Trivia: Certainly one of the most distinctive looking men ever to be granted the title of movie star, Donald Sutherland is an actor defined as much by his almost caricature-like features as his considerable talent. Tall, lanky and bearing perhaps the most enjoyably sinister face this side of Vincent Price, Sutherland made a name for himself in some of the most influential films of the 1970s and early '80s.A native of Canada, Sutherland was born in New Brunswick on July 17, 1935. Raised in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, he took an early interest in the entertainment industry, becoming a radio DJ by the time he was fourteen. While an engineering student at the University of Toronto, he discovered his love for acting and duly decided to pursue theatrical training. An attempt to enroll at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art was thwarted, however, because of his size (6'4") and idiosyncratic looks. Not one to give up, Sutherland began doing British repertory theatre and getting acting stints on television series like The Saint. In 1964 the actor got his first big break, making his screen debut in the Italian horror film Il Castello dei Morti Vivi (The Castle of the Living Dead). His dual role as a young soldier and an old hag was enough to convince various casting directors of a certain kind of versatility, and Sutherland was soon appearing in a number of remarkably schlocky films, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and Die! Die! Darling! (both 1965). A move into more respectable fare came in 1967, when Robert Aldrich cast him as a retarded killer in the highly successful The Dirty Dozen. By the early '70s, Sutherland had become something of a bonafide star, thanks to lead roles in films like Start the Revolution without Me and Robert Altman's MASH (both 1970). It was his role as Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the latter film that gave the actor particular respect and credibility, and the following year he enhanced his reputation with a portrayal of the titular private detective in Alan J. Pakula's Klute.It was during this period that Sutherland became something of an idol for a younger, counter culture audience, due to both the kind of roles he took and his own anti-war stance. Offscreen, he spent a great deal of time protesting the Vietnam War, and, with the participation of fellow protestor and Klute co-star Jane Fonda, made the anti-war documentary F.T.A. in 1972. He also continued his mainstream Hollywood work, enjoying success with films like Don't Look Now (1973), The Day of the Locust (1975), and Fellini's Casanova (1976). In 1978, he won a permanent place in the hearts and minds of slackers everywhere with his portrayal of a pot-smoking, metaphysics-spouting college professor in National Lampoon's Animal House.After a starring role in the critically acclaimed Ordinary People (1980), Sutherland entered a relatively unremarkable phase of his career, appearing in one forgettable film after another. This phase continued for much of the decade, and didn't begin to change until 1989, when the actor won raves for his starring role in A Dry White Season and his title role in Bethune: The Making of a Hero. He spent the 1990s doing steady work in films of widely varying quality, appearing as the informant who cried conspiracy in JFK (1991), a Van Helsing-type figure in Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992), a wealthy New Yorker who gets taken in by con artist Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), and a general in the virus thriller Outbreak (1995). In 1998, the actor did some of his best work in years (in addition to the made-for-TV Citizen X (1995), for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe) when he starred as a track coach in Without Limits, Robert Towne's biopic of runner Steve Prefontaine. In 2000, Sutherland enjoyed further critical and commerical success with Space Cowboys, an adventure drama that teamed the actor alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood, and James Garner as geriatric astronauts who get another chance to blast into orbit.Sutherland didn't pause as the new millennium began, continuing to contribute to several projects a year. He won a Golden Globe for his performance in the 2003 Vietnam era HBO film Path to War, and over the next few years appeared in high-profile films such as The Italian Job, Cold Mountain, and Pride and Prejudice, while continuing to spend time on smaller projects, like 2005's Aurora Borealis. The next year, Sutherland appeared with Mira Sorvino in the TV movie Human Trafficking, which tackled the frightening subject matter of modern day sexual slave trade. He also joined the cast of the new ABC series Commander in Chief, starring Geena Davis as the American vice president who assumes the role of commander in chief when the president dies. Sutherland's role as one of the old boys who is none too pleased to see a woman in the Oval Office earned him a Golden Globe nomination in 2006, as did his performance in Human Trafficking. In 2006, Sutherland worked with Collin Farrell and Salma Hayek in one of screenwriter Robert Towne's rare ventures into film direction with Ask the Dust. Sutherland has also earned a different sort of recognition for his real-life role as the father of actor and sometimes tabloid fodder Kiefer Sutherland. The elder Sutherland named his son after producer Warren Kiefer, who gave him his first big break by casting him in Il Castello dei Morti Vivi. In 2009 he voiced the part of President Stone in the film Astro Boy, an adventure comedy for children. Sutherland played a supporting role in the action thriller The Mechanic (2011), and joined the cast of The Hunger Games in the role of the coldhearted President Stone.

