Passport to Pimlico

Stanley Holloway (Actor) .. Arthur Pemberton

Born: October 01, 1890
Died: January 30, 1982

Trivia: British entertainer Stanley Holloway tried to make a go of his first job as a clerk in a Billingsgate fish market, but the call of the theatre was loud and strong. Originally planning an operatic career, Holloway studied singing in Milan, but this came to an end when World War One began. Finishing up his service with the infantry, Holloway headed for the stage again, making his London premiere in 1919's Kissing Time. His first film was The Rotters (1921), and the first time the public outside the theatres heard his robust voice was on radio in 1923. Holloway toured the music hall-revue circuit with his comic monologues, usually centered around his self-invented characters "Sam Small" and "The Ramsbottoms." Holloway's entree into talking pictures was with a 1930 film version of his stage success, The Co-Optimist. The British film industry of the '30s was more concerned in turning out "quota quickies" so that Hollywood would send over an equal number of American films, but Holloway was able to survive in these cheap pictures, occasionally rising to the heights of such productions as Squibs (1935) and The Vicar of Bray (1937). In 1941, Holloway was cast in one of the prestige films of the season, George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara; this led to top-drawer film appearances throughout the war years, notably This Happy Breed (1944), The Way to the Stars (1945) and Brief Encounter (1947). Though he'd had minimal Shakespearian experience, Holloway was selected by Laurence Olivier to play the Gravedigger in Olivier's filmization of Hamlet (1947), a role he'd forever be associated with and one he'd gently parody in 1969's Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Gaining an American audience through repeated showings of his films on early-'50s TV, Holloway took New York by storm as Alfred P. Doolittle in the stage smash My Fair Lady - a role he'd repeat in the 1964 film version (after James Cagney had turned it down), and win an Oscar in the bargain. Continuing his activities in all aspects of British show business -- including a 1960 one-man show, Laughs and Other Events -- Holloway decided he'd take a whack at American TV as the butler protagonist of the 1962 sitcom Our Man Higgins. It's difficult to ascertain the quality of this series, since it had the miserable luck of being scheduled opposite the ratings-grabbing Beverly Hillbillies. Stanley Holloway perservered with stage, movie, and TV appearances into the '70s; in honor of one of his two My Fair Lady songs, he titled his 1981 autobiography Wiv a Little Bit of Luck.

Paul Dupuis (Actor) .. Duke of Burgundy

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1976

Barbara Murray (Actor) .. Shirley Pemberton

Born: September 27, 1929

Trivia: A London stage veteran at 19, British actress Barbara Murray launched her film career with 1948's Anna Karenina. Murray flourished in movies for nearly three decades, starring or costarring in such productions as Passport to Pimlico (1948), Another Man's Poison (1951) (which top-billed Bette Davis and Gary Merrill), Meet Mr. Lucifer (1954) and Tales from the Crypt (1972). On television, Ms. Murray was a regular on the British series Power Game, which ran from 1966 to 1968. American audiences saw Barbara Murray as star of The Bretts, an eight-part saga of the London theatre world of the '20s which ran as the first offering of Masterpiece Theatre's 1987-88 season.

Margaret Rutherford (Actor) .. Professor Hatton-Jones

Born: May 11, 1892
Died: May 22, 1972
Birthplace: Balham, London, England

Trivia: Rutherford was a bulky, eccentric comedic supporting player of British films and plays. Following a number of years spent as a speech and piano teacher, she trained at the Old Vic and debuted onstage in 1925, when she was in her 30s; it was 1933 before she appeared in London. Rutherford began appearing in films in 1936 and went on to have a sporadically busy screen career through the late '60s, meanwhile continuing her illustrious stage career. She is best remembered as Miss Marple, the little old lady detective of Agatha Christie novels, in four films made in the '60s. For her work in The V.I.P.s (1963) she won a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar. In 1967 Rutherford became a Dame of the British Empire. She was married to actor Stringer Davis, with whom she appeared in several films; one of their children was writer Gordon Langley Hall, who underwent a sex-change operation in 1968 and later wrote a biography of Rutherford under the name "Dawn Langley Hall." She wrote an autobiography, Margaret Rutherford (1972).

