Trivia: Born into a theatrical family, British actor James Fox made his film bow as a child actor in 1950, using his own name, William Fox. Fox's first movie was The Miniver Story (1950), a Hollywood-financed sequel to 1942's Mrs. Miniver. The best of the actor's earliest appearances was in The Magnet (1950), in which 11-year-old Fox played a fun-loving young boy at play with his mates. Fox changed his first name to James when he began assuming adult roles in the early 1960s, a period in which he played upper-class types. It was in one of these roles that Fox appeared with Dirk Bogarde in the brooding, Freudian Harold Pinter drama The Servant (1963); that same year, Fox appeared in the "angry young man" exercise The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, which starred Tom Courtenay With his Servant vis-a-vis Sarah Miles, Fox headlined an international cast in the comedy extravaganza Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). Fox continued in films into the 1980s, generally in class-"A" items like A Passage to India (1984) and The Russia House (1989). Fox continues to play old-blood aristocrats in films, most recently as the foolishly fascistic lord of the manor in Remains of the Day (1993); he also appeared in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and Heart of Darkness (1994).

Trivia: The daughter of a British merchant, Sarah Miles enrolled at RADA at the age of 15. Before her formal stage debut at the Old Vic, Miles made her film bow opposite Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). A marked contrast to the "English Rose" heroines once in vogue, she brought a smouldering sensuality to her roles in Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963) and The Ceremony (1964) and Antonioni's Blow Up (1966). So well established was Miles as a "sex symbol" (though she'd be the first to put down that demeaning term) by 1965 that she was able to spoof her screen image in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, playing an outwardly proper lass who gets a subtly erotic thrill out of flying in rickety vintage airplanes -- and who frequently finds herself being accidentally undressed in public. In 1969, Miles was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of the title role in Ryan's Daughter. She then was forced to endure a decade of tabloid-press scrutiny, beginning with her wholly unsubstantiated "involvement" with the suicide of a man named David Whiting on the set of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), and culminating with the publicity engendered by her steamy sex scenes with Kris Kristofferson in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (1976). Though she often dismissed adverse press by noting "I have been mocked and ridiculed all my life," Miles would frequently retire from filmmaking for up to three years at a time. She was, however, always available for stage work: her more significant theatrical credits include the roles of Marina Oswald in The Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald, Mary Queen of Scots in Vivat Vivat Regina, and her 1978 one-woman musical S. Miles is Me. Still active in character roles in the 1980s, Miles has recently been seen in the surprisingly sedate role of a wartime London matriarch in Hope and Glory (1987), and more characteristically as an insatiably lusty aristocrat in White Mischief. She was married to playwright Robert Bolt from 1967 to 1976, then remarried him eleven years later. In 1993, Sarah Miles published her autobiography, A Right Royal Bastard.

Trivia: Stuart Whitman, with a rugged build and sensitive face, rose from bit player to competent lead actor, but never did make it as a popular star in film. The San Francisco-born Whitman served three years with the Army Corps of Engineers where he was a light heavyweight boxer in his spare time. He next went on to study drama at the Los Angeles City College where he joined a Chekhov stage group. He began his film career in the early '50s as a bit player. Although never a star, he did manage to quietly accumulate $100 million dollars through shrewd investments in securities, real estate, cattle, and Thoroughbreds. For his role as a sex offender attempting to change in the 1961 British film The Mark, Whitman was nominated for an Oscar. In addition to features, Whitman has also appeared extensively on television.

Trivia: French comic actor Jean-Pierre Cassel made his movie debut at the invitation of Gene Kelly, who cast Cassel in the 1956 Paris-filmed seriocomedy The Happy Road (1956). At least, that's what the press releases claimed; actually, the tall, elastic-faced Cassel had been plugging away in films on a minor basis since 1950. Shortly after getting his big break in Happy Road, Cassel was perfectly cast in the naif title role in the 1958 film version of Voltaire's Candide. He has since been a stalwart in the comedies of director Phillipe de Broca, nearly always playing latter-day variations of the ingenuous Candide. In 1974, Jean-Pierre Cassel added thousands of American filmgoers to his fan following with his appearances as the bumbling King Louis XIII in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Cassel died of cancer, at age 74, on April 19, 2007.

