Trivia: She was a Bronze Medalist graduate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, meanwhile debuting onstage at age 19. She was outstanding character player in both classic and modern plays on London's West End, and occasionally appeared on Broadway. She entered films in 1931, and worked in Hollywood from 1939-46. For her work in Saratoga Trunk she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. While remaining a prominent stage actress, she continued appearing in films intermittently until the early '80s. In recognition of her long, distinguished career, in 1960 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Trivia: Oxford-educated Leslie Banks embarked upon a stage career at London's Vaudeville Theatre in 1911. During combat in World War I, Banks' face was scarred and partially paralyzed. Returning to the theater at war's end, Banks was able to use his disfigurement to his advantage, favoring the unblemished side of his face when playing comedy, then conversely utilizing his "marked" side when essaying villains. Some of his more celebrated stage roles included Captain Hook in Peter Pan, Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, the capricious title character in Springtime for Henry, and the kindly, doddering lead in the original 1938 staging of Goodbye Mr. Chips. He also distinguished himself as a theatrical producer and director. Banks entered films in 1932, starring as diabolical "people hunter" Count Zaroff in The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Leslie Banks continued making occasional film appearances until 1950, most notably as the reluctant hero of Hitchcock's 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, and the Chorus in Olivier's brilliant Henry V (1945).