Hermione Baddeley (Actor) .. Eddie Randall

Born: November 13, 1906
Died: August 19, 1986
Birthplace: Broseley, Shropshire, England

Trivia: A descendant of British revolutionary war officer Henry Clinton, Hermione Baddeley was an actress from the age of six; she made her London stage debut in 1918, and her first film, A Daughter in Revolt, in 1926. An ingenue for many years, Hermione began receiving more substantial roles as she approached middle age; among her best assignments were the stage and film versions of Brighton Rock. Her first Broadway play was 1960's The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More, accepting her leading role on the personal invitation of the production's playwright, Tennessee Williams. Unlike her sister Angela Baddeley, who became internationally known for her portrayal of Mrs. Bridges in the BBC TV production Upstairs Downstairs, Hermione Baddeley resisted series television--at least until she was persuaded by producer Norman Lear to tackle the role of acidulous housekeeper Mrs. Naugatuck on the 1970s American sitcom Maude.

Basil Radford (Actor) .. Gregg

Born: June 25, 1897
Died: October 20, 1952

Trivia: Actor Basil Radford was on the British stage from 1922 in twittish, tweedy comedy roles. His first film appearance was in 1929's Barnum Was Right. International fame came Radford's way when he and Naunton Wayne originated the roles of cricket-obsessed Charters and Caldicott in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). Radford and Wayne continued to play these roles (or facsimiles thereof) in such films as Night Train (1940), Crooks Tour (1941), Next of Kin (1942), Millions Like Us (1945), and Dead of Night (1945). They were supposed to revive Charters and Caldicott once more for Sir Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), but their roles were streamlined into a solo part for Wilfred Hyde-White. The best of Radford's later roles included the blindsided British bureaucrat in Tight Little Island (1948). Basil Radford died of a heart attack at age 55, shortly after co-starring in White Corridors (1951).

Naunton Wayne (Actor) .. Straker

Born: June 22, 1901
Died: November 17, 1970

Trivia: On stage from 1920, Welsh actor Naunton Wayne made his film bow in 1931. Wayne was catapulted to worldwide fame in 1937, when he and Basil Radford were teamed as cricket-happy British tourists Charters and Caldicott (Wayne was Caldicott) in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. The two actors would continue to essay these roles, or reasonable facsimiles, in such films as Night Train (1939), Crook's Tour (1941) and Dead of Night (1948). Wayne was also seen in such popular Ealing comedies as Passport to Pimlico (1949) and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953). Still essaying light comedy role into his sixties, Naunton Wayne made his last screen appearance in 1964's Double Bunk.

Jane Hylton (Actor) .. Molly

Born: July 16, 1927
Died: February 28, 1979
Birthplace: London

Trivia: Her early career studio-guided by the Rank Organisation's charm school, British actress Jane Hylton graduated from her "ingenue" period early on. Discounting inconsequential roles in such programmers as Girl in a Million (1947) and Here Come the Huggetts (1949), Hylton distinguished herself with excellent performances in Passport to Pimlico (1950), Dance Hall (1950), It Started in Paradise (1952) and The Weak and the Wicked (1953). But Jane's suffering screen character began to wear on '50s audiences who wanted light entertainment, thus by 1956 she was available to play Queen Guinevere on the popular TV series Sir Lancelot. Jane Hylton's final film appearances were in such '70s productions as The Wild Geese (1978).

Raymond Huntley (Actor) .. Mr. Wix

Born: April 23, 1904
Died: October 19, 1990
Birthplace: Birmingham, Warwickshire

Trivia: Actor Raymond Huntley made his first professional appearance with the Birmingham Repertory at age 18. In 1927, Huntley played the title character in the original London production of Dracula; he tested for the film version, but lost out to Bela Lugosi. Top-billed in his stage efforts, Huntley's film career was largely limited to supporting roles. He played many a Nazi and/or fascist during the war years, then portrayed an abundance of condescending officials, brusque business executives and club-car boors. On television, Raymond Huntley gained worldwide fame as lawyer Geoffrey Dillon on Upstairs Downstairs; he was also featured as Emmanuel Holroyd in the 1973 British TV comedy series That's Your Funeral.

