Trivia: Breathes there a theatergoer or film fan on Earth who has not, at one time or another, fallen in love with the sublimely brilliant British comedic actress Dame Maggie Smith? The daughter of an Oxford University pathologist, Smith received her earliest acting training at the Oxford Playhouse School. In 1952, she made her professional stage bow as Viola in Twelfth Night. Four years later she was on Broadway, performing comedy routines in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1956; that same year, she made her first, extremely brief screen appearance in Child in the House (she usually refers to 1959's Nowhere to Go as her screen debut).In 1959, Smith joined the Old Vic, and in 1962 won the first of several performing honors, the London Evening Standard Award, for her work in the West End production The Private Ear/The Public Eye. Her subsequent theatrical prizes include the 1963 and 1972 Variety Club awards for Mary Mary and Private Lives, respectively, and the 1990 Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway play Lettice and Lovage. In addition, Smith has won Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978), and British Film Academy awards for A Private Function (1985), A Room With a View (1986), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).These accolades notwithstanding, Smith has had no qualms about accepting such "lightweight" roles as lady sleuth Dora Charleston (a delicious Myrna Loy takeoff) in Murder By Death (1976), the aging Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Peter Pan derivation Hook (1991), and the Mother Superior in Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act films of the early '90s. During the same decade, she also took more serious roles in Richard III (1995), Washington Square (1997), and Tea With Mussolini (1999). On a lighter note, her role in director Robert Altman's Gosford Park earned Smith her sixth Oscar nomination. She earned a whole new generation of fans during the first decade of the next century when she was cast as Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a part she would return to for each of the film's phenomenally successful sequels. She worked in other films as well including Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Becoming Jane, and Nanny McPhee Returns. In 2010 she earned rave reviews for her work in the television series Downton Abbey.Made a Dame Commander in 1989, Smith was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. Previously married to the late actor Sir Robert Stephens, she is the wife of screenwriter Beverly Cross and the mother of actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.

Trivia: Trained at the Northern Theatre School in Bradford, Bristol-born Robert Stephens made his professional bow with the Caryl Jenner Mobile Theatre. Stephens first appeared on the London stage in a 1956 production of The Crucible. He graduated to stardom in the title role of the 1958 production Epitaph for George Dillon, a little-known but entertaining work that remains one of his favorites. In 1963, Stephens joined the newly formed National Theatre Company, appearing as Horatio in the organization's inaugural production of Hamlet; four years later, Stephens was appointed the National Theatre's associate director. In films from 1960, Stephens' better-known movie roles include the title character in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1969) and Teddy Lloyd in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), which starred the actor's then-wife Maggie Smith. Robert Stephens was honored with knighthood in 1994.

Trivia: Though she made comparatively few screen appearances, Celia Johnson was, during the war years, one of England's favorite film actresses. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Johnson made her first professional stage appearance in 1928. She would not appear in a film until 1942's In Which We Serve, and then only by special request of director Noel Coward; as the steadfast spouse of a British naval officer (Coward), the actress was the apotheosis of all gallant British war wives. In 1945, she co-starred with Trevor Howard in another Noel Coward effort, Brief Encounter, arguably the best of the tear-stained British romance films of the 1940s (with requisite classical-music score). After a handful of subsequent films, Johnson returned full time to the stage, returning to movies in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, for which she received a British Film Academy award. Knighted in 1981, the actress was billed as Dame Celia Johnson for her last appearance in the British TV drama Staying On, where she was reunited with Trevor Howard. Celia Johnson was the widow of actor Peter Fleming.

Trivia: Pamela Franklin was born in Japan, where her British father was a busy importer/exporter. Spending her early years in several Far East ports of call, Franklin was bundled off to England to study at the Elmhurst School of Ballet. At age 11, she made her motion-picture bow as the enigmatic "possessed" child, Flora, in 1961's The Innocents. Her American TV debut occurred in the 1963 Wonderful World of Disney two-parter "The Horse Without a Head." There was nothing Disneyesque about Franklin's portrayals of teen murderesses in both 1964's The Third Secret and 1965's Our Mother's House. Her first grown-up role (near-nude scene and all) was as the kidnap victim in Night of the Following Day (1969), but she was back to adolescents in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) as the rebellious, sexually inquisitive private-school student Sandy. Though still active in TV, Pamela Franklin made her last film in 1976.

Trivia: In his earliest films (his first was 1942's The Foreman Went to France), Scottish actor Gordon Jackson was often seen as a weakling or coward. As age added character to his face, Jackson eased into roles of quiet authority, notably butlers and businessmen. Of his many British and American films, the highlights of Jackson's career include Whisky Galore (1948), Tunes of Glory (1960) and The Ipcress File (1965). On television, Gordon Jackson was seen as Hudson the butler on the internationally popular serial Upstairs, Downstairs (1973-74), and he later co-starred on the domestically distributed British series The Professionals (1977-81).

Trivia: Scottish-born actress Rona Anderson was still in her teens when she made her professional stage bow in a 1945 revival of Peg O' My Heart. For several years associated with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Anderson moved into films with Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948), which for many years remained her most memorable screen appearance. Always on the brink of stardom, she never quite made it, maturing gracefully into such plum character roles as Miss Lockhart in The Prime of Miss Brodie (1969). Rona Anderson was married to Scots actor Gordon Jackson.

Trivia: Known for her sweetness, Scottish actress Molly Weir played character roles on British radio, television, and feature films. She was also a popular public speaker and the author of seven books of memoirs. Her brother, Tom Weir, is a naturalist and noted television personality in Scotland.

Trivia: John J. Dunbar was a busy character and supporting actor from the 1940s through the mid-'90s. Later in his career, Dunbar appeared in many television movies, including Deadly Whispers and Project ALF.