Trivia: Laurence Olivier -- Sir Laurence after 1947, Lord Laurence after 1970 -- has been variously lauded as the greatest Shakespearean interpreter of the 20th century, the greatest classical actor of the era, and the greatest actor of his generation. Although his career took a rather desperate turn toward the end when he seemed willing to appear in almost anything, the bulk of Olivier's 60-year career stands as a sterling example of extraordinary craftsmanship. Olivier was the son of an Anglican minister, who, despite his well-documented severity, was an unabashed theater lover, enthusiastically encouraging young Olivier to give acting a try. The boy made his first public appearance at age nine, playing Brutus in an All Saint's production of Julius Caesar. No member of the audience was more impressed than actress Dame Sybil Thorndike, who knew then and there that Olivier had what it took. Much has been made of the fact that the 15-year-old Olivier played Katherine in a St. Edward's School production of The Taming of the Shrew; there was, however, nothing unusual at the time for males to play females in all-boy schools. (For that matter, the original Shakespeare productions in the 16th and 17th centuries were strictly stag.) Besides, Olivier was already well versed in playing female roles, having previously played Maria in Twelfth Night. Two years after The Taming of the Shrew, he enrolled at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, where one of his instructors was Claude Rains. Olivier made his professional London debut the same year in The Suliot Officer, and joined the Birmingham Repertory in 1926; by the time Olivier was 20, he was playing leads. His subsequent West End stage triumphs included Journey's End and Private Lives. In 1929, he made his film debut in the German-produced A Temporary Widow. He married actress Jill Esmond in 1930, and moved with her to America when Private Lives opened on Broadway. Signed to a Hollywood contract by RKO in 1931, Olivier was promoted as "the new Ronald Colman," but he failed to make much of an impression onscreen. By the time Greta Garbo insisted that he be replaced by John Gilbert in her upcoming Queen Christina (1933), Olivier was disenchanted with the movies and vowed to remain on-stage. He graduated to full-fledged stardom in 1935, when he was cast as Romeo in John Gielgud's London production of Romeo and Juliet. (He also played Mercutio on the nights Gielgud assumed the leading role himself.) It was around this time that Olivier reportedly became fascinated with the works of Sigmund Freud, which led to his applying a "psychological" approach to all future stage and screen characters. Whatever the reason, Olivier's already superb performances improved dramatically, and, before long, he was being judged on his own merits by London critics, and not merely compared (often disparagingly) to Gielgud or Ralph Richardson. It was in collaboration with his friend Richardson that Olivier directed his first play in 1936, which was also the year he made his first Shakespearean film, playing Orlando in Paul Czinner's production of As You Like It. Now a popular movie leading man, Olivier starred in such pictures as Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days (1938), The Divorce of Lady X (1938), and Q Planes (1939). He returned to Hollywood in 1939 to star as Heathcliff in Samuel Goldwyn's glossy (and financially successful) production of Wuthering Heights, earning the first of 11 Oscar nominations. He followed this with leading roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940),Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Alexander Korda's That Hamilton Woman (1941), co-starring in the latter with his second wife, Vivien Leigh. Returning to England during World War II, Olivier served as a parachute officer in the Royal Navy. Since he was stationed at home, so to speak, he was also able to serve as co-director (with Ralph Richardson) of the Old Vic. His most conspicuous contribution to the war effort was his joyously jingoistic film production of Henry V (1944), for which he served as producer, director, and star. Like all his future film directorial efforts, Henry V pulled off the difficult trick of retaining its theatricality without ever sacrificing its cinematic values. Henry V won Olivier an honorary Oscar, not to mention major prizes from several other corners of the world. Knighthood was bestowed upon him in 1947, and he served up another celluloid Shakespeare the same year, producing, directing and starring in Hamlet. This time he won two Oscars: one for his performance, the other for the film itself. The '50s was a transitional decade for Olivier: While he had his share of successes -- his movie singing debut in The Beggar's Opera (1953), his 1955 adaptation of Richard III -- he also suffered a great many setbacks, both personal (his disintegrating relationship with Vivien Leigh) and professional (1957's The Prince and the Showgirl, which failed despite the seemingly unbeatable combination of Olivier's directing and Marilyn Monroe's star performance). In 1956, Olivier boldly reinvented himself as the seedy, pathetically out-of-step music hall comic Archie Rice in the original stage production of John Osborne's The Entertainer. It was a resounding success, both on-stage and on film, and Olivier reprised his role in a 1960 film version directed by Tony Richardson. Thereafter, Olivier deliberately sought out such challenging, image-busting roles as the ruthless, bisexual Crassus in Spartacus (1960) and the fanatical Mahdi in Khartoum (1965). He also achieved a measure of stability in his private life in 1961 when he married actress Joan Plowright. In 1962, he was named the artistic director of Britain's National Theatre, a post he held for ten years. To periodically replenish the National's threadbare bank account, Olivier began accepting roles that were beneath him artistically, but which paid handsomely; in the early '70s, he even hawked Polaroid cameras on television. During this period, he was far more comfortable before the cameras than in the theater, suffering as he was from a mysterious bout of stage fright. He also committed two more directorial efforts to film, Othello (1965) and Dance of Death (1968), both of which were disappointingly stage-bound. In 1970, he became Lord Olivier and assumed a seat in the House of Lords the following year. Four years later, suffering from a life-threatening illness, he made his last stage appearance. From 1974 until his death in 1989, he seemingly took whatever film job was offered him, ostensibly to provide an income for his family, should the worst happen. Some colleagues, like director John Schlesinger, were disillusioned by Olivier's mercenary approach to his work. Others, like Entertainer director Tony Richardson, felt that Olivier was not really a sellout as much as he was what the French call a cabotin -- not exactly a ham: a performer, a vulgarian, someone who lives and dies for acting. Amidst such foredoomed projects as The Jazz Singer (1980) and Inchon (1981), Olivier was still capable of great things, as shown by his work in such TV productions as 1983's Mister Halpern and Mister Johnson and, in 1984, King Lear and Voyage Round My Father. In 1979, he was once more honored at Academy Awards time, receiving an honorary Oscar "for the full body of his work." His last appearance was in the 1988 film War Requiem.