Betty Warren (Actor) .. Connie Pemberton

Born: January 01, 1906
Died: January 01, 1990

John Slater (Actor) .. Frank Huggins

Born: August 22, 1916
Died: January 09, 1975

Trivia: Cockney character actor John Slater entered films in 1941, remaining active until his death 34 years later, despite such setbacks as a life-threatening auto accident in 1946 and sporadic bouts of ill health. He could usually be seen as military officers, constables, and doctors. His voice was familiar to millions of moviegoers via his narration duties in the Mining Review documentary series. John Slater's later credits included a lengthy run as Sgt. Stone on the enormously popular TV weekly Z Cars.

Frederick Piper (Actor) .. Garland

Born: January 01, 1902
Died: January 01, 1979

Sydney Tafler (Actor) .. Fred Cowan

Born: January 01, 1916
Died: November 08, 1979

Trivia: A handy man to have around in a crime film, British actor Sydney Tafler specialized in tough gang-member and tipster types in the '50s. On stage from 1936 and in films from 1942 (The Young Mr. Pitt), Tafler's busiest screen years were 1949 through 1960, when virtually every other British film took place at night on a seedy, rainswept side street. The actor smoked cigarettes and talked from the side of his mouth through in such films as Passport to Pimlico (1949), Mystery Junction (1951) and The Saint's Girl Friday (1954), enjoying the occasional larger, subtler role in films like Carve Her Name with Pride (1955). In 1969 Tafler was still menacing any and all by saying nary a word in the filmization of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party (1969). Sydney Tafler's final film role was in a captain's uniform (could it have been a disguise to elude the coppers?) in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Charles Hawtrey (Actor) .. Bert Fitch

Born: November 30, 1914
Died: October 27, 1988

Trivia: Birdlike, bespectacled British comic actor Charles Hawtrey was the son of a knighted theatrical star of the same name. On stage from age seven, Hawtrey earned his keep as a popular boy soprano on radio and in music halls. In the 1930s, Hawtrey frequently appeared in the films of Will Hay, playing one of the professorial Hay's cheekier students. Also during that decade, Hawtrey starred as radio's "boy detective" Norman Bones. From 1958 through 1972, Hawtrey was a mainstay of the hilarious "Carry On" film series. Charles Hawtrey left the "Carry On" series after a well-publicized argument about billing. Hawtrey died at the age of 74.

James Hayter (Actor) .. Commissionaire

Born: April 23, 1907
Died: March 27, 1983

Trivia: Cherubic India-born actor James Hayter looked like a Dickens character come to life. Accordingly, his best-loved role was as Mr. Pickwick in the 1954 movie version of The Pickwick Papers. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Hayter made his earliest stage appearances in the late 1920s; his first film was the 1936 British effort Sensation. Hayter was one of the busiest character actors in the English film industry -- a result, perhaps, of the fact that he had seven children to support. In addition to his perfect Mr. Pickwick, James Hayter was a memorable Friar Tuck in the 1952 Disney production The Story of Robin Hood.

Philip Stainton (Actor) .. P.C. Spiller

Born: January 01, 1907
Died: January 01, 1961

Stuart Lindsell (Actor) .. Coroner

Born: July 18, 1892

Michael Hordern (Actor) .. Inspector Bashford

Born: October 03, 1911
Died: May 03, 1995

Trivia: A graduate of Britain's Brighton College, Michael Hordern entered the workaday world as a schoolteacher. Engaging in amateur theatricals in his off-hours, Hordern turned pro in 1937, making his film debut two years later. After serving in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1945, Hordern returned to show business, matriculating into one of England's most delightful and prolific character actors. His extensive stage work included two Shakespearean roles that may as well have been for him: King Lear and The Tempest's Prospero. In films, Hordern appeared as Marley's Ghost in the 1951 Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol (1951), Demosthenes in Alexander the Great (1956), Cicero in Cleopatra (1963), Baptista in Zeffirelli's Taming of the Shrew (1967), Thomas Boleyn in Anne of a Thousand Days (1968), and Brownlow in the 1982 TV adaptation of Oliver Twist. Other significant movie credits include the lascivious Senex (he's the one who introduces the song "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid") in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), a pathetic Kim Philby type in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1967), theatre critic George Maxwell (who has his heart cut out by looney actor Vincent Price) in Theatre of Blood (1973), and what many consider his finest film assignment, the dissipated, disillusioned journalist in England Made Me (1983). He also served as offscreen narrator for Barry Lyndon (1976) and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). Michael Hordern was knighted in 1983, and a decade later published his autobiography, A World Elsewhere.

