposite Laurence Olivier's Othello. When Othello was committed to film in 1965, it was Finlay who received the lion's share of excellent notices; he was also nominated for an Academy Award. Most of Finlay's film characters have had sturdy literary pedigrees: he played Porthos in The Three Musketeers (1973) and its two sequels; Inspector Lestrade in a brace of Sherlock Holmes films, A Study in Terror (1965) and Murder by Decree (1979); Jacob Marley in the 1984 George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol; and Sancho Panza in a 1973 made-for-TV adaptation of Don Quixote. Among the historical figures portrayed by Frank Finlay are John Carter in Cromwell (1969), Sergei Alleluveya in Stalin (1992), the title roles in the British TV productions The Last Days of Hitler and Casanova, and the part of Salieri in the London staging of Amadeus. Finlay continued acting through the 2000s; he died in 2016, at age 89.

Trivia: Originally aiming for a military career, London-born Patrick Cargill attended Sandhurst, then spent several years as an officer in the Indian Army. Upon his return to England, Cargill shifted his sights toward the stage, making his London theatrical debut in the 1953 revue High Spirits. In films from 1952, Cargill is most fondly remembered by 1960s moviegoers as the prickly Scotland Yard investigator in the Beatles' Help! (1965) and as the gentleman's gentleman with "consummation on the brain" in Chaplin's A Countess From Hong Kong (1967). He also helped launch the chucklesome Carry On film series by co-writing Ring for Catty, the novel upon which Carry On, Nurse (1958) was based. An inescapable presence on British television, Patrick Cargill co-produced the comedy series Ooh La La and starred in Father Dear Father (1968-1973, 1977) and The Many Wives of Patrick (1977-1978).

Trivia: Wittily buoyant British comedienne Beryl Reid was a revue performer from the age of 16. Her film appearances, beginning with 1954's The Belles of St. Trinian's, have been few but always well received. In 1966, Ms. Reid radically altered her image to portray a mean-spirited lesbian radio star in the original stage production of The Killing of Sister George, repeating this characterization in the controversial 1968 screen version. On television, Beryl Reid co-starred with Alec Guinness in the 1982 BBC miniseries Smiley's People.

Trivia: Following his studies at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Barry Foster worked briefly as a plastics chemist before making his first professional stage appearance in 1952. Foster's London debut occurred in 1955; the following year, he made his first film. While he lists his favorite stage role as Hamlet, for many years he was most familiar to audiences for his snippish comedy roles. He was cast spectacularly against type in Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) as Bob Rusk, the outwardly charming grocer who turns out to be the sexually degenerate necktie murderer. On television, Barry Foster has appeared in such miniseries as A Woman Called Golda (1981) and Smiley's People (1982) and has starred as a methodical Dutch detective in the Van der Valk series.

Trivia: British actor Michael Ripper labored in relative obscurity until the late 1950s. With the formation of Hammer Studios, Ripper became, in the words of horror-film historian Bill Warren, "almost the Hammer equivalent of Dwight Frye." Cast as cockney coachmen, nervous peasants, cretinous lab assistants, gravediggers and general hangers-on, Ripper enlivened the proceedings of such frightfests as The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), Brides of Dracula (1960), Secret of Blood Island (1965) and Plague of the Zombies. Michael Ripper was married to actress Catherine Finn.

Trivia: Norwegian dancer/choreographer Tutte Lemkow entered the British film industry as a bit player in the early 1950s. Lemkow went on to stage the dance sequences for such otherwise nonmusical efforts as The Captain's Paradise (1953) and Bonjour Tristesse (1958). Most of his screen appearances were confined to eccentric character roles in films like Ben-Hur (1959), The Wrong Box (1967), Theatre of Blood (1973) and Red Sonja (1985). Tutte Lemkow also essayed the non-speaking title role in the 1970 movie version of Fiddler on the Roof.

Trivia: British character actor Wallas Eaton first appeared onscreen in the '40s.

Trivia: British character actor, onscreen from the '50s.

Trivia: Versatile Czechoslovakian actor George Pravda played character roles in many British films of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Fluent in six languages, he got his start working on-stage in France and Australia. He moved to England in 1956.

Trivia: In 1938, Viennese-born character actor Eric Pohlmann left Austria and relocated in England where he launched his film career. Gaining pride of place after World War II, he played dozens of criminal masterminds, enemy spies and corpulent Arab sheiks. Pohlmann was also an expert at portraying self-indulgent royalty: he was seen as George I in Rob Roy (1954) and George III in John Paul Jones (1959). When he wasn't playing a villain, he could often be found as an excitable Italian, notably as the Mayor in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). Towards the end of his life, Eric Pohlmann returned to his roots, appearing in several Austrian and German productions.

Trivia: A British character actor, Bayldon was onscreen from the '50s.