Trivia: Born in India to a British stockbroker and his Irish wife, Vivien Leigh first appeared on stage in convent-school amateur theatricals. Completing her education in England, France, Italy, and Germany, she studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; not a particularly impressive pupil, Leigh continued her training with private tutors. In 1932, she briefly interrupted her pursuit of a theatrical career to marry London barrister Herbert Leigh Holman. Leigh made her professional stage bow three years later in The Sash, which never made it to London's West End; still, her bewitching performance caught the eye of producer Sydney Carroll, who cast Leigh in her first London play, The Mask of Virtue. She alternated between stage and film work, usually in flighty, kittenish roles, until being introduced to Shakespeare at The Old Vic. It was there that she met Laurence Oliver, appearing with him on-stage as Ophelia in Hamlet and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and later together onscreen in 1937's Fire Over England. It was this picture which brought Leigh to the attention of American producer David O. Selznick, who brought his well-publicized search for the "perfect" Scarlett O'Hara to a sudden conclusion when he cast Leigh as the resourceful Southern belle in 1939's Gone With the Wind. The role won Leigh her first Oscar, after which she kept her screen appearances to a minimum, preferring to devote her time to Olivier, who would become her second husband in 1940. Refusing to submit to the Hollywood publicity machine, Leigh and Olivier all but disappeared from view for months at a time. The stage would also forever remain foremost in her heart, and there were often gaps of two to three years between Leigh's films. One of her rare movie appearances during the '50s was as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a performance for which she received a second Oscar. In her private life, however, Leigh began developing severe emotional and health problems that would eventually damage her marriage to Olivier (whom she divorced in 1960) and seriously impede her ability to perform on-stage or before the camera. Despite her struggles with manic depression, she managed to turn in first-rate performances in such films as The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and Ship of Fools (1965), and maintained a busy theatrical schedule, including a 1963 musical version of Tovarich and a 1966 Broadway appearance opposite John Gielgud in Ivanov. Leigh was preparing to star in the London production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance when she was found dead from tuberculosis in her London apartment in 1967. In tribute to the actress, the lights in London's theater district were blacked out for an hour.

Trivia: Although remembered today principally for his grandfatherly roles in some of Alexander Korda's best films of the 1930s, Morton Selten's career on stage went back to the 1870s, and encompassed dashing, heroic leading roles. Given the name Morton Richard Stubbs at birth, and claimed as the son of Morton Stubbs, Selten was actually an illegitimate son of the then 19-year-old Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII (1841-1910) of England -- this fact was an open secret among his acting colleagues of the 1930s and was related as recently as 1988 by filmmaker Michael Powell, who directed Selten in his final film appearance, in The Thief of Bagdad (1940). Selten began his theatrical career in 1878, at the age of 18, and quickly moved into leading roles. On stage primarily in America from the 1880s through 1920, he played such dashing parts as the glib-tongued villain Rupert of Hentzau in the theatrical version of Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda. By the teens, Selten -- then in his fifties -- had moved into character roles, and at the end of the 1920s was portraying such avuncular figures as Sir Francis Beekman in the stage version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. His last theater parts were in the mid-1930's, by which time he had already begun a screen career, playing character roles in movies such as The Shadow Between (1931) and Service for Ladies (1932). Selten played prominent parts in a variety of movies, including that of Sir Charles Clifford, the intended murder victim of Boris Karloff in the 1936 thriller Juggernaut. His most enduring roles, however, were those he played in movies produced by Alexander Korda, including Fire Over England (1936), in which he portrayed the historical figure of Lord Burleigh, the trusted confidante of Queen Elizabeth I; The Ghost Goes West, in which he played Robert Donat's elderly ghostly ancestor; The Divorce of Lady X, where he portrayed Lord Steele, the senior partner to Laurence Olivier's harried divorce lawyer; and The Thief of Bagdad (1940), the most often shown of all his movies, in which Selten played the King of the Land of Legend, before whom Sabu appears at the climax of the movie, and whose magic carpet provides the young hero with the means of thwarting the villain's plans. Selten's scenes in The Thief of Bagdad were among the earliest shot for the film, and the last work of his career, as he died in July of 1939, soon after the movie had started shooting. Selten is best remembered as an avuncular, belovedly reassuring presence in British films, who could command the screen even in the presence of more obviously extroverted actors. Indeed, he steals practically every scene in which he appears in Fire Over England from the likes of Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Flora Robson, and is a haunting and touching presence in The Thief of Bagdad.

