Trivia: One of the screen's most grizzled actors, Jack Palance defined true grit for many a filmgoer. The son of a Ukrainian immigrant coal miner, he was born Volodymyr Palahnyuk (Anglicized as Walter Jack Palaniuk) on February 18, 1920, in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania. As a young man, Palance supported himself with stints as a miner, professional boxer, short-order cook, fashion model, lifeguard, and radio repairman. During WWII service, he enlisted in the AAC and piloted bombers, one of which crashed, knocking him unconscious in the process. The severe burns he received led to extensive facial surgery, resulting in his gaunt, pinched face and, ironically, paving the way for stardom as a character actor. Palance attended the University of North Carolina and Stanford University on the G.I. Bill and considered a career in journalism, but drifted into acting because of the comparatively higher wages. Extensive stage work followed, including a turn as the understudy to Anthony Quinn (as Stanley Kowalski in the touring production of A Streetcar Named Desire) and the portrayal of Kowalski on the Broadway stage, after Marlon Brando left that production. Palance debuted on film in Elia Kazan's 1950 Panic in the Streets, as a sociopathic plague host opposite Richard Widmark. He landed equally sinister and villainous roles for the next few years, including Jack the Ripper in Man in the Attic (1953), Simon the Magician (a sorcerer who goes head to head with Jesus) in The Silver Chalice (1954), and Atilla the Hun in Sign of the Pagan (1954). Palance received Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for his performances in both Sudden Fear (1952) and Shane (1953). Beginning in the late '50s, Palance temporarily moved across the Atlantic and appeared in numerous European pictures, with Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 Le Mépris/Contempt a particular highlight. Additional big-screen roles throughout the '60s and '70s included that of Ronald Wyatt in Freddie Francis's horror episode film The Torture Garden (1967), the monastic sadist Brother Antonin in Jesús Franco's Justine (1969), Fidel Castro in Che! (1969), Chet Rollins in William A. Fraker's Western Monte Walsh (1970), Quincey Whitmore in the 1971 Charles Bronson-starrer Chato's Land, and Jim Buck in Portrait of a Hitman (1977). Unfortunately, by the '80s, Palance largely disappeared from the cinematic forefront, his career limited to B- and C-grade schlock. He nonetheless rebounded by the late '80s, thanks in no small part to the German director Percy Adlon, who cast him as a love-struck painter with a yen for Marianne Sägebrecht in his arthouse hit Bagdad Cafe (1987). Turns in Young Guns (1988) and 1989's Batman (as the aptly named Carl Grissom) followed. In 1991, Palance was introduced to a new generation of viewers with his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning performance in Ron Underwood's City Slickers. The turn marked something of a wish-fulfillment for the steel-tough actor, who had spent years believing, in vain, that he would be best suited for comedy. These dreams were soon realized for a lengthy period, as the film's triumph yielded a series of additional comic turns for Palance on television programs and commercials.Accepting his Best Supporting Actor award at the 1992 Academy Awards ceremony, Palance won a permanent place in Oscar history when he decided to demonstrate that he was, in fact, still a man of considerable vitality by doing a series of one-handed push-ups on stage. He reprised his role in the film's 1994 sequel, City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.Over the years, Palance also starred in the TV series The Greatest Show on Earth (ABC, 1963-4), as a hard-living circus boss, and Bronk (CBS, 1975-6) as a pipe-smoking police lieutenant, as well as in numerous TV dramas, notably Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956). From 1982-1986, he hosted the ABC revival of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. He also established himself as an author in the late '90s, by publishing the 1996 prose-poem Forest of Love. Accompanying the work were Palance's pen-and-ink drawings, inspired by his Pennysylvania farm; he revealed, at the time, that he had been painting and sketching in his off-camera time for over 40 years. After scattered work throughout the '90s and 2000s, Jack Palance died on November 10, 2006 at his home in Montecito, California. He had been married and divorced twice, first to Virginia Baker from 1949-1966 (with whom he had three children), and then to Elaine Rogers in 1987. Two of his children outlived him; the third died several years prior, of melanoma, at age 43.

Trivia: A character player even in youth, British actor Nigel Davenport spent nearly fifty years in briskly businesslike stage, screen and TV roles. He made his film debut as the police sergeant in Michael Powell's notorious Peeping Tom (1959). Among his many colorful screen characterizations were the Duke of Norfolk in A Man For All Seasons (1966), Bothwell in Mary Queen of Scots (1971), Van Helsing in the 1973 Frank Langella version of Dracula and Lord Birkenbed in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. Nigel Davenport's TV credits include the miniseries Prince Regent (1979, as King George III), and Masada (1981). Towards the end of his career, he made appearances in popular British TV series such as Keeping Up Appearances and Midsomer Murders, and played Dan Peggotty in a TV movie version of David Copperfield (2000). Davenport died in 2013 at age 85.

Trivia: British actor Simon Ward was 27 when he made his screen debut in Lindsay Anderson's anarchistic If... (1968). With his spoiled aristocrat face, Ward proved an excellent choice to play the twentysomething Winston Churchill in Young Winston (1972) (in which he also narrated the film, his voice taking on the crusty resonance of the "old" Winston). Ward essayed a similar role as the Duke of Buckingham in Richard Lester's Three Musketeers (1973) and Four Musketeers (1975). His smooth, unblemished countenance belying his advancing age, Simon Ward has continued to play leading roles in such productions as 1975's All Creatures Great and Small (as James Herriot) and the TV movie The Corsican Brothers (1985).

Trivia: Sometimes brunette, sometimes redheaded, British actress Fiona Lewis was always easy on the eyes. Lewis's acting style was graced with an ethereal air that worked well in horror/fantasy efforts like The Fearless Vampire Killers (1971), Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1973), and the TV-Movie Dracula (1973), in which she played the unfortunate Lucy. Later roles in films like Lisztomania (1978) have emphasized Lewis's quiet sensuality, while her parts in such films as Strange Invaders (1983) and Innerspace (1987) have tapped an engaging kinky streak. And how can one classify her work in The Fury (1978), in which her "reward" for attempting to mess with Amy Irving's telekinetic powers is to be blown to smithereens? Whenever she's found the time, Fiona Lewis has dabbled in screenwriting, though thus far none of her works have been filmed.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the late '50s.

Trivia: British stage actress Pamela Brown's film appearances were sporadic but memorable; she was often cast in haughty or eccentric roles. Her notable features include impressive sloe eyes, pointy chin, a come-hither smile, and a deep resonant voice. Brown studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then made her stage debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Stratford-on-Avon in 1936, when she was 19. She played a large variety of roles for the Old Vic and made her highly successful Broadway debut in 1947 in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Brown debuted onscreen in One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942) and made on-and-off appearances in films until 1973's Lady Caroline Lamb. She won an Emmy for her work in Victoria Regina on American TV.

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: Lead actress Sarah Douglas first appeared onscreen in the '70s.