Trivia: The 12th of 13 children of a Welsh miner, actor Richard Burton left his humble environs by winning a scholarship to Oxford. Blessed with a thrillingly theatrical voice, Burton took to the stage, and, by 1949, had been tagged as one of Britain's most promising newcomers. Director Philip Dunne, who later helmed several of Burton's Hollywood films, would recall viewing a 1949 London staging of The Lady's Not for Burning and watching in awe as star John Gielgud was eclipsed by juvenile lead Richard Burton: "He 'took' the stage and kept a firm grip on it during every one of his brief appearances." A few years after his film debut in The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), the actor was signed by 20th Century Fox, which had hopes of turning him into the new Lawrence Olivier -- although Burton was not quite able to grip films as well as he did the stage. Aside from The Robe (1953), most of Burton's Fox films were disappointments, and the actor was unable to shake his to-the-rafters theatricality for the smaller scope of the camera lens. Still, he was handsome and self-assured, so Burton was permitted a standard-issue 1950s spectacle, Alexander the Great (1956). His own film greatness would not manifest itself until he played the dirt-under-the-nails role of Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger (1959). In this, he spoke the vernacular of regular human beings -- rather than that of high-priced, affected Hollywood screenwriters -- and delivered a jolting performance as a working-class man trapped by the system and his own personal demons. Following a well-received Broadway run in the musical Camelot, Burton was signed in 1961 to replace Stephen Boyd on the benighted film spectacular Cleopatra (1963). It probably isn't necessary to elaborate on what happened next, but the result was that Burton suddenly found himself an international celebrity, not for his acting, but for his tempestuous romance with co-star Elizabeth Taylor. A hot property at last, Burton apparently signed every long-term contract thrust in front of him, while television networks found themselves besieged with requests for screenings of such earlier Burton film "triumphs" as Prince of Players (1955) and The Rains of Ranchipur (1956). In the midst of the initial wave of notoriety, Burton appeared in a Broadway modern-dress version of Hamlet directed by John Gielgud, which played to standing-room-only crowds who were less interested in the melancholy Dane than in possibly catching a glimpse of the Lovely Liz. Amidst choice film work like Becket (1964) and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1966), Burton was also contractually obligated to appear with Taylor in such high-priced kitsch as The V.I.P.s, (1963) The Sandpiper (1965), and Boom! (1968). A few of the Burton/Taylor vehicles were excellent -- notably Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (she won an Oscar; he didn't, but should have) -- but the circus of publicity began to erode the public's ability to take Burton seriously. It became even harder when the couple divorced, remarried, and broke up again. Moreover, Burton was bound by contract to appear in such bland cinematic enterprises as Candy (1968), Villain (1971), The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), The Klansman (1974), and that rancid masterpiece Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). So low had Burton's reputation sunk that when he delivered an Oscar-caliber performance in Equus (1977), it was hailed as a "comeback," even though the actor had never left. (Once again he lost the Oscar, this time to Richard Dreyfuss.) Burton managed to recapture his old performing fire in his last moviemaking years, offering up one of his best performances in his final picture, 1984 (1984). He died later that year.

Trivia: British actress Joan Collins, daughter of a London theatrical booking agent, made her showbiz bow in a production of The Doll's House -- in a male role. She was 9 years old then, and it would be the last time there would be any doubt as to her gender. With the sort of glamorous countenance that prompted people to ask "why aren't you in movies?", Collins first appeared before the cameras in a small role as a beauty contestant in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1953). She made an auspicious American debut as an Egyptian temptress in Land of the Pharoahs (1955). This assignment led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where despite a few good dramatic parts (Girl on the Red Velvet Swing [1955] in particular) and an adroit comic characterization in Rally Round the Flag, Boys (1958), she was written off by critics as decorative but nothing more. She was perilously close to "perennial starlet" status in the 1960s, and by the 1970s was the uncrowned queen of "B" pictures. Offscreen she cut quite a swath through the tabloid headlines; if her autobiography, Past Imperfect is to be believed, she dallied with virtually every male actor in Hollywood except Wile E. Coyote. Her maturation from mere personality to superstar came about when she was cast in 1981 as glamorous and predatory Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, the role giving her arguably the greatest exposure of his career. Though she continued to work steadily up until 2003, she never landed in a project as embraced as Dynasty but highlights include 1995's comedy In the Bleak Midwinter and 2000's The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. In 2015, she was cast as a modern Grand Duchess in E! first scripted series, The Royals, playing Elizabeth Hurley's mother.Despite professional and personal setbacks, Collins has managed to survive in an industry that swallows up lesser starlets on an average of ten per hour. Nor is Joan the only Collins with talent and charisma; her sister Jackie Collins is a highly successful romance novelist, whose books The Bitch and The Stud were turned into films, both starring sibling Joan.