Trivia: A gesticulating, barnstormer of the Old School, Welsh-born actor Lyn Harding had been a stage star for nearly forty years when he first stepped before a film camera in 1920. Harding's most memorable silent-film appearances was as King Henry VIII in the Marion Davies vehicle When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922). He is best known for his stage and film portrayals of perennial Sherlock Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarty. Lyn Harding remained in harness until 1942, essaying such scene-stealing roles as Bismarck in Sins of Napoleon (1936) and the title character's first headmaster in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).

Trivia: Professionally, British actor Robert Newton was two people: The wry, sensitive, often subtle performer seen in such plays as Noel Coward's Private Lives and such films as This Happy Breed (1944), and the eye-rolling, chop-licking ham in such roles as Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist (1948) and Long John Silver (arr! arr!) in Treasure Island (1950). Born into a gifted family -- his mother was a writer, his father and his siblings painters -- Newton made his professional debut when he was 15 with the British Repertory Company. Before he was 25, Newton had toured the world as an actor and stage manager, making his Broadway bow when he replaced Laurence Olivier in Private Lives. There was little of Olivier (except perhaps the older Olivier) in most of Newton's movie roles; despite his wide actor's range, he seemed happiest tearing a passion to tatters in such films as Jamaica Inn (1939), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) and The Beachcomber (1954). Ripe though his acting could be, it was clear Newton knew his audience. From 1947 through 1951 he was one of Britain's top ten moneymaking film stars, so who were the critics to tell him what to do? Newton's final film role was the dogged Inspector Fix in the blockbuster Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Less than one month after completing Around the World in 80 Days, Robert Newton died of a heart attack in the arms of his wife.

Trivia: Donald Calthrop came to acting as a birthright, descended as he was from 19th-century theatrical impresario Dion Boucicault. He made his theatrical debut in 1906 at age 18, and his screen debut in 1918. The gaunt, sharp-featured Calthrop, with his intense stare -- resembling his better-known younger contemporaries John Laurie and Duncan Macrae -- was most often cast as villains, and is probably best-remembered today for his sinister portrayals in Alfred Hitchcock's early work. He skulked his way through Blackmail (1929) as well as Hitchcock's non-thriller Juno and the Paycock (1930) and the suspense pieces Murder (1930) and Number Seventeen (1932), all of which are among the most widely seen of early British talkies, thanks to their director. Calthrop occasionally played sympathetic roles, such as Bob Crachit in the Seymour Hicks version of Scrooge (1935) -- which was heavily shown on public television and low-power television stations during the early 1980s -- and even comedic foils, as in the historical drama Fire Over England (1936). But he was more often seen as malevolent or disreputable characters, the latter most notably -- apart from the Hitchcock films -- in The Ghost Train (1931) and Rome Express (1932). The final decade of his personal and professional life was blighted by a tragic incident that took place during the shooting of the 1930 talkie Spanish Eyes. According to author Matthew Sweet in his 2006 book Shepperton Babylon, Calthrop had invited a young chorus girl named Nita Foy, who was also working on the film up to his dressing room for some brandy, and while there her costume caught fire. The young actress died, and the tragedy destroyed Calthrop's marriage, as well as turning the actor into a habitual alcoholic, which cost him a good deal of his career momentum. A decade later, he finally ascended to a movie role worthy of his talent with Gabriel Pascal's production of Major Barbara (1941), based on the George Bernard Shaw play. Calthrop was cast in the film as Peter Shirley, the angry, disillusioned fitter who has been forced out of his job because of his age, under doubly tragic circumstances (his age was revealed at the coroner's inquest for his daughter . . . ). The role allowed the actor some superb scenes with Robert Newton and Wendy Hiller, and he might well have gotten a new lease on life, at least professionally, from the acclaimed, prestigious production (and doubly so, as David Lean was actually responsible for a good deal of the direction credited to producer Pascal). Alas, Calthrop died of a heart attack very early in the production of the movie, in July of 1940 -- he had been deceased over a year at the time of Major Barbara's opening in the summer of 1941.