Trivia: A charming, rotund, portly, double-chinned character actor of British and American stage and screen, Robert Morley tended to be cast in jovial or pompous comedic roles. He was educated in England, Germany, France, and Italy, intending to go into diplomacy. He switched to acting and studied theater at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Morley debuted on the London stage in 1929, and on Broadway in 1938 when he reprised his London performance in the title role of Oscar Wilde. Also in 1938, he debuted onscreen in the Hollywood film Marie Antoinette, portraying the feeble-minded Louis XVI opposite Norma Shearer; for that performance he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He went on to play supporting roles in many films on both sides of the Atlantic. He was also a playwright; one of his plays, Edward My Son (written with Noel Langley), became a film in 1949. He was frequently seen as a witty, erudite guest on TV talk shows, and he was the TV commercial spokesman for British Airways.

Trivia: Working his way up from the British radio scriptwriting pool, comedian Eric Sykes launched his film career with amusing supporting roles in such films as Charley Moon (1954) and Tommy the Toreador (1959). He was seen to good advantage in Watch Your Stern (1961), Heavens Above (1963) and other comedies, and was allowed a few serious moments in the 1962 war film Invasion Quartet (1964). Like most British comedians of the '60s, Sykes played cameos in such all-star laughspinners as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969). Eric Sykes was allowed to direct one film, The Plank (1968), and gained a considerable following with his starring TV program, in which he appeared with rotund Carry On regular Hattie Jacques.

Trivia: For the first three decades of his life, gap-toothed comic actor Terry-Thomas was far from a household name. The London-born performer worked as a clerk, meat salesman, pianist, bandleader, music hall comedian and movie extra before signing with the Royal Signal Corps upon the outbreak of World War II. His film career took off in earnest in 1949, and by 1955 Terry-Thomas was enjoying star billing in a series of officious, twittish roles. Occasionally a sympathetic leading man in such films as Man in the Cocked Hat (1959), the actor was far more effective in roles calling for easily punctured pomposity. Extremely popular in England, Terry-Thomas was comparatively little known in the U.S. outside of the art-house circuit until he starred in the Frank Tashlin-directed farce Bachelor Flat (1961). Though he'd been afforded opportunities to exhibit his versatility in British films, Terry-Thomas was typecast by Hollywood in such broad, unpleasant roles as the jingoistic J. Algernon Hawthorne in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) and the caddish Percival War-Armitage in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). On a Tonight Show appearance in the late 1960s, the actor ruefully commented that, while he liked the money he was getting in Hollywood, he wished that his children could see him play a good guy for a change. After 1970, Terry-Thomas accepted whatever parts came his way, with the mediocre outweighing the worthwhile; he was last seen as Dr. Mortimer in a messy parody version of Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles (1978). Retiring to the Caribbean, he was forced to move back to London when his savings were depleted by his ever-encroaching Parkinson's Disease. The world at large was apprised of the actor's illness and reduced financial circumstance when he was featured on a network-TV documentary about degenerative illnesses. He spent his last painful years living off the charitable contributions of his friends and admirers. Terry-Thomas was the author of two autobiographical books: 1959's Closing the Gap and the posthumously published Terry-Thomas Tells Tales; his mid-1960s comedy record album Terry-Thomas Discovers America is today a much-sought-after collector's item.

Trivia: Franco-Russian model Irina Demick was Darryl F. Zanuck's newest obsession in 1961. He cast her prominently as a French resistance fighter in his all-star The Longest Day (1962), making a point of bringing up her key scene (in which she drowns a Nazi officer) at virtually every press conference attending the film's release. In 1965, Irina was spotlighted in no fewer than seven roles in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, each character a different nationality. Despite Zanuck's strenuous efforts, Irina Demick never caught on with the public, and she faded from films after 1968's Prudence and the Pill.

Trivia: From boyhood, British entertainer Benny Hill dreamed of being the principal comedian in a stage review, but the immediacies of eating interfered, so he took such jobs as milkman, bridge operator and drummer. At 16, Hill landed his first gig as a comic, headlining a troupe of 12 lovely young ladies. He played the provinces for years, somehow always missing out on his target arena of London. Hill learned his distinctive down-to-earth style from watching American comedians like Danny Thomas and Danny Kaye, performers who slid into the comic punch line rather than hammering it to death like most British musical hall comics. As his jobs increased in stature, Benny tried briefly to be a film star, but his first movie Who Done It? (1956) turned out to be a "who saw it?" His popularity growing thanks to a series of antic television commercials, Hill began performing regularly on the BBC-TV network, taking time out for the occasional film part in such international productions as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1969). Thanks to the loose British-TV standards in regards to feminine nudity and ribald humor, Hill maintained his following with a potpourri of smirky, suggestive jokes and comic sketches - always redeemed by the performance's bad-little-boy ingenuousness. Tired of the weekly grind, Hill moved to Thames Television in 1969, where he agreed to turn out only five or six specials per year. It was from these specials that the weekly, half-hour syndicated The Benny Hill Show was gleaned. This package was introduced on Los Angeles TV in early 1979, scored an instantaneous hit, and soon became one of the most sought-after syndicated properties in America. While prudes and bluenoses ranted, raved and tore their hair, Benny Hill scampered about pinching female bottoms and leering at the remaining portions of the anatomy on a Monday-through-Friday basis in most markets. Hill's fame was international by the early '80s, but unlike other major comics he preferred to confine his work to the TV studio, disdaining personal appearances and nightclubs. An utter extrovert on camera, Benny Hill was exceedingly private in real life, so much so that he tried to avoid public places as much as possible, even though one of his great passions in life was travelling from country to country. He also avoided any long term romantic relationships, at least until late in his life. Benny Hill remained a number-one syndicated TV attraction into the late '80s, at which time his series was transferred to cable TV, where it remains as of this writing as a fixture of the Comedy Network. Suffering a sudden heart attack, Benny Hill died in April of 1992 - one day after the death of another highly-regarded "racy" British comedian, Frankie Howerd, whose own TV series was distributed in America on the coattails of Benny Hill's success.

