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: Lead actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Pop-eyed British comic actor Bernard Bresslaw appropriately played Popeye, a dimbulbed private on the popular BBC-TV comedy series The Army Game (1957-62). This led to the revitalization of a film career that had begun somewhat ignominiously in 1954's Men of Sherwood Forest. Bresslaw was starred in the tacky but undeniably funny film farce I Only Arsked! (1958) and provided comic support in such films as Too Many Crooks (1959) and The Ugly Duckling (1965). Coming to grips with encroaching baldness, Bresslaw could be seen in older character parts in films like Morgan (1966) and Moon Zero Two (1969). His bag of comic tricks running on empty in the mid 1960s, Bernard Bresslaw sustained his film career by becoming a member of the lunatic "Carry On" ensemble in 14 movies with titles like Carry on Cowboy (1965), Carry on Doctor (1968) and Carry on Dick (1975); he also showed up briefly plying his laugh-grabbing trade in Disney's One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975) and the Monty Pythonesque Jabberwocky (1979).

Trivia: Irish actor Morgan Sheppard has played character roles on television and in international feature films since the '80s, but he has spent most of his career on-stage.

Trivia: English lead actress Cheryl Campbell has been onscreen from 1980.

Trivia: Scotland-born actress Annette Crosbie spent her early stage years alternating between classics and contemporary plays. Her rare screen appearances include The Public Eye (1972) and The Slipper and the Rose (1976). She has enjoyed international fame not from her stage or screen work but from her TV assignments. Annette Crosbie was seen as Catherine of Aragon in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1971); as Queen Victoria in Edward the King (1979); and with Michael Hordern, Peter Egan and David Threlfall, Crosbie was one of the four major stars in the Masterpiece Theatre offering "Paradise Postponed" (1986).

Trivia: An English leading man, Briant has been onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: British character Harry Andrews, who has appeared in a wide assortment of British, American, and international films, is best remembered for his portrayals of stern fellows or military men in films such as The Red Beret (1952), and Sands of the Kalahari (1965). Though almost always a supporting player, his performances often overshadow those of the stars. Before making his cinematic debut in the early '50s, Andrews graduated from Wrekin College. During the 1930s he began his career as a distinguished stage actor noted for his portrayals of Shakespearean roles. Though he was often typecast as the tough guy in films, Andrews broke the mold in his brilliant portrayal of a flamboyant homosexual in the 1970 black comedy Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Andrews' son David was a well-known child actor who eventually became a television director.

Trivia: British comic actor Roy Kinnear received his training at the Theatre Workshop, and made his film debut in 1962's Tiara Tahiti. Short and already balding in his 20s, Kinnear resigned himself early on to character roles; his comic gifts enabled the actor to expand his range as a writer/performer on the fabled early-'60s British TV satirical series That Was the Week That Was. Kinnear became an American favorite for his role as mad scientist Victor Spinetti's harried assistant in the 1965 Beatles film Help!. It was the launching pad of a film career comprised mostly of comic relief and cameo roles. One of Kinnear's most popular film appearances was a two-minute bit specially written for him in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1967), wherein the actor played a trainer of Roman gladiators who conducted his classes in the manner of a golf instructor. Richard Lester, director of both Help! and Forum, cast Kinnear as long-suffering lackey Planchet in the star-studded 1974 filmization of The Three Musketeers, and its sequel (shot simultaneously) The Four Musketeers (1974). With virtually every cast member -- especially Raquel Welch -- clowning it up in the Musketeers films, Kinnear's routines for the first time seemed intrusive. After a decade of variable roles, Kinnear was cast as The Common Man in the 1987 Charlton Heston remake of A Man for All Seasons; it was a brilliant tour de force, with Kinnear displaying a full and versatile range from low comedy to subtle pathos. While recreating his Planchet role in Return of the Musketeers, filmed on location in Spain, Roy Kinnear fell from a horse during a comic chase scene, suffered a heart attack, and died at the age of 54; that film premiered in 1989. Kinnear had completed work on his penultimate feature -- doing one of the voices for the kiddie cartoon The Princess and the Goblin -- not long before his death. It wrapped production in 1992 and took its stateside bow in 1994.

Trivia: British comic actor Graham Stark has contributed innumerable cameo roles to both films and television. His busiest era was the '60s, during which time he appeared in such class-A productions as Becket (1964) and Alfie (1966). Seldom arising above the "also in the cast" ranks, Graham Stark was memorable in a role for which he had his back to the camera for the most part and said little more than "Oui, monsieur." Stark was Hercule Lajoy, Inspector Clouseau's stonefaced assistant, in A Shot in the Dark (1964), and as such he sat in passive obesciance as Clouseau (Peter Sellers) toted up the clues in a murder case and barked "Facts, Hercule! Facts!" -- just before falling on his face or pinching his fingers.

Trivia: Left school at the age of 15 and started working for the Manchester Evening News newspaper. Changed his name to Warren in the 1960s because his girlfriend at the time had a crush on actor Warren Beatty. Developed his love for the performing arts while in his teens. A frequent visitor to the cinema for Saturday mornings and matineé screenings, he was actively encouraged by his parents to follow his chosen vocation. Began working in amateur dramatics and performed at Huddersfield Repertory Theatre before becoming a full-time actor. Played Huckleberry Finn in a 1965 Liverpool Playhouse production of Tom Sawyer. Played two separate characters in Coronation Street. The last scene he ever filmed was his character Charles Poldark's death in Poldark, two weeks before his own death in November 2014. Was a keen golfer and supporter of Manchester City. An actor of great presence and considerable versatility who lent his weight to a succession of diverse leading and supporting roles in comedy and drama.

Trivia: Irish actor Declan Mulholland played numerous character roles for stage, opera, radio, and feature films, and appeared in scores of television plays. Mulholland also worked on commercials. Before getting his start in British theater, he worked as a carpenter.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Silver-haired, steely-eyed Irish actor Patrick Magee cemented his reputation on several modern, ofttimes experimental stage productions. Among his loftier theatrical efforts were Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, Peter Weiss' Marat/Sade (in which he played the Marquis de Sade), and Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which was specially written for Magee. In films from 1960, Magee was often seen in horror efforts and crime melodramas, though he professed to be a gentle soul, as frightened by his films as the movie audience. He was a favorite of director Stanley Kubrick, appearing as the vengeance-driven beating victim of street punk Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1970). Patrick Magee's final film appearance was in a documentary celebration of one of his theatrical mentors, Samuel Beckett: Silence to Silence (1982).

Trivia: Aristocratic German character actor Ferdy Mayne was from his teen years onward a resident of England, where he studied at RADA and Old Vic. Mayne made his professional theatrical bow in 1936, and was first seen on a London stage in 1943. At first billed as "Ferdi Mayne" for his radio and film appearances, he alternated between "Ferdy" and "Ferdinand" in his later works. Of his many film roles, Mayne is best-known for his portrayal of class-conscious vampire Count Von Krolock in Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers (in 1975, he went on tour in a theatrical revival of Dracula). He was also seen as Hungarian producer Alexander Korda in A Man Called Intrepid (1979) and as kidnapped scientist Dr. Laprone in Revenge of the Pink Panther.

Trivia: Supporting actress, onscreen from the late '60s.