Trivia: A former civil engineer, Charles Carson established himself on the London stage of the 1920s as a superlative Shakespearean actor. In films from 1932, Carson seemed most at home in costume roles, appearing in such historical dramas as Fire Over England (1937), Victoria the Great (1937) and 60 Glorious Years (1939). He also flourished in contemporary roles such as "R" in Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), and on at least one occasion leaped some 100 years into the future, as the Great Grandfather in Things to Come (1936). During the war years, he directed at starred in ENSA productions on behalf of the British military troops, then settled into a long second career of playing distinguished elders. Charles Carson made his farewell film appearance in still another historical epic, Lady Caroline Lamb (1972).

Trivia: British character actor Francis de Wolff first appeared onscreen in the '30s.

Trivia: Even when he wasn't dressed in period costume or contemporary cutaway and ascot, British actor Lawrence Hanray exuded dignity and breeding. In films from 1932's Wedding Rehearsal, Hanray was especially busy in producer Alexander Korda's lavish historic dramas. He was seen as Archbishop Cranmer in Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and essayed equally prominent roles in Catherine the Great (1934), Rembrandt (1936), and several other Korda productions. Lawrence Hanray remained active well into the WW II years, when he was well into his seventies.

Trivia: After several years' worth of stage and film appearances in England, actress Evelyn Ankers came to Broadway in 1940 to appear in Ladies in Retirement. Besieged by offers from Hollywood, Evelyn chose to work at 20th Century-Fox, but production delays in her first American film led to her signing a contract with Universal Pictures. Despite her British upbringing, Evelyn was cast as the all-American heroine in her premiere Hollywood film, Abbott and Costello's Hold That Ghost (1941). With her co-starring stint in The Wolf Man (1941), Evelyn began her tenure as Universal's resident horror heroine, possessed of a blood-curdling scream. She also appeared in two Sherlock Holmes films, playing a villainess with a penchant for disguise in the second Holmes effort The Pearl of Death (1944). During the war years, the multilingual Ms. Ankers (who was born in Chile to British parents) starred in a radio program in Argentina. After her film career petered out, Evelyn appeared on several TV shows, most notably co-starring with Buster Keaton and Joe E. Brown in "The Silent Partner," a 1955 episode of Screen Director's Playhouse. Retired since the mid-1960s, Evelyn Ankers spent her last decades with her husband, actor and Lutheran lay minister Richard Denning, in their lavish home in Hawaii.

Trivia: The daughter of a retired sea captain, British actress Norma Varden was a piano prodigy. After study in Paris, she played concerts into her teens, but at last decided that this was be an uncertain method of making a living--so she went to the "security" of acting. In her first stage appearance in Peter Pan, Varden, not yet twenty, portrayed the adult role of Mrs. Darling, setting the standard for her subsequent stage and film work; too tall and mature-looking for ingenues, she would enjoy a long career in character roles. Bored with dramatic assignments, Varden gave comedy a try at the famous Aldwych Theatre, where from 1929 through 1933 she was resident character comedienne in the theatre's well-received marital farces. After her talkie debut in the Aldwych comedy A Night Like This (1930), she remained busy on the British film scene for over a decade. Moving to Hollywood in 1941, she found that the typecasting system frequently precluded large roles: Though she was well served as Robert Benchley's wife in The Major and the Minor (1942), for example, her next assignment was the unbilled role of a pickpocket victim's wife in Casablanca (1942). Her work encompassed radio as well as films for the rest of the decade; in nearly all her assignments Norma played a haughty British or New York aristocrat who looked down with disdain at the "commoners." By the '50s, she was enjoying such sizeable parts as the society lady who is nearly strangled by Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train (1951), the bejeweled wife of "sugar daddy" Charles Coburn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and George Sanders' dragonlike mother in Jupiter's Darling (1955). Norma Varden's greatest film role might have been as the mother superior in The Sound of Music (1965), but the producers decided to go with Peggy Wood, consigning Varden to the small but showy part of Frau Schmidt, the Von Trapps' housekeeper. After countless television and film assignments, Norma Varden retired in 1972, spending most of her time thereafter as a spokesperson for the Screen Actors Guild, battling for better medical benefits for older actors.