Trivia: British comic who appeared in a few films.

Trivia: She was a Bronze Medalist graduate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, meanwhile debuting onstage at age 19. She was outstanding character player in both classic and modern plays on London's West End, and occasionally appeared on Broadway. She entered films in 1931, and worked in Hollywood from 1939-46. For her work in Saratoga Trunk she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. While remaining a prominent stage actress, she continued appearing in films intermittently until the early '80s. In recognition of her long, distinguished career, in 1960 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Trivia: Actor/director Sam Wanamaker was one of those whose career was nearly derailed by the machinations of Senator McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee. A native of Chicago, born Samuel Watenmaker, he began his career in theater at age 17 following training at Chicago's Goodman Theater. Wanamaker honed his acting skills in stock, traveling shows, and on Broadway. He also attended Drake University. Between 1943 and 1946, Wanamaker was in the U.S. Army. Early in his career, he also worked in radio. He made his feature film debut in My Girl Tisa (1948). The following year, Wanamaker, whose leftist political views were no secret in Hollywood, went to England to appear in blacklisted director Edward Dymtryk's Give Us This Day (1949). After making another film in Britain, Wanamaker learned that he too was about to be investigated and had been blacklisted; therefore, Wanamaker elected to remain in England. Over the next ten years, Wanamaker worked on-stage as a director, producer, and actor. In the 1960s, Wanamaker resumed his acting career in internationally produced films such as The Concrete Jungle (1962) and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965). He made his directorial bow in 1969 with The File of the Golden Goose (1969) and went on to make several more films, including The Executioner (1970). He also made television movies such as the well-regarded true story, The Killing of Randy Webster (1981). In 1985, Wanamaker appeared on the short-lived television series The Berrengers. When not busy acting or directing, Wanamaker had been an active supporter of the plan to restore Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Unfortunately, Wanamaker died of cancer just before the project was completed. His daughter Zoe Wanamaker is also an actor.

Trivia: British radio comedian Eric Barker gained popularity on such late 1940s series as Merry Go Round and Just Fancy, in which he costarred with wife Pearl Hackney. Like most English radio stars, Barker was best known by his catch-phrase, "Steady Barker." Though he'd been making films off and on since 1936, Barker didn't step before the cameras as a major character actor until 1957's Brothers In Law (for which he won a British Film Academy award), long after his radio fame had subsided. The actor appeared in several of the zany "Carry On" films, from Carry On Constable (1960) to the somewhat seamier Carry On Emmanuelle (1978). Some of the better-known films in which Eric Barker was featured were Heavens Above (1963), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) (as a French postman!), and There's a Girl in My Soup (1971).

Trivia: British comic and character actor Fred Emney mostly appeared in the music hall and in circuses, but he also occasionally appeared in films.

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: Ubiquitous British actor John LeMesurier wasn't in every English comedy made between 1946 and 1979, though it sure seemed so. Nearly always appearing in one-scene cameos, LeMesurier's stock in trade was confusion mixed with foreboding; as such, he was perfect for such roles as worried businessmen, neurotic military officers and flummoxed fathers. From 1966 through 1977, LeMesurier starred in the internationally popular British sitcom, Dad's Army, which spawned a theatrical-feature version in 1971. An incorrigible prankster, John LeMesurier couldn't remain serious even when dealing with his own death; on that grim occasion, his self-written obituary appeared in the Times, noting that Mr. LeMesurier had "conked out."

Trivia: British supporting actor Jeremy Lloyd appeared in numerous lightweight features during the '60s and '70s. He typically played the stereotypical stiff-upper-lipped English chap. Later in his career Lloyd turned to screenwriting.