Trivia: On the British stage from the age of 15, Basil Sydney first toured the U.S. in 1914, just before his army service in World War I. During the postwar years, Sydney established himself as a dependable leading man, rising to matinee idol status with the London stage hit Romance. It was this property which also launched his screen career in 1920. Though he spent most of the 1930s in America, Sydney avoided film work in Hollywood because the producers would not honor his request that he only appear in movie versions of Shakespeare and Shaw. He resettled in England in the early '40s, where he appeared in such roles as Rufio in the 1945 filmization of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, Claudius in Laurence Olivier's 1948 film version of Hamlet, and Captain Smollett in Walt Disney's British-filmed Treasure Island (1950). In 1956, Basil Sydney, together with several of his fellow British thespians, played an amusing cameo in Mike Todd's all-star Around the World in 80 Days.

Trivia: The son of a British army colonel, actor Ronald Squire attending Wellington College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He first appeared on stage in 1909 in a provincial production of An Englishman's Home, which was transferred to London the following year. A charter member of the Liverpool Repertory, Squire appeared in everything from Shaw to Barrie. He made his first New York appearance in 1917's Gambler's All. Turning producer in the mid 1920s, Squire continued his London career into the late '40s, and also toured in Blithe Spirit and While the Sun Shines. After his 1934 film bow, Culver settled into smug, self-important comedy roles along the lines of American actor Fred Clark. Loyal to the Mother Country, Ronald Squire made few films for US consumption; the few exceptions included No Highway in the Sky (1951) My Cousin Rachel (1952), Around the World in 80 Days and Count Your Blessings (1958) -- all Hollywood-financed films lensed in England and Europe.

Trivia: Rubber-faced British character actor Harold Goodwin first appeared onscreen in 1950.

Trivia: On-stage from 1927, slight, sharp-featured British actress Joan Hickson began appearing in films in 1933, playing character roles in such productions as The Man Who Could Work Miracles and Love From a Stranger (both 1937). She spent the next five decades essaying unstressed but memorable performances as cooks, housekeepers, landladies, and in-laws. Just before turning 80, she achieved stardom as busybody amateur sleuth Miss Marple in a series of British TV productions based on the works of mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie. Joan Hickson made her final appearance as Miss Marple in 1992, as sprightly as ever at age 86.

Trivia: Emaciated British character actor Gibb McLaughlin spent years as a music hall monologist, telling morbid jokes about his many imagined illnesses. McLaughlin also performed a "protean act," playing all the roles with rapid costume changes. Making his film debut in 1921, the prune-visaged McLaughlin showed up in comic supporting roles for the next 36 years. Gibb McLaughlin's larger screen assignments included such roles as the Duke of York in Nell Gwynne (1926), the pretentious French executioner in Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), and sour-pussed Sowerberry the undertaker in Oliver Twist (1948).

Trivia: In films from 1934, chubby Welsh character actor Roddy Hughes seemed like a Dickens character come to life. Accordingly, Hughes appeared as Short in The Old Curiosity Shop (1934), Tim Linkinwatter in Nicholas Nickelby (1947) and Old Fezziweg in the 1951 Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol. He also proved an eminently deflatable authority figure in low comedies of the "Old Mother Riley" variety. In his sixties, Roddy Hughes tended to play phlegmatic old-school-tie clubmen in such films as Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and The Sea Wife (1957).

Trivia: Round-faced, heavily eye-browed British character-player Ronald Adam was the son of actors Blake Adam and Mona Robin. Even while pursuing his own career, Adam had time to participate in two World Wars; he spent much of World War I as a POW, while in World War II he successfully campaigned for an officer's commission despite his age. Often seen playing stern officials, Adam made his first film, The Drum in 1938, and his last, Song of Norway, in 1970. In addition to his many stage and screen appearances, Ronald Adam was also a fairly productive playwright.

Trivia: British character actress Eileen Way entered feature films in 1952, with Mr. Lord Says No. She appeared frequently in movies through the mid-'60s. After that, she focused on television appearances until the 1980s, when Way resumed a sporadic feature film career.

Trivia: British actor John Wood attended Oxford, where he served as president of the university's Dramatic Society. After serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Academy, Wood joined the Old Vic in 1954, then spent several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1967, he made his Broadway bow as the glib Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He went to star in such Atlantic-crossing stage productions as Sherlock Holmes (in the title role), Travesties (for which he won a Tony Award), Tartuffe, Deathtrap, and Amadeus. His infrequent film roles include the reclusive computer whiz Stephen Falken in WarGames (1983) and the Bishop in Ladyhawke (1985). John Wood was seen as the heroine's chauffeur father in Sabrina (1995) and the forbidding Lord Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1996).. He died of natural causes at age 81 in 2011.