Arthur Howard (Actor) .. Bassett

Born: January 18, 1910

Trivia: The younger brother of stage and film star Leslie Howard, Arthur Howard began his own screen career in 1947. Never as big a name as his brother, Howard was generally seen in minor roles as clerks, schoolmasters, and the like. Undoubtedly his best film opportunity was as Arthur Ramsden in the droll Ealing comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950). He also enjoyed a measure of fame as fussy Professor Pettigrew on the BBC radio and TV comedy series Whack-O. Arthur Howard continued popping up in fleeting cameos in films like Another Country (1984) until the early '90s.

Bill Shine (Actor) .. Captain

Born: October 20, 1911
Died: July 01, 1997

Trivia: The son of British stage actor Willard Shine, Bill Shine first trod the boards at age six, playing the Stork in the pantomime Princess Posey. At fifteen, Shine made his first London stage appearance, and at eighteen was seen in the first of many films, Under the Greenwood Tree. Most often cast as an upper-class twit, Shine has also shown up in many a one-scene movie assignment as various reporters, commissioners, ticket sellers and executives. While seldom rising above the featured cast in films, Bill Shine achieved star status in the role of Conn in the 1950 production The Shaugran.

Harry Locke (Actor) .. Sergeant

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1987

Trivia: In British films from the early 1940s, Harry Locke was a dependable character actor specializing in small "service" roles. Locke was most often seen playing porters, cabbies and desk clerks. His better known films include Piccadilly Incident (1944), Treasure Island (1950), Doctor in the House (1955), All at Sea (1957) and Man in the Cocked Hat (1959). Many of Harry Locke's last appearances were in such British horror flicks as Tales from the Crypt (1973) and The Creeping Flesh (1973).

Sam Kydd (Actor) .. Sapper

Born: February 15, 1915
Died: March 26, 1982

Trivia: Angular Irish-born character comedian Sam Kydd was a fixture in British film from his first role, The Captive Heart (1945), onward. Born in Belfast, Kydd emigrated to London with his parents and was educated at Dunstable Grammar. He fought in World War II, was captured in Calais and remained a POW in Poland until 1946. (He later wrote a book about his war experiences entitled For You the War is Over. By his own reckoning he went on to appear in some 150 films, and one is hard pressed to argue with that. Some of his roles were small to microscopic, but it was hard to miss Kydd's skinny frame and dagger-sharp facial features. Among Sam Kydd's film credits were Treasure Island (1950) (as Cady, the pirate), The Quatermass Experiment (1955) and I'm All Right Jack (1959).

Fred Griffiths (Actor) .. Spiv

Born: March 12, 1912
Died: August 27, 1994

Grace Arnold (Actor) .. Woman in Underground

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: January 01, 1979

E.V.M. Emmett (Actor) .. Newsreel Commentator

Roy Carr (Actor) .. Benny Spiller

Nancy Gabrielle (Actor) .. Mrs. Cowan

Gilbert Davis (Actor) .. Bagshawe

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: January 01, 1983

Joey Carr (Actor) .. Dave Parsons

Lloyd Pearson (Actor) .. Fawcett

Born: January 01, 1896
Died: January 01, 1966

Arthur Denton (Actor) .. Customs Official

Tommy Godfrey (Actor) .. Bus Conductor

Born: June 20, 1916

Masoni (Actor) .. Conjurer

Paul Demel (Actor) .. Central European

Michael Knight (Actor) .. Monty Cowan

Roy Gladdish (Actor) .. Charlie Randall

Bernard Farrel (Actor)

Born: June 22, 1926

Michael Craig (Actor)

Born: January 27, 1928

Trivia: Born in India to a British military officer, Michael Craig was in his teens when he entered films in 1949 as an extra, or, as Leslie Halliwell so euphemistically put it, a "crowd artist." That same year, Craig made his inaugural stage appearance in The Merchant of Venice. Groomed for stardom by the Rank Organisation, he began receiving speaking parts in 1954. On the whole, his stage work, which consisted largely of Shakespeare, was more rewarding than his film efforts. As leading man in such films as Upstairs and Downstairs (1959) and Mysterious Island (1961), Craig was required to do little more beyond looking handsome and dependable. One of his few movie roles of substance was in The Angry Silence (1960), which he co-wrote (he would later contribute to the script of 1981's The Killing of Angel Street). Michael Craig was seen to better advantage in later years as a character actor.