Trivia: British lead actress, onscreen from the '40s.

Trivia: British actress Millicent Martin primarily worked on the stage and on television, but she also appeared in a few feature films during the '60s.

Trivia: In 1938, Viennese-born character actor Eric Pohlmann left Austria and relocated in England where he launched his film career. Gaining pride of place after World War II, he played dozens of criminal masterminds, enemy spies and corpulent Arab sheiks. Pohlmann was also an expert at portraying self-indulgent royalty: he was seen as George I in Rob Roy (1954) and George III in John Paul Jones (1959). When he wasn't playing a villain, he could often be found as an excitable Italian, notably as the Mayor in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). Towards the end of his life, Eric Pohlmann returned to his roots, appearing in several Austrian and German productions.

Trivia: A small British character actor, onscreen from the '50s, he often played comedic working class types.

Trivia: A British comedian and a much-loved satirist of the 1960s, William Rushton has worked on radio, television, stage and in a few feature films. His television work includes a membership on the team behind Ned Sherrin's That Was the Week That Was on television and he also hosted his own radio show, "I'm Sorry, I Haven't Got a Clue." Rushton made his feature-film debut in It's All Over Town (1937). Other film credits include Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and Flight of the Doves (1971).

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: British actor Michael Trubshawe played character and cameo roles in a number of films. He was a close army buddy of actor David Niven. To pay tribute to his friend, Niven made sure that Trubshawe's name was mentioned in every film he made after 1938. In 1970, Trubshawe retired from films.

Trivia: Hollywood has seen the coming and going of many comic geniuses, but only a select few have been as universally beloved as gentle, low-key Red Skelton and his cavalcade of characters that included the clown Freddie the Freeloader, the goofy Clem Kadiddlehopper, and his seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe. That many of his best characters were clowns comes as no surprise for Skelton's father was a circus clown who died two months before Skelton was born Bernard Richard Skelton in Vincennes, IN. Skelton's mother was a charwoman and barely earned enough for them to get by. They were so poor that the comedian began singing for pennies on the street when he was only seven. At age ten, Skelton quit school and joined a traveling medicine show. He gained further experience on the burlesque and vaudeville circuits and on showboats. He became a standup comic in the early '30s, playing one-night gigs in small nightclubs.His big break came after he developed a mimed donut-dunking routine that led to his employment at the Paramount Theater and then to a successful radio career and a long-running show during which he developed most of his characters. Skelton made his screen debut playing Itchy Falkner in Having a Wonderful Time (1938). He billed himself as Richard "Red" Skelton. Contracted to MGM during the '40s and '50s, Skelton played character roles and the occasional lead in numerous films, many of which were musicals and comedies. In 1951, Skelton launched a variety show that would alternately air on CBS and NBC until 1971. It was there that Skelton developed his characters and gained his most devoted following. Each show would begin with Skelton holding an unlit cigar and offering a warm greeting and doing a brief monologue; it would also contain a "silent spot" in which Skelton demonstrated his mastery of pantomime. All of the characters he created on radio made regular appearances, as did a brand new one, Freddy the Freeloader, a silent clown who could be as pathetic as he was funny. Musical accompaniment was provided by David Rose and his orchestra. Rose had been with Skelton since his radio days. From the series' beginning to its end, Skelton would finish his show with a heartfelt "Good night and God Bless." Throughout the program's long, extraordinarily successful (it was never out of the Top Ten in the Nielsen ratings-run), Skelton occasionally appeared in feature films. In 1953, he played a rare dramatic role in The Clown, which was a remake of The Champ. Skelton had his final starring role in Public Pigeon No. One (1957). After that he made cameos and guest star appearances in films such Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). In addition to performing, Skelton excelled at several other interests. That he was a renowned oil painter of clowns is well known, but he also designed dishes and was an expert at creating bonsai trees. Skelton also composed about 8,000 songs, including the theme for the film Made in Paris (1966). For his lifetime of contributions in entertainment he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Emerson College of Boston, a Doctor of Human Letters from Vincennes University, and a doctorate of Theater Arts at Indiana State University. Skelton was a 33rd Degree Mason, the order's highest possible level. He also frequently contributed to children's charities. Though no longer a regular in films and television, Skelton continued performing live until his death from pneumonia at age 84.