Trivia: Three-time Tony Award nominee Kate Nelligan has pursued a successful acting career in three separate English-speaking nations. While attending the University of Toronto, the Canadian-born Nelligan transferred to London, England's Central School of Speech and Drama. It was in Bristol that she first appeared on stage professionally with the Old Vic in 1973; one year later, she returned to London for her stage bow there. In 1975, Nelligan made her screen debut in The Romantic Englishwoman, but most American filmgoers saw her first as Lucy in the Frank Langella version of Dracula (1979). Several appearances in British made-for-TV movies followed in the early 1980s; most of these popped up on US TV screens courtesy of the burgeoning Arts & Entertainment cable network. In 1980 she made her first Canadian film, Mr. Patman. Kate Nelligan's most recent movie appearances have been in such American projects as Frankie and Johnny (1990), The Prince of Tides (1991), and Shadows and Fog (1992).

Trivia: A respected character actor and occasional leading man of the stage, screen, and television, Scottish-born Ian Bannen acted in over 80 productions during his long career. Shortly after enrolling at Ratcliffe College, Bannen, who was born in Airdrie, Scotland, on June 29, 1918, made his first stage appearance at Dublin's Gate Theatre. A year after making his 1955 London theatrical debut, he entered films with A Private's Progress and Battle Hell. A prolific stage actor (with a special fondness for the works of Eugene O'Neill), Bannen nonetheless found time for quite a few impressive film characterizations. One of these, the cynical Crow in Flight of the Phoenix (1965), earned him an Academy Award nomination. His later screen assignments ranged from a cameo as a policeman in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) to the irascible Grandfather George in John Boorman's Hope and Glory (1987) to a turn as Robert the Bruce's leprous father in Braveheart (1995). It was with the 1998 comedy Waking Ned Devine that Bannen earned some of his best notices, playing a loveably crafty Irishman. Sadly, Bannen's life was cut short the following year, as he died in an auto accident on November 3, 1999, near Loch Ness, Scotland. He was survived by his wife of 23 years, as well as a rich theatrical legacy that stretched over almost half a century.

Trivia: Made his UK television debut in 1976's A Horseman Riding By. Appeared as Eddie Vincent in Casualty between 2002 and 2003. Starred in Waterloo Road between 2006 and 2014, making him the longest-serving cast member. Nominated for the 2010 Best Actor TV Choice Award, winning it three years in a row. Joined the cast of Coronation Street in 2015, as Steve McDonald's therapist.

Trivia: Well-bred and educated (Eton and Oxford), British stage actor Christopher Cazenove began his movie career with a small part in Julius Caesar (1970). Throughout the 1970s, Cazenove perfected his screen persona as the international charmer with a dark past. After his Broadway bow in 1980's Goodbye Fidel, Cazenove appeared with increasing frequency in American films, notably Eye of the Needle (1981), Mata Hari (1985) and Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), typecast in the latter as a landed-gentry British cad. The actor's television work has included a stint as Jaclyn Smith's enigmatic French lover in the 1988 two-part TV movie Sidney Sheldon's Windmills of the Gods. In 1989, Christopher Cazenove starred as a snide travel-show host on the short-lived "screwball" TV sitcom A Fine Romance.

Trivia: The daughter of distinguished British leading actor Clive Brook, actress Faith Brook was in the family business on stage in her teens. Her first film appearance was in 1942's The Jungle Book, filmed in Hollywood by the British-based Korda production company. She continued appearing in such 1950s films as Chase a Crooked Shadow (1957) and The 39 Steps (1959) (not the Hitchcock classic, but a lukewarm remake), and in such 1960s productions as To Sir with Love (1968). Along with her actor-brother Lyndon Brook, Faith Brook was also active on British television.

Trivia: British supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Bennett, a British character actor, has been onscreen from 1960.

Trivia: An alumnus of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, British comic actor Bill Fraser briefly managed his own company in the late 1930s. During the war, Fraser produced several popular service shows utilizing uniformed talent. His movie career was concentrated in comedy cameos in such films as The Captain's Paradise (1951), Tonight at 8:30 (1952), Orders are Orders (1955) and The Americanization of Emily (1964). Bill Fraser's film roles increased in size after he gained fame as the title character in the British television series Smudge; he also made TV appearances on Rumpole of the Bailey, and in the Katharine Hepburn remake of The Corn is Green (1979).

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).