Henry Cornelius (Actor)

Born: August 18, 1913
Died: January 01, 1958

Trivia: South African-born director Henry Cornelius began his career working in Berlin as an actor and stage director. After the Nazi occupation of Berlin in 1933, Cornelius fled to France and became a student at the Sorbonne. During his time as a student he became an assistant editor, and in 1935 he traveled to England with Rene Clair to film Clair's The Ghost Goes West. He was subsequently promoted to full film editor. Returning to his birthplace of South Africa during the war years, Cornelius wrote documentaries and worked as a produced and director there. After the war he traveled to England and worked as an associate producer and screenwriter, becoming a full-time director after 1949 and making two of British comedies: Passport to Pimlico and Genevieve.

Georges Auric (Actor)

Born: February 15, 1899
Died: July 23, 1983

Trivia: As with many of the best film music composers, Georges Auric was a child prodigy. At 15, the French-born Auric published his first compositions, and before he was 20 he had orchestrated and written incidental music for several ballets and stage productions. Considered "avant garde" in the days before atonality became commonplace, Auric was a favorite of such progressive filmmakers as Rene Clair and Jean Cocteau. It was for Cocteau's 1930 film Blood of a Poet that Auric wrote his first film score; his next assignment was Clair's A Nous a Liberte (1931), in which characters unexpectedly break into song at the drop of a chapeau. After the war, Auric wrote extensively for the British film industry, contributing scores to such films as Dead of Night (1945), Caesar and Cleopatra (1946) and Passport to Pimlico (1949). The music for these productions was as distinctly British as Auric's music for Les Parents Terribles (1949) and Orphee (1949) was unmistakably French. Auric's American films include Roman Holiday (1953), Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958) and The Innocents (1961). A few times, Auric found his work on the hit parade, as in the case of his love theme for Moulin Rouge (1952). Auric curtailed his cinema activities after 1962, when he was named director of the Paris Opera, though he kept his hand in the film business until 1969. While Georges Auric never won an Oscar, his work was cited several times by the Cannes Film Festival.

Michael Balcon (Actor)

Born: May 19, 1896
Died: October 16, 1977

Trivia: Sir Michael Balcon was one of Great Britain's most illustrious film producers. He began his cinematic career in 1919 working as a regional distributor and produced his first film, Woman to Woman, in 1923. Balcon assigned young Alfred Hitchcock to serve as his art director, screenwriter, and assistant director; Sir Balcon also gave Hitchcock his first job as a director. In 1928, the producer founded Gainsborough Pictures. Three years later, he was appointed director of production for Gaumont-British, and three years after that, he began working for MGM-British. While doing all this, Balcon also produced several important British films, including the early works of Hitchcock. From the late thirties to the late fifties, he worked as director and chief of production for Ealing Studios where he produced the infamous Ealing comedies. He formed Bryanston Films in 1959, and later during a notorious battle for control took over British Lion studios. In 1948, Balcon was knighted. Twenty years later his autobiography A Lifetime of Films was published.

T.E.B. Clarke (Actor)

Born: June 07, 1907
Died: February 11, 1989

Trivia: Known to friends and co-workers as "Tibby," British screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke briefly pursued careers in advertising and journalism after graduating from Cambridge. Clarke also worked as a London police offer, a wide-ranging experience that would ever after serve as grist for his creative mill. Though he authored fifteen novels, a stage play, and several dramatic screenplays, Clarke is best remembered for his droll, lightly satirical scripts for the Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s. He was honored with an Academy Award for The Lavender Hill Mob, which hopefully compensated for the mere 1500 pounds (approximately $4000) that Ealing paid him. In 1974, T.E.B. Clarke penned his autobiography, This is Where I Came In.

E.V.H. Emmett (Actor)

Stephen Dalby (Actor)

Gordon Stone (Actor)

Malcolm Knight (Actor) .. Monty Cowan

Doris Yorke (Actor)