Trivia: A former engineer, British actor Maurice Denham first appeared on-stage in 1934, making his London bow two years later. During his five years' wartime service, Denham built up a "man of a thousand voices" reputation on such radio series as the ITMA Show and Much-Binding-in-the-Mash. He made his first film appearance in 1947. While garnering excellent press for his stage portrayals of Macbeth and Uncle Vanya, he was usually seen in lesser roles in films, playing dozens of clergymen, detectives, politicians, prison governors, and military officers. He was also a regular on the 1971 TV series The Lotus Eaters. Maurice Denham's crowning film achievement was one in which his face was never seen: In the 1955 animated feature Animal Farm, Denham provided the voices of all the animals.

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: Born in Canada, actor Bill Nagy spent the bulk of his career in England...playing Americans. He was particularly adept at gangsters and thugs, as witness such films as Joe MacBeth (1956) and Mickey Spillane's The Girl Hunters (1963) and his TV guest-star stints on The Avengers, The Saint, and Secret Agent. Nagy had a varied choice of roles in British/American productions like Road to Hong Kong (1962), A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) and The Adding Machine in Hong Kong...er, The Adding Machine (1968). In First Man into Space (1957), Nagy convincingly played a New Mexico police chief, although the film's British countryside was decidedly more forrested than the real American Southwest. In a later sci-fi assignment, Nagy played the President of a quasi-American nation where reproduction is a capital crime in the futuristic Z P G (1972). Perhaps the biggest moneymaking film with which Bill Nagy was associated was Goldfinger; as Midnight, Nagy was a member of a powerful gangster cartel which was inhospitably rubbed out by the villainous Mr. Goldfinger (Gert Frobe).

Trivia: Dame Cicely Courtneidge was a much-loved character actress and comedian in the United Kingdom. Prior to coming to films during the 1930s, the Australia-born Courtneidge was a popular figure in British music halls and theater. In films she frequently appeared alongside her husband Jack Hulbert and typically played slightly-daft women. She continued appearing in films through the early 1970s and in 1972 was designated Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Trivia: A prominent film composer whose work accompanied such classic films as Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), Ron Goodwin started his musical career early in life and composed the scores for over 60 films in his half-century career. Goodwin was born in Plymouth, England, in 1925, and at age five began playing the piano at the request of his mother. Though he would take up the trumpet soon after, the burgeoning musician continued to refine his skills on the piano into young adulthood, forming a successful band known as the Woodchoppers along the way. Quickly establishing himself as a talented musician to watch for, it wasn't long before Goodwin was working for the BBC and the newly established Polygon alongside the likes of Petula Clark and Peter Sellers. Goodwin's first feature-film score came with the 1959 film Whirlpool, and after forging a lucrative relationship with MGM British Studios two years later, his work as a film composer continued to flourish. Touring the globe with his band in his later years, the tireless composer was awarded an Ivor Novella lifetime achievement award in 1994. 1996 would find Goodwin serving as guest conductor for the Royal Academy of Music's Festival of British and American Film Music. After suffering from asthma for many years, Ron Goodwin died suddenly in his Reading home in January 2003. He was 77.

Trivia: British cinematographer Christopher G. Challis is noted for his richly detailed photography. He started out as a teenager working as a newsreel camera assistant. During WWII, he served as a cameraman with the RAF. Upon his return, Challis became a camera operator and a full-fledged director of photography in 1948.

Trivia: Kenneth Annakin spent his youth in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. At various junctures, Annakin was a tax clerk, auto salesman, journalist and theatre director. And then, while serving in the RAF, Annakin's slate was wiped cleaned-literally, by a bout of amnesia. Starting life over again as an assistant cameraman, Annakin matriculated into a documentary filmmaker. In the postwar era, he directed several films specifically aimed at Britain's home market: one of the more popular of these was Holiday Camp (1947), which introduced the Huggett Family, who were spun off into their own three-film series, each of which was also directed by Annakin. Moving on to higher-budgeted efforts, Annakin co-directed Quartet (1949), and Trio (1950) two of the popular Somerset Maugham portmanteau films. He proved his mettle with huge casts and splendiferous settings with a brace of Disney-produced adventure films, The Story of Robin Hood (1954) and The Sword and the Rose (1955); later on, he helmed the popular location-filmed Disney features Third Man on the Mountain (1959) and, best of all, Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Signing on as one of three directors for The Longest Day (1962), Darryl F. Zanuck's mammoth retelling of the D-Day Invasion, Annakin entered into the "all-star epic" phase of his career, which reached its zenith with Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). When splashy, overproduced films of this nature went out of favor in the 1970s, Annakin turned to American television, helming such made-for-TV films as Murder at the Mardi Gras (1977) and Harold Robbins' the Pirate (1978). In view of his earlier triumphs, perhaps it's better to draw a charitable veil over such later Ken Annakin productions as The Pirate Movie (1982) and The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988).