Trivia: Fans of the environmentally conscious British television drama Doomwatch will remember John Paul for playing Dr. Spencer Quist during the early '70s. Paul also made a number of feature films, beginning with The Flesh Is Weak (1957). Before and after his series, he periodically guest starred on other British series, including The Saint, The Avengers, and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.

Trivia: Comedian-actor, onscreen from the '80s. He starred in the British TV comedy The Young Ones, guest-starred on Black Adder and played the title character in the 1991 cult-film Drop Dead Fred. Mayall died in 2014 at age 56.

Trivia: Ellis Dale is a British character actor who has occasionally appeared in films from the late '60s through the mid-'80s.

Trivia: BAFTA-winning veteran actor Bill Nighy gained international recognition in 2003 thanks to his role as a Keith Richards-esque former rock star in the hit romantic comedy Love Actually. Nighy had remained a relatively obscure figure even in his native England until a memorable turn as a controversial politician in series three of the acclaimed television comedy drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet found him finally thrust into the spotlight in 2002. A Caterham, Surrey native, Nighy excelled in English language and literature early on; however, even though his journalistic instincts were strong, his lack of education prevented him from a career in the media. Work as a bike messenger for Field Magazine helped the aspiring writer keep his toes in the business, and a suggestion by his girlfriend that Nighy try his hand at acting eventually prompted him to enroll in the Guildford School of Dance and Drama. As the gears began to turn and his career as an actor started to gain momentum, Nighy was encouraged to stick with the craft after landing a series of small roles. Though British television provided Nighy with most of his early exposure, supporting roles in such features as Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) and The Phantom of the Opera (1989) found the actor honing his skills and laying the groundwork for future feature success. Though Nighy stuck almost exclusively to the small screen in the early '90s, his supporting role in the 1993 Robin Williams film Being Human seemed to mark the beginning of a new stage in his career, focusing mainly on features. A part in the 1997 film Fairy Tale: A True Story found Nighy climbing the credits, and the following year he joined an impressive cast including Timothy Spall, Stephen Rea, and Billy Connolly in the rock comedy Still Crazy. It was his role in Still Crazy that gained Nighy his widest recognition to date -- earning the up-and-coming actor the Peter Sellers Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy Performance. Nighy's role as a conflicted husband who embarks on a heated extramarital affair in 2001's Lawless Heart continued his impressive career trajectory, and later that same year he would land a role in The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo's jailbreak comedy Lucky Break. A role in the long-running U.K. television series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet finally found Nighy earning some deserved recognition in 2002, and after a winning performance as the patriarch of an eccentric family in I Capture the Castle (2003), he continued to earned even more accolades for his performance in Love Actually. His part as an ancient vampire in the gothic action horror hit Underworld found Nighy's recognition factor rising for mainstream audiences on the other side of the pond, and before jetting into the future with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 2005, the increasingly busy actor would appear in three feature films in 2004, including the horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, Doogal, and Enduring Love. By the time Nighy received an Emmy nomination for his role as a loved-starved civil servant falling for an enigmatic younger woman in the 2005 made-for-television romantic comedy-drama The Girl in the Café, television fans in both the U.S. and the U.K. knew well of Nighy's impressive range as an actor. Yet another small-screen role in that same year's Gideon's Daughter allowed Nighy a chance to play a serious role once again. Playing a burned-out PR agent who is forced to reevaluate his life when his adult daughter threatens to cease all contact with him, Nighy gave a performance that moved critics and audiences alike, later earning him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie. Soon the actor was venturing into lands of fantasy once again, however, reprising his role as Viktor in Underworld: Evolution, and taking to the high seas as the legendary squid-faced sailor Davy Jones (captain of the Flying Dutchman) in director Gore Verbinski's big-budget summer extravaganza Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. That film, of course, became a predictable sensation (it grossed over one billion dollars worldwide) and (more than any of Nighy's prior efforts) launched the British actor into the public spotlight for audiences of all ages, who were understandably impressed with the presence he was able to exude onscreen despite the layers of makeup and CG it took to make him into a squid-man.Nighy stayed the course of big-budget fantasy, with a turn as Alan Blunt in that same year's Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, then signed on for another turn as Davy Jones in 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, co-starring this time with the inspiration for some of his previous characters, Keith Richards. Nighy would spend the next several years appearing in such acclaimed films as Valkyrie, Pirate Radio, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.Nighy has maintained a life partnership with veteran British stage and screen actress Diana Quick since 1981. Though the two don't subscribe to the legal institution of marriage (much like long-standing Hollywood couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon), Nighy has been known to refer to Quick as his wife simply to avoid confusion. The couple's daughter, Mary Nighy, was born in 1984 and is also an actress.