Trivia: British actor and television director John Howard Davies is best known for his work as a television director of such BBC shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus. As a child, he starred in several memorable films including Oliver Twist (1948) and Tom Brown's School Days (1951). He is the son of screenwriter Jack Davies.

Trivia: British actress Valerie Hobson had barely begun her studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts when, at 16, she was discovered for the movies. In 1934, Hobson was signed to a Hollywood contract by Universal pictures, where for a frustrating 12 months she served as a Fay Wray substitute in roles calling for wide-eyed terror and little else. During this period, she played the title role in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) -- not the monstrosity portrayed by Elsa Lanchester, of course, but the imperiled missus of Colin Clive -- and was equally unhappily married to "The Werewolf of London" in the picture of the same name. Returning to the British film industry in 1936, Hobson developed into one of the most popular and versatile leading ladies in the business. She was a delightful "Nora Charles" type in the 1938 murder mystery This Man is News (1938), and was both sexy and resourceful opposite Conrad Veidt in a brace of espionage thrillers, The Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940). Hobson was seen at her best in her postwar films, notably as the demure lady love of homicidal Dennis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), the selfish mother of John Howard Davies in The Rocking Horse Winner (1950), and the screwball "professional guest" in the "Ways and Means" episode of the Noel Coward omnibus Tonight at 8:30 (1952). In 1946, Hobson offered an exquisite performance as Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations; ironically, she had played a smaller role in the 1934 Universal version of the same Dickens novel, but her part had wound up on the cutting room floor. Previously wed to producer Anthony Havelock-Allen, Hobson retired from films in 1954 to marry future British Minister of War John Profumo. Valerie Hobson was reluctantly thrust back into the public eye during the Christine Keeler sex scandal of 1963, faithfully and courageously standing by her disgraced husband as Profumo and several other members of the British cabinet were forced to resign.

Trivia: Born in a British seaside resort town, John Mills was the son of a mathematics teacher father. Mills' mother worked as a theatrical box office manager, and it was this world, rather than his father's academic milieu, which most attracted young Mills. After brief employment as a clerk in a corn merchant's office, Mills moved to London, where he enrolled at Zelia Raye's Dancing School. His first professional job was as a chorus dancer in The Five O'Clock Revue in 1929. Making as many contacts as possible, Mills was able to secure work on the legitimate stage, and in 1932 appeared in his first film, the Jessie Matthews vehicle The Midshipmaid. Learning his craft in "quota quickies," Mills rose to leading man in such prestige productions as Brown on Resolution (1935), Tudor Rose (1936), and The Green Cockatoo (1938). In 1939, he appeared in his first American film, Goodbye Mr. Chips, playing student Peter Colley. He starred in a number of morale-boosting World War II films, usually playing the personification of the calm, resourceful young British military officer; any chance for a real life career in uniform, however, was scuttled by Mills' duodenal ulcer. After the war, he starred in such international hits as Great Expectations (1946), Scott of the Antarctic (1949), Hobson's Choice (1954), and Above Us the Waves (1955). In 1970, Mills won a long overdue Oscar for his performance as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970), directed (as were several of Mills' earlier films) by David Lean. His Broadway work has included Ross, a 1961 dramatization of the life of T.E. Lawrence. In 1966, Mills directed Sky West and Crooked (aka Gypsy Girl), which starred his daughter, Hayley Mills, and was written by his wife, Mary Hayley Bell (Mills' other daughter, Juliet, is likewise an actress of note). One year later, he made his American series-TV debut as British attorney Dundee in the weekly Western Dundee and the Culhane. In 1977, John Mills was made a knight of the British Empire; his very full life, both offscreen and on, was summed up three years later in his autobiography Up in the Clouds, Gentlemen, Please.

Trivia: The son of a British army colonel, actor Ronald Squire attending Wellington College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He first appeared on stage in 1909 in a provincial production of An Englishman's Home, which was transferred to London the following year. A charter member of the Liverpool Repertory, Squire appeared in everything from Shaw to Barrie. He made his first New York appearance in 1917's Gambler's All. Turning producer in the mid 1920s, Squire continued his London career into the late '40s, and also toured in Blithe Spirit and While the Sun Shines. After his 1934 film bow, Culver settled into smug, self-important comedy roles along the lines of American actor Fred Clark. Loyal to the Mother Country, Ronald Squire made few films for US consumption; the few exceptions included No Highway in the Sky (1951) My Cousin Rachel (1952), Around the World in 80 Days and Count Your Blessings (1958) -- all Hollywood-financed films lensed in England and Europe.

Trivia: On-stage from 1922, British leading man Hugh Sinclair made his first important film appearance in the 1935 version of Escape Me Never. Thereafter, Sinclair spent most of his time in the theater, though he continued showing up infrequently but memorably in films until 1953. He played one of the Four Just Men in the 1939 adaptation of the Edgar Wallace suspense novel, and twice played Leslie Charteris' roguish hero Simon Templar (aka the Saint) in The Saint's Vacation (1941) and The Saint Meets the Tiger (1942). One of Hugh Sinclair's better later film roles was Richard Graham in The Rocking Horse Winner (1950).

Trivia: Usually billed as Anthony Holles, this prolific British character actor made his first movie appearance in 1921. Holles' more sizeable film roles of the 1930s included "Bonzo" in Star Reporter (1932), and a female-impersonator turn in Hotel Splendide (1932). The war years found Holles playing working-class types like Roy Todd in Thursday's Child (1943) and Sgt. Bassett in A Canterbury Tale (1946). Otherwise, Antony Holles was seen in fleeting, functional roles, most of which didn't even have character names: in his last film, The Rocking Horse Winner (1950), Holles is identified only as "Bowler Hat."

Trivia: For a fan of British programmers of the 1930s and 1940s, it was hard to miss character-player Johnny Schofield. From 1934 onward, Schofield made more screen appearances than he cared to count, usually in such inexpensive crowd-pleasers as Mystery of Marie Celeste (1935) and Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939). His larger roles included Joe in Went the Day Well? (1943) and Inspector Robson in Shop at Sly Corner (1947). Johnny Schofield made his final appearance in The